Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC presents 17th edition of Art Beat

Photos and Story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – Seventeen years and it remains Portland Community College’s showcase festival.Art Beat 2003 will take over the PCC campuses for the 17th consecutive year, offering students and the community access to local, regional and national artists as well as an extensive collection of visual art, dance, music, theater and literary events to help expose them to art. Art Beat 2003 is set for May 12-16. Each campus will feature a variety of performances, art displays, interactive demonstrations and workshops. The best part of Art Beat is that it is free and open to the public.”Art Beat is, above all else, a celebration,”said Doris Werkman, Art Beat committee member and PCC speech instructor. “It is celebrating spring by celebrating the arts. Our hope is to bring something new to our campuses, to expose people to some form of art they may never be able to see, or wouldn’t necessarily choose to see, and have them come to appreciate it. In part, our goal is to allow people to see how art connects our worlds together, how engineering connects with art, how mathematics connects with art.”This year’s featured artist is painter Trude Parkinson. She received her master’s degree in drawing and painting from Arizona State University and has an impressive history as a professional artist through teaching, one-person and group exhibitions, public art exhibitions, and from grants and awards. She is represented by the Alysia Duckler Gallery in Portland. The three pieces selected by the Art Beat committee for this year’s featured work represent part of Parkinson’s “Memory and Analogy: Before and Beyond Narrative”series. Parkinson will present a slide lecture from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 12 in Terrell Hall 122 (Cascade Campus), from 11 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, May 13 in the Little Theater (Sylvania Campus) and from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14 in the Forum of Building 3 (Rock Creek Campus).To read more about Parkinson and get a full schedule of the Art Beat 2003 events, go to the Web site:Art Beat Web Page. Other highlights during Art Beat 2003 include music and dance with OboAddy, who will perform from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday, May 12 at the Student Center cafeteria (Cascade), 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 13 at The Forum (Rock Creek) and noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14 in the Performing Arts Center (Sylvania). Be prepared to move your feet as you listen to the “Magician of the Drums”as Obo Addy and his troop share the many rhythms of Ghana, West Africa, his homeland. Not only is he a master percussionist, he is also a singer whose harmonic ideas and expressive vocal tone demonstrate the connections between West African and African-American singing styles. New York performance artist David Leslie will take the stage from 1 to 2 p.m. in ST 107 (Sylvania) on Monday, May 12 and The Forum (Rock Creek) on Tuesday, May 13. Leslie is known for his elaborate, farcical and often dangerous stunts that satirize and offer commentary on the male myth-making apparatus of contemporary media culture. Pulitzer prize-winning Oregonian writer and author Tom Hallman, Jr., will conduct a reading from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Little Theater (Sylvania) on Wednesday, May 14. Hallman, Jr. will speak about his recently published nonfiction book, “The Boy Behind the Mask,”which tells the story of Sam Lightner, an Oregon high school student with a rare medical condition causing a severe disfigurement of his face. Other events include music with Grupo Condor, and the musical travelogue of 3 Leg Torso, hip-hop by Young Fame, painter Marlene Stoddard-Hayes, and the best of the Northwest film Festival. “In these troubling times, we want to bring some sort of pleasure, some positive energy, into our lives. What better way than to celebrate Art.”Werkman added.Parking at all three campuses is free during Art Beat 2003. The events will be held at the Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth), Rock Creek Campus (17705 N.W. Springville Road), and the Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) You can view the Art Beat 2002 schedule on the Internet at: artbeat.pcc.edu. For more information, call 503-977-4270. Those needing interpreting or other accommodations, call the Office for Students with Disabilities, 503-977-4341 voice, 503-246-4072 TTY.