Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Joan Kjaer

Season eight of the television, radio, and internet program WorldCanvass will begin on Tuesday, September 13, at 7:30 p.m., in the newly-opened Voxman Music Building in downtown Iowa City. WorldCanvass guests will join host Joan Kjaer to discuss the controversial method of energy production known as fracking and its impact on the environment, social dynamics, and the economy. We’ll also explore through music, photography, and literature ways in which artists have documented transitions and grappled with the drumbeat of change. Join us for the catered pre-show reception from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend and no tickets are required. 

In the first part of our program, Ty Priest, an associate professor of history and geography at the UI, and Bob Libra, State Geologist of Iowa, will explain the business, technology, politics, and regulation of fracking.  And pianist Alan Huckleberry will give a live performance of “Farewell to Stromness,” the moving piece by British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies which was written as a tribute to a small Scottish village threatened by a planned uranium mine.

Guests in our second segment, Mitch Brouse, Ion Vasi, and Taylor Brorby, will focus on controversies and opposition, especially the sometimes dramatic and adverse environmental and social impacts.

And in the final segment, we’ll turn to art, music, and literature as witnesses to life and landscape in transition.  Pianist Alan Huckleberry and violinist Scott Conklin will give a live performance of “Snow Ash" by Ching-chu Hu. And we’ll hear poetry read by Taylor Brorby.

WorldCanvass has a new time and a new home for the 2016-2017 season.  Days of the week for WorldCanvass programs will vary, but all Iowa City productions will take pl

ace from 7:30-9:00 p.m. in the 200-seat Recital Hall of the Voxman Music Building, 93 East Burlington Street.  See schedule here.                                                            

WorldCanvass: Fracking and the Iowa Divide

Part 1—7:30-7:55

The fracking revolution

  • Ty Priest—associate professor, UI Departments of History and Geography
  • Bob Libra—State Geologist of Iowa
  • Alan Huckleberry—professor, UI School of Music

Part 2—8:00-8:25

Local impacts, fractivists, and Iowans

  • Mitch Brouse—assistant planner, Johnson County Planning, Development & Sustainability
  • Ion Vasi—associate professor, UI Department of Sociology
  • Taylor Brorby—writer, environmental activist

Part 3—8:30-8:55

Documenting transitions

  • Alan Huckleberry—professor, UI School of Music
  • Scott Conklin—associate professor, UI School of Music
  • Taylor Brorby—writer, environmental activist

WorldCanvass is recorded before a live audience for later broadcast on YouTube, iTunes, and the Public Radio Exchange. Podcasts can be downloaded at no cost from iTunes and past programs are available through IP’s website.

WorldCanvass is a production of UI International Programs in collaboration with the UI School of Music and the UI Office of Strategic Communication. For more information on WorldCanvass, contact Joan Kjaer at joan-kjaer@uiowa.edu or visit the WorldCanvass web page.