LAWRENCE, KS.- Schedules, appointments, deadlines, PDAs, day planners, calendars, wristwatches... Such timekeeping devices give structure to our lives, and we rely on them to chart the minutes of our days and the moments of our existence. As astronomer and anthropologist Anthony Aveni notes, “Time gets spent, wasted, killed, kept, and lost. We have leisure time, quality time, good times, bad times, hard times, and even hot times.” Our interest in keeping time is by no means a recent phenomenon, when one recalls that prehistoric man, by simple observation of the stars, changes in seasons, and conditions of day and night began to come up with early methods of measuring time to pursue such activities as farming, hunting, and the celebration of sacred feasts. Now, our need to understand time compels physicists to explore the space-time continuum and theorists to postulate that time is merely a structure we impose on the universe.

In fall 2008, the Spencer Museum of Art will have two exhibitions that contemplate time and its representation in visual culture: Time/Frame and Wendell Castle: About Time (September 20-December 21). Time/Frame opens first, assembling works from North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and across various media, to consider how time is manifested visually in art and material culture from around the world. Petah Coyne, Andy Warhol, Jan van de Velde II, Diane Arbus, Preston Singletary, Larry Schwarm, Marcantonio Raimondi, Watanabe Gentai, and Elliott Erwitt are among the artists whose work is featured in the exhibition. For more information on the Castle show please visit: http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/exhibitions/castle.shtml

Time/Frame was organized collectively by the 2007-08 Spencer Museum of Art graduate student interns: Robert Fucci, Shuyun Ho, Lauren Kernes, Lara Kuykendall, Ellen Raimond, and Stephanie Teasley.