Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum traces the transformation of the colonies into nationhood from about 1760 through the decade after the Civil War. The James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence will celebrate this Ackland Art Museum exhibition with a series of linked and related programs to be held on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during January and February 2002.

Art can be a window to nature, history, philosophy, politics, and imagination. Because of this, works of art by American artists tell us about ourselves, our view of our past, our hopes for the future, and our relationship to concepts like citizenship, leadership, and nation. The program sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center will explore the art in the galleries through the perceptions of Native Americans, art historians, undergraduates, musicians, and new frontiersmen. Please join us.

Biographical notes on Young America participants

The Ackland Art Museum

The James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence

Colloquium: Young America and Native America. January 25-26. When Native Americans consider our nation's history, do they tell the same story as is told by "Young America"? How do Native Americans tell their own stories? To whom does the history of America belong? Sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, the North Carolina Research Laboratories of Archaeology, and Native American Studies.

• Cherokee Language and Meaning: Bringing Balance to a Chaotic World. Friday, January 25, 3:30 p.m., Kresge Commons Room, 039 Graham Memorial Hall. Native Cherokee language speakers Thomas Belt and Myrtle Driver converse in Cherokee, then analyze their own dialogue to illustrate the relationship of language to the construction of Cherokee world views, philosophy, and social relations. Linguist Margaret Bender provides a framework for conceiving Cherokee grammar and syntax relevant to native philosophy and understanding of natural order.

• The Real People: Truth and Fiction from a Cherokee Perspective. Friday, January 25, 7:30 p.m., Kresge Commons Room, 039 Graham Memorial Hall. Acclaimed writer Robert Conley reads excerpts from his works and discusses how Cherokee world view informs his writings in English. Reception to follow.

• Whose Past, Whose History? American Indian and Western Academic Perspectives on Native History, Art, and Archaeology. Saturday, January 26, 10:00 a.m.-noon, Kresge Commons Room, 039 Graham Memorial Hall. A roundtable discussion with Cherokee, Cree, and Lumbee tribe members, featuring writer Robert Conley, artist Kimowan McClain, Tom Belt, Myrtle Driver, and Erin Locklear, President of the Native American Student Association in Law.

American Art and American Life Symposium. February 1-2.  A two-day symposium exploring the relationship between American art and culture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The symposium is made possible by the Frey Fund for American Art and is free and open to the public. Presented by the Curriculum in American Studies, the Department of Art, the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, and the Ackland Art Museum.

• The Color of Landscape: Painting Race into and out of the North American Wilderness. Friday, February 1, 5:00 p.m., Hanes Art Building Auditorium. A slide lecture by David Lubin, the Charlotte C. Weber Professor Art at Wake Forest University. Professor Lubin, who has written extensively on American painting, will deliver his lecture at 5:00. Join us beforehand at 3:30 for a greeting at the John Lindsay Morehead II Lounge in Graham Memorial Hall, or at 4:00 at the Ackland Art Museum to see the exhibition before Professor Lubin's talk.

• Symposium on American Art and Culture. Saturday, February 2, 9:00 a.m.-noon and 2:00-4:00 p.m., Kresge Commons Room, 039 Graham Memorial Hall. Speakers at this symposium will include visiting art historians Alexander Nemerov (Yale University), Angela Miller (Washington University, St. Louis), and Martin Berger (State University of New York, Buffalo). Other speakers include UNC faculty members Philip Gura and Joy Kasson, Duke professor Richard Powell, and other faculty and graduate students. For a detailed schedule and further information, please contact Debbie Simmons-Cahan, Curriculum in American Studies, 962-4062.

Alaska's Fiddler-Poet: Tales of the American Frontier. Tuesday, February 12, 7:30 p.m., John Lindsay Morehead II Lounge, Graham Memorial Hall. Ken Waldman, Alaska's fiddler-poet, has been fiddling all over the American West for the past decade. In performance, Waldman tells gripping stories, plays old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes, and reads enticing poems from his many chapbooks. Sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence.

The UNC Wind Ensemble presents "A Tribute to Young America." Thursday, February 14, 7:00 p.m., Hill Hall. The UNC Wind Ensemble will perform music from early America, including a piece titled "Southern Harmony" by Donald Grantham. This group of tunes fromt he early American hymnal of the same name is characterized by an indigenous American style of music known as shape note singing and will be introduced by UNC Assistant Professor of Music Jeannette Fresne. The second half of the concert will feature the work of young American composers Mark Kuss and Frank Ticheli. A reception will follow the performance. Sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence and the Department of Music.