The first exhibition of the 2006/2007 academic year at the newly named Denison Museum in Burke Hall isPerceiving Place. The exhibition, which opens with a public reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 9) in the Burke Hall exhibition space, encompasses two shows that explore aspects of how space and place are perceived by locals and foreigners and the impact that these perceptions have upon art and ideas. The museum exhibition is open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. daily from Sunday (Sept. 10) through December 10, except for the week of Thanksgiving, and there is no admission charge.

The Tourist View: Grand Tours to Tramps Abroadexplores 18th and 19th century Anglo-American tourist views of Italy and Egypt in prints and photographs from the Denison collection as well as early books and postcards. The exhibition includes etchings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and photographs by Felice Beato (1830-1903) and was curated by Joy Sperling, from Denison University and Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, from Vassar College. It was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Scholar's Program, Vassar College, the Denison University Internship Program, and the Denison University Provost's Office.

The Colosseum,Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Italy, c. 19th century. DU1938. Gift of Belle Sherwin.

Sperling, associate professor of art history at Denison, has published articles and essays on 19th century American and British art patronage and taste, 20th century sculpture and popular art, public support for the arts, and reviews in journals such as The Journal of American Culture, Victorian Studies and The Journal of the Early Republic. Sperling is the author of "Art and Popular Culture" published in 2003.

Musacchio, an associate professor of art at Vassar College, is a specialist on the Italian Renaissance material culture. She is the author of the award-winning "The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy." She is the curator of a traveling exhibition "Marvels of Majolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics from the Corcoran Gallery of Art" and author of the exhibition catalogue. Another manuscript, titled "Art, Marriage, and Family in the Florentine Renaissance Palazzo," is set to be published by Yale University Press.

The second exhibition,Engrams: Prints and Films by Ron Abram, was inspired in part by Abram's recent travels in Japan. His work looks at the impact of Eastern and Western Pop culture imagery on personal and collective memory.Engramsis constructed as two parallel installations, one space addressing issues of memory and consciousness from a local geographic point (Ohio, America) and the second gallery dealing with those issues from a more global perspective of a stranger in a foreign land (Japan). In addition to a series of short films, the exhibit includes prints which combine intaglio, woodcut, screen-print and digital processes.

Little Strangers Series(Tokyo), Ron Abram. Screen-print/Inkjet Print on Magna.

Engrams are described in Wikipedia as "a hypothetical means by which memory traces are stored as physical or biochemical change in the brain in response to external stimuli." Engrams are said to explain the persistence of memory and how memories are stored in the brain.

Associate Professor Ron Abram earned a bachelor of fine arts at the University of Central Florida and his master of fine arts from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His prints are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, N.C. As a curator, his work extends the issues within his own work, having co-curated "Bizarro World!--The Parallel Universes of Comics and Fine Art" at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Winter Park, Fla., and "Pop Eyes!--Fine Art Cartoons" at the Abington Art Center in Abington, Pa.

Accompanying the exhibitions will be a series of lectures, films co-sponsored by the Cinema Department, and other programs. These will link the museum with other departments on campus, broadening the museum's appeal and improving its educational and entertainment potential.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- The Denison Museum opens the 2006-2007 season with an exhibition titled "Perceiving Place"; opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 9) in Burke Hall Exhibition Space. The Museum is free and open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. daily through December 10 except for the week of Thanksgiving. For further information, call the Museum at (740) 587-6255.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575