Arts in Asia: Festival proves to be a success

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By Laura Karr

It is not everyday you see  large, elaborate costumes featuring bright colors and enormous headdresses being worn by people walking around campus.

The first annual ArtsAsia Festival, which began on Oct. 17, has been surprisingly successful.

During the past week, UK has hosted the festival’s lectures, demonstrations and performances to exhibit Asian culture to UK students.

The Kathakali performance Monday evening featured a traditional Indian dance whose elaborate costumes stunned an audience of students, faculty and members of the general public.

Cecilia Wang, music education professor and an Asia Center faculty affiliate, said the festival has been a great opportunity for UK students to learn about the culture of Asia.

“These eight days of Asian fine arts events provide them with the best of Asian arts and the most respected artists in Asian music, visual arts and theater,” Wang said.

The Asian Fine Arts Initiative, a group of UK faculty members commissioned to promote Asian art at the university and in Central Kentucky, established the ArtsAsia Festival.

“These events are very important for students since Central Kentucky is far away from cities with a large Asian population,” Wang said.  “The only way to have them interact with fine arts and artists of Asia is to bring the artists here.”

This past week’s events included “The ‘Gei’ of Geisha,” which featured a lecture, videos of geisha schools and a live musical performance, giving students a closer look into the lives of Japanese geisha.

“The videos help to bring it all together,” said Mary Davis, a theater freshman. “It’s one thing to hear people talk about it but another to actually see it.”

Davis decided to attend the event after being impressed by the Kathakali performance she saw earlier in the week.

Plans for the second annual festival in October 2010 are already in process thanks to the positive response from students, said Andrew Maske, UK Asian art professor and member of the Asian Fine Arts Initiative.

Maske said due to a high level of attention gained by the festival throughout campus and Lexington, more students than expected participated.

“We have been thrilled with the response and the size of the crowds,” Maske said.

The Festival concludes Saturday with an interactive workshop on Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, at 1:00 p.m., and “East Meets West,” a concert by Hong Kong composer C.C. Leung with the UK Symphony Orchestra and UK Chorale at the Singletary Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m.