Former Prime Minister of Israel

Highlights

Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert, the controversial former prime minister of Israel, will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Barnhill Arena on the University of Arkansas campus. Olmert will speak about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the Iranian nuclear program and the United States’ role in the Middle East peace process. Olmert, 64, served as Israeli prime minister from 2006 to 2009. He adopted former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to close Israeli settlements in Gaza in hopes that it would lead to an Israeli-Palestine peace agreement. Instead, under Olmert’s leadership, Israel went to war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and sent troops into Gaza to battle the Hamas. Olmert stepped down as prime minister in the midst of a corruption investigation. His trial on this and other charges began last month in Jerusalem and is expected to last as long as four years. Olmert’s lecture is free.

Lost Museum

When tragedies claim lives, the loss of “things” such as great works of art is understandably rather inconsequential. However, major pieces of art have been lost throughout history for a variety of reasons.

It was reported that $100 million of artwork was lost in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11, including more than 300 sculptures and drawings by Rodin in the Cantor Fitzgerald collection, work by Picasso, Lichtenstein, Louise Nevelson, Jim Dine and a tapestry by Jean Miro.

When an original is lost, we conceivably have images of the lost art. But sometimes there is a second loss.

In 1982, several museums from around the world formed the Council for Documentation of Lost Art & Cultural Heritage to document and preserve images of lost art on electronic files. A digital database and archive was created that was expected to last forever. Yet, about 25 years after it was created, much of the database became inaccessible. Files wouldn’t open or had become corrupt and were changed beyond recognition.

Artist Shaurya Kumar, an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University, was intrigued by this and was prompted to assemble an exhibit called “Lost Museum: The Fate of World’s Greatest Lost Treasures,” a collection of some of the corrupt digital art files previously destroyed during wars and acts of violence. The exhibit demonstrates the hazards of digital archiving using examples of art treasures. The digital remains of the Miro tapestry lost on 9/11 is part of the exhibit.

The exhibit has been showcased at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts, the University of Tennessee and will be at the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Gallery Oct. 26-Nov. 18.

Kumar will speak at 5 p.m. Oct. 29 in the UA Fine Arts Building, room 213. A reception for Kumar will follow the lecture in the Fine Arts Gallery.

A photo of the corrupted Miro file is on page 5.

Elephant Engine High Dive Revival

Composed of some of the poetry world’s most dynamic performance poets, the Elephant Engine High Dive Revival will entertain at RZ’s Coffeehouse in the Arkansas Union on the UA campus at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The headliner will be Derrick Brown, who has opened for The White Stripes and Cold War Kids; Pushcart Prize nominee Shira Erlichman; Anis Mojgani, a two-time individual National Poetry Slam Champion; and Buddy Wakefield, a two-time individual World Poetry Slam Champion. The group has performed at venues ranging from San Quentin Prison to The Tonight Show. The show promises to be a verbal spectacular. Free.

Radio Dazed

Fayetteville prolific playwright Mark Landon Smith has done it again. The talented Smith has crafted yet another side-splitter with his latest play, “Radio Dazed,” which is now playing at the UArk Ballroom on Dickson Street.

Smith may be best known for his hilarious Dupont, Mississippi plays, but recently along with a group of talented local actors has come up with Phunbags, a comedy improv group, that has just started doing a monthly show at the UArk. “Radio Dazed” builds on Smith’s fine-tuned humor.

“Radio Dazed” is set on Halloween 1948 in a rundown radio station in Atlanta. The station is ready to produce a live broadcast of “Dracula,” but things go awry when an unexpected blizzard and a transportation strike prevents the actors from getting to the studio. This means that the six actors who made it to the station must make a script for 17 convey. The result is pure comedy.

“Radio Dazed” stars Vickie Hilliard, Diana Blalock, Jonelle Lipscomb, Bill Rogers, Jason Suel and Warren Rosenaur and is directed by Julie Gabel.

Performances at 7:30 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday and Oct. 29 and Oct. 30. Tickets are $12 at the door or in advance by calling 571-4879. A full bar is available.

Actor, author and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. will speak

on sustainability at 8 p.m. Friday at the Fayetteville Public Library.