Art + Coffee = Culture at Art Museum

Instead of requiring students to cram gallery visits into their already-hectic class schedules, this year the IU Art Museum is extending its normal 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours (noon to 5 p.m. Sundays) to include four special "after hours" parties celebrating art, coffee and culture. \nWelcome Week's CultureFest will culminate with the first of these celebrations, Art + Coffee = Culture, running from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. tonight. The doors to all three of the museum's permanent collections will be open and musical guests jazz artist Gary Potter and Latin guitar performer Atanas Tzvetkov will help set the mood. \nFree coffee samples from around the globe will be served in the atrium. Students can get henna hand paintings, temporary tattoos, tarot card readings and enjoy live performances from the Different Drummer Belly Dancers and Salaam, a high-energy Middle Eastern band, according to a press release.\nMuseum Manager of External Affairs Emily Powell said that while the museum wants to highlight its impressive collection, it also "want(s) to have new ways for people to learn about different regions."\nShe said it often takes more than a month to put together one of the special exhibitions, which are displayed in the ground-floor gallery. It usually does not have one featured in September, so the concept of the coffee and art "after-party" was developed this year. \n"We wanted to be a part of the excitement of everything being fresh and new," Powell said.\nThe celebration of culture will continue throughout September on the first three Thursdays of the month. Each night, a different gallery will be featured. Music, free coffee and food donated by local businesses will fit each evening's theme. \nOn Sept. 7 the evening will feature Turkish art and music by the Silk Road Ensemble, Sept. 14 will have European modern art and cool jazz, and Sept. 21 African, Oceanic and Pre-Colombian art with Ghanaian drumming and xylophone music is planned. Art and coffee scavenger hunts and raffles are also planned. Angles Café and Gift Shop, which opened last semester, will be open during the events. The festivities will run from 7 to 9 p.m.\nThe hours were chosen to help bring more students to the events, with the idea that students will not have classes and can bring dates to the parties. The museum staff is expecting a large crowd tonight and is hoping for at least 100 students every other night. \n"We want to see how this goes over," Powell said. "If it goes well, we will have more special evenings like this."\nFor more information on this or other events at the IU Art Museum, visit www.artmuseum.iu.edu.