UT Dallas winds up its March arts calendar with explorations of such diverse subject matter as the state of the arts in Dallas and the status of Judaism in China.

All events for the week are free and open to the public.

Xu Xin

Xu Xin

Kicking off the events will be a talk Wednesday, March 28, titled, “The Jewish Diaspora in China,” by Dr. Xu Xin, director of the Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies at Nanjing University.

The guest speaker is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Dean of the Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University in China.  He is also president of the China Judaic Studies Association; editor-in-chief and a contributor to the Chinese edition Encyclopedia Judaica; and author of The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion (2003) and A History of Jewish Culture (2006). 

His talk is at 7:30 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall.

The next night, art experts will gather Thursday, March 29, at CentralTrak, UT Dallas’ artist residency and gallery in Deep Ellum, to consider a topic closer to home.

In the program, titled “Radical Regionalism,” a panel of local professors, curators and gallery directors will try to reach consensus on what is unique about the arts in the city of Dallas.

The panel will include Dr. Charissa Terranova, an assistant professor of aesthetic studies at UT Dallas. The discussion moderator will be Leigh A. Arnold, a doctoral student at UT Dallas and a researcher at the Dallas Museum of Art. 

From artist Deborah Aschheim

From Deborah Aschheim

Other members of the panel include:

  • Artist Matthew Cusick.
  • Wanda Dye, assistant professor at the School of Architecture at UT Arlington.
  • Benito Huerta, professor of art and art history at UT Arlington.
  • Vicki Meek, manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center.

Also at CentralTrak, Ongoing at CentralTrak is an exhibit by Deborah Aschheim, whose art crosses boundaries and traditional subjects – she connects the invisible worlds of memory and sound with the tangible reality of bodies and buildings. Her exhibit, Method of Loci, runs until April 14.

March 29 to 31, UT Dallas students will present the play The Complete History of America (Abridged). Moving at a break-neck pace, the performance covers the funniest parts of America, from Amerigo Vespucci to George W. Bush. Performances begin at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre.

All events for the week are free and open to the public. For more information, call (972) UTD-ARTS or email utdarts@utdallas.edu.