ASU Library

“All Around You” is the latest art exhibit to arrive at the Downtown Phoenix campus Library’s Vault Gallery for the Fall 2021 semester. A collection of images by local photographer Julia Letcher, the exhibit features close-up photographs of bees and flowers in addition to Arizona landscapes.

Letcher, who became interested in photography at a young age, asks the rhetorical question: “Who wouldn’t want to be a photographer if they were an Arizona native?” Growing up in Arizona, she says, has given her the greatest opportunity to photograph – everything from wide open desert scenes to small-scale insects.

“It has always been extremely important to me, as a photographer, to look around, taking in the beauty of my current surroundings,” says Letcher. “The world around us has been more interesting to me to photograph rather than people. There is beauty everywhere.”

The exhibit will be on display until early December.

Prof. Penny Ann Dolin, Graphic Information Technology, has long been in love with light and shapes. This is what led her to a career in commercial photography and ultimately teaching visual technology on the Polytechnic campus. This attraction to visual design also led her to experiment with fused glass, the art of shaping glass through heat.  

A sampling of various glass pieces are on display in the Polytechnic Library through Dec. 17, 2021. Most pieces are representative of at least two or three different processes – Fusing, slumping and/or tacking. Glass cutting tools, molds and a kiln are required to transform the glass. Pieces range from rectangular and square shapes to mosaic plates and drape vases. One large piece explores the process of what Dolin calls Additive Art, where found objects beyond glass are incorporated into the design. The interplay of light and shapes, as in photography, are what influences her exploration of this unique art form. For additional information she can be reached at pd@asu.edu.

“All Around You” is the latest art exhibit to arrive at the Downtown Phoenix campus Library’s Vault Gallery for the Fall 2021 semester. A collection of images by local photographer Julia Letcher, the exhibit features close-up photographs of bees and flowers in addition to Arizona landscapes.

Letcher, who became interested in photography at a young age, asks the rhetorical question: “Who wouldn’t want to be a photographer if they were an Arizona native?” Growing up in Arizona, she says, has given her the greatest opportunity to photograph – everything from wide open desert scenes to small-scale insects.

“It has always been extremely important to me, as a photographer, to look around, taking in the beauty of my current surroundings,” says Letcher. “The world around us has been more interesting to me to photograph rather than people. There is beauty everywhere.”

The exhibit will be on display until early December.

A new exhibit at the Music Library on the Tempe campus features a collection of 11 signed opera scores — all first and early editions — by Wagner, Rossini, Verdi, Massenet, Puccini, Poulenc, Hahn, Thomas, Saint-Saëns and Gounod. 

The signed opera scores are from the private collection of ASU faculty member Robert Mills, a clinical associate professor of music and the vocal coach/accompanist for ASU Music Theatre and Opera, part of the School of Music, Dance and Theatre, within the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

These autographs and inscriptions serve as physical reminders in our modern world of quintessential opera composers from the 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the collection is a rare signed first edition of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold with an inscription to the 19th century poet Mathilde Wesendonck with whom he had a brief but scandalous affair. Another noteworthy score in the collection is a presentation copy of Reynaldo Hahn’s La Carmélite to Jules Massenet, his teacher and mentor. 

This exhibit will be on display in the Music Library, part of the ASU Library, from August 19 to December 20. 

For further information, please contact Robert Mills at robert.mills@asu.edu or Linda Elsasser at linda.elsasser@asu.edu 

The signed opera scores are from the collection of ASU faculty member