Collins Unbound

Collins library is hosting the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Summer Research Symposium! Students and their research displays will be in the reading room, where you can learn more about them.

Summer research programs offer students the opportunity to engage in independent research projects during the summer. Stipends are awarded on a competitive basis to students who demonstrate research interest and ability. Read more.

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012
3:30-5 p.m.
Collins Reading Room

Sponsored by Collins Memorial Library and the Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching.

Find the most unusual, inspiring, secret, or cozy place in which you like to read, write, think, or study and capture it in a photo!  Each photograph must have a suitable accompanying caption (what, where, why).  Images will be displayed on the Library and Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching web pages.  The winning photos will be framed and on display for the academic year in both the Center for Writing, Learning, & Teaching (CWLT) and Collins Library.

Entries will be judged by a panel of University of Puget Sound student employees from the CWLT and the Collins Memorial Library.

Who can participate: Any currently enrolled University of Puget Sound student

Prizes: Three winners will receive a $100 gift card and a certificate, and the winning photos will be framed and displayed for the academic year in both the CWLT and Collins Library.

General Guidelines:

• Stick to the contest theme: Reading, writing, thinking, studying…
• Each photographer can submit as many entries as desired, but each photo must be submitted separately.
• Upload only your own original work.
• Ensure that you have the permission of each identifiable person to use their image by filling out this Photo Permission Form.pdf.
• Post-processing and digital manipulation is allowed.
• Photos should be appropriate for general audience.
• Please note that photos must be received by midnight on October 15, 2012.

How to Submit:

• Step 1: Send an email to PictureIT@pugetsound.edu.
• Step 2: In the subject line provide your first and last name.
• Step 3: In the message portion include the following: Name, email, telephone number, and photo caption which should include a brief statement about your image.
• Step 4: Submit your digital image as an attachment.
• Step 5: Attach photo permission forms if required.  Please note permission forms are only necessary for photos with easily identifiable people.

By submitting your photo(s) to this contest, you grant the University of Puget Sound, permission to publicly display, reproduce, and use the photographs in all manner and media for any and all purposes, including related promotional purposes, in perpetuity.  However, you will retain the copyright to your photo(s) and Puget Sound will not sell your photo(s).  You also warrant that the photo is your original work and does not violate the copyright or any other personal or property right of any third party, and that you have obtained any and all releases and permissions necessary for our intended use.

Technical Guidelines: Photos should be 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels tall.

Skyscrapers and Shadows – Labor and Migration in Doha, Qatar
Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, 6 p.m.
Aug. 17 – Sept. 30

Exploring the lives of the transnational labor migrants in the petroleum-rich states of the Arabian Peninsula.

September 12th Presentation by photographer Kristin Giordano and Professor Andrew Gardner in room 020 at 6:00 p.m. followed by conversation and light refreshments in the exhibit space.

Collins Memorial Library
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington

The husband and wife team of Andrew Gardner, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puget Sound, and Kristin Giordano, a Tacoma-based photographer and artist, have created a cross-disciplinary and blurred-genre exhibition that explores the lives of the transnational labor migrants in the petroleum-rich states of the Arabian Peninsula.   The exhibit comprises a constellation of materials (migration narratives, portraits, material culture, fieldwork notes, environmental photography) collected mainly during their two-year residence in Qatar between 2008 and 2010. Drawing on the ideas of unadorned collage, this exhibition forsakes the promotion of a central narrative. Instead, the exhibit comprises a constellation of materials, fragmentary in nature, that are collectively attentive to both process and the resulting product of their attempts to illuminate the lives of the millions of men and women who together constitute the third largest transnational migration flow in the contemporary world.

BIOGRAPHY

Andrew Gardner is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. He is a sociocultural anthropologist and ethnographer by training. For the past decade, Andrew’s fieldwork has been focused on the petroleum-rich states of the Arabian peninsula, with a specific focus on the experiences of South Asian labor migrants. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar. Between 2008 and 2010, he also served as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Qatar University. His most recent book, City of Strangers: Gulf Migration and the Indian Community in Bahrain (Cornell, 2010), explores the experiences of Indian transnational migrants in Bahrain and the society that hosts them.

Kristin Giordano is a photographer based in the US. She works mainly with antique and experimental cameras.  Recent projects include Landscape and Transformation, Photographs of Doha, Qatar, 2008-2011, a series of black and white photographs examining the changing cityscape of a global boomtown; Skyscrapers and Shadows: Labor and Migration in Doha, Qatar, a series of portraits of labor migrants in Doha; Stories of the Desert: Djinn and the Unseen in Qatar, a collaborative project combining collected folktales and pinhole photography; and Temporal Terminus: Marking the Line, a public art installation along the historic Prairie Line Trail in Tacoma, WA. Recent exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson; Metroform Ltd; and Fulcrum Gallery. Her work is represented by Getty, Alamy, and Photonations, and is in numerous public and private collections. Awards include a 2008 project grant from Qatar University, a 2011 Print Sponsorship award from the Photographic Center Northwest, and a 2011 T AIP Artist Project Grant. Her recent series “Landscape and Transformation: Photographs of Doha, Qatar 2008-2010 was selected as a finalist in PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass portfolio contest.

Puget Sound Book Artists Opening Reception

Thursday, June 7, 2012
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: June 7 – July 31

Collins Memorial Library,
University of Puget Sound
Tacoma, Washington
Library Hours

The exhibit, curated by Lucia Harrison, MalPina Chan, Debbi Commodore and Randi Parkhurst, showcases the work of members of the Puget Sound Book Artists organization.  The exhibition opens on Thursday, June 7 and runs through July 31, 2012.  The opening reception where the public can meet the artists will be on June 7 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Curator’s Statement:

The Puget Sound Area of Washington State has a vibrant book arts community and we are delighted to present the works of 27 talented artists in the Puget Sound Book Artists (PSBA), 2nd annual Members’ Exhibition.  Each year, this exhibition gives our members a goal and experience exhibiting their work.  This year, PSBA brought in artists to give lectures or workshops on pattern design, handmade paper, and pop-up book design.  The contemporary artist books in this exhibition are exceptional in their many forms. The exhibition features many different book structures, re-purposed found materials, fabric, wood, handmade papers, and papers embellished with paint, rust, dirt, stitching, and calligrapher elements.  This year’s artists were inspired by nature, personal memory, family history, cultural memory, toys, art historical book forms, natural history, science and travels.

Puget Sound Book Artists (PSBA) is a nonprofit organization comprised of both amateurs and professionals from all quarters of the book arts field for the purpose of creating a spirit of community surround the books arts and those who love books. This new organization strives to increase educational opportunities for individuals as well as institutions and other organizations, fostering excellence through exhibitions, workshops, lectures and publications related to various aspects of book arts throughout the year. The group meets monthly for play days which are designed to be brainstorming opportunities” for beginning and experienced book artists. There is time to discuss the lectures, work on a personal project, ask questions about formats, surface design, and the latest products as well as view samples of handmade and published books.

The PSBA would like to thank all of the wonderful artists who chose to participate in this exhibition as well as  acknowledge Collins Memorial Library staff and especially graphic designer Jeanne Young  and Administrative Coordinator, Jamie Spaine for their support and gracious hospitality at The University of Puget Sound Collins Memorial Library.

Article on Puget Sound Book Artists from the Weekly Volcano.