Eric Adjetey Anang and his fantasy coffins were featured on the Dec. 7 WorldCanvass discussion.

2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Russian revolution. That tumultuous century saw Russia reject the Romanov dynasty which had ruled for over three hundred years and embrace a new ideology whose leader, Vladimir Lenin, would become the head of the world’s first communist state.  The world watched as the Soviet Union re-created a Russian-dominated empire, lost millions of lives to purges and terror,  withstood the onslaught of Nazi Germany, faced off against the West during the Cold War, then dissolved, with Russia re-emerging under Vladimir Putin as a central player in global power politics. 

Contemporary African artist Eric Adjetey Anang, internationally renowned for the Ghanaian ‘fantasy coffins’ he and generations before him have created, has spent the fall 2017 semester as artist-in-residence at the UI Museum of Art. He will join UI faculty and African art scholars on the December 7 WorldCanvass in a program called “Art & the Afterlife.” WorldCanvass will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. at MERGE, 136 South Dubuque Street. The program is free and open to the public. Please come early for a pre-show catered reception from 5-5:30 p.m.

News. Fake news. Disinformation. Fact-checking. Sourced news. Unverified sources. Social media incursions by foreign nations. Cleverly disguised mass propaganda that masquerades as a heartfelt message from a friend…….who knows what to believe anymore when even undeniably true facts are in dispute? This question was at the heart of the WorldCanvass discussion about “Journalism and a Free Press in the Age of Fake News.”

How the Russian Revolution has affected history, politics, and the arts — 100 years later.

International Writing Program members discuss free press and fake news on an global scale.

2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. That tumultuous century saw Russia reject the Romanov dynasty which had ruled for over three hundred years and embrace a new ideology whose leader, Vladimir Lenin, would become the head of the world’s first communist state. Guests on the November 1 WorldCanvass will help us understand Russia’s historical trajectory, the cultural and social fallout from the revolution and its aftermath, and its place in today’s geopolitical constellation. WorldCanvass will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. on November 1 at MERGE, 136 South Dubuque Street. The program is free and open to the public. Please come early for a pre-show catered reception from 5-5:30 p.m.

WorldCanvass started its ninth season by teaming up with Hancher and its Embracing Complexity project for a multi-layered program exploring the beauty of Islamic art and the diversity within Islamic cultures. Joan Kjaer and guests discussed the great diversity that exists within Islamic cultures and traditions, ancient and modern, near and far.  They examined the many aesthetic, artistic, architectural, and other elements of Islamic expression that have made their way into the global consciousness and talked with a playwright who’s documenting the contemporary Muslim experience in Iowa. The show was closed out with a performance by musical group, Niyaz. They shared their musical vision, which is rooted in ancient poetry and Sufi mysticism, and their hopes to unite different peoples and traditions through a common humanity.

News. Fake news. Disinformation. Fact-checking. Sourced news. Unverified sources. Social media incursions by foreign nations. Cleverly disguised mass propaganda that masquerades as a heartfelt message from a friend…….who knows what to believe anymore when even undeniably true facts are in dispute? This question is at the heart of the upcoming WorldCanvass discussion, when the topic is “Journalism and a Free Press in the Age of Fake News.” The live event takes place from 5:30-7 p.m. on October 18 at MERGE, 136 South Dubuque Street, and is hosted for UI International Programs by Joan Kjaer. We invite you to come at 5 and join us for a pre-show catered reception!

WorldCanvass starts its ninth season by teaming up with Hancher and its Embracing Complexity project for a multi-layered program exploring the beauty of Islamic art and the diversity within Islamic cultures. Joan Kjaer hosts the program, which moves to a new location in the heart of downtown Iowa City—MERGE, at 136 South Dubuque Street. The live show takes place from 5:30-7 p.m. on Friday, September 29, and is free and open to the public. We invite you to come at 5 and join us for a pre-show catered reception!

Cooking with firewood and other biofuels is one of the most urgent problems in the world today. It affects the health and wellbeing of those inhaling the fumes at close range, relies on increasingly scarce sources of firewood, and contributes over 20% of global black carbon emissions. The harm to individuals and the environment cannot be denied, and yet there’s little awareness of the issue among the general public. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a panel of experts drawn from multiple fields including engineering, urban and regional planning, public health, anthropology, and geography discussed the use of traditional wood-burning cookstoves and the complex social and cultural underpinnings of the practice on the April 12 WorldCanvass, a highlight of the UI’s yearly Provost’s Global Forum.

When we drive home today and fire up our gas stoves and microwaves, let’s pause a moment to think of a billion women in the developing world sitting in front of their stoves, cooking meals for their families.