University of Arkansas, Walton Arts Center Host Debut Exhibit of 'Divide Light'

Photo Submitted

Image from Divide Light performance (lesliedill.net)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Divide Light: The Operatic Performance Costumes of Lesley Dill debuted Thursday, Feb. 6, in the Walton Arts Center’s Joy Pratt Markham Gallery. The exhibition features costumes from Dill’s opera based on the complete works of poet Emily Dickinson, and Dickinson’s words are scrawled across the costumes. Dill will attend a reception at the gallery as part of First Thursday Fayetteville at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6, which will include a continuous screening of the opera performance.

 “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Walton Arts Center during Dill's residence as the McIlroy Family Visiting Professor at the University of Arkansas,” said Cynthia Nourse Thompson, associate professor of art and curator of the exhibit. “For this union, I have brought Dill's screening of her opera Divide Light to the Walton Arts Center along with the costumes, which will be on view for the first time ever in a gallery.” 

Dill served as the artistic director for the opera and collaborated with composer Richard Marriot. It follows a dramatic and emotional contour, exploring a range of emotions from vulnerability and fear to ecstasy, joy and exhilaration. Divide Light premiered Aug. 13, 2008, at the Montalvo Arts Center and featured performances by Del String Quartet; the 45-voices of The Choral Project; Jennifer Goltz, soprano; Kathleen Moss, mezzo soprano; and Andrew Eisenmann, baritone. It was commissioned by Montalvo Arts Center, and supported in part by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi Arts Production Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

      The Walton Arts Center and the University of Arkansas present Divide Light: The Operatic Performance Costumes of Lesley Dill to the public and community-at-large as part of Dill’s role as McIlroy Family Visiting Professor in the Performing and Visual Arts.

In conjunction with Dill’s visit, the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Center Gallery will present Faith and the Devil, another of Dill’s installations. The exhibit will run from Monday, March 3, until Friday, April 4, with a reception at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4.

The McIlroy Professorship supports the teaching and work of a professional artist who imparts highly specialized knowledge that is valuable to the community-at-large and essential to students’ artistic, educational and career enrichment. Each grantee of the McIlroy Professorship holds a joint appointment as a visiting professor of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and Walton Arts Center.

The Joy Pratt Markham Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, and one hour prior to most performances at the Walton Arts Center. Divide Light will close Sunday, April 13.

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CONTACTS:

Alexis Whitley, communications intern

J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

479-575-3712, awhitley@uark.edu