Clifford Owens visiting artist

CHAPEL HILL -- African-American performance artist Clifford Owens of New York has lots of photos taken. He appears in some of them, often shown with audience members at his performances. Later, he exhibits many of them in galleries.

"The photos generally tell you something about what happens, but not the whole story," said John Bowles, assistant professor of African-American art in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill.

Owens will be a visiting artist at UNC from Monday through Nov. 13, giving a free public lecture, exhibiting his work and performing twice, in shows titled "Photographs With an Audience."

The talk, part of the art department's Hanes Visiting Artist Lecture Series, will be at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Hanes Art Center Auditorium, Room 121. Just outside in the John and June Allcott Gallery will be an exhibit of Owens' work, displayed from Tuesday to Dec. 2. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays; noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.

Artist discussing work on Nov. 17

CHAPEL HILL -- Oliver Herring, an experimental artist whose works include knitted Mylar, participatory performances, video and Styrofoam photo sculptures, will discuss his work Nov. 17 at UNC.

Herring, the spring 2010 artist-in-residence in the art department in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver a free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. in the Hanes Center Auditorium.

Herring creates his art by transforming basic elements into more complex and captivating works. He uses various media and techniques, making works that can be humorous yet disconcerting.

Born in Germany in 1964, Herring earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Oxford in 1988. He then moved to New York, where he received a master's in fine arts at Hunter College in 1991.

In the spring, Herring will present what he calls an improvisational task event at UNC. In a typical task event, participants interpret and perform tasks written on slips of paper drawn at random. Once finished, they write a new task for others and draw a new task for themselves.

Herring's work has been shown at museums including the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Event to mark name change

CHAPEL HILL -- Hugh "Chip" McAllister, an alumnus of the UNC School of Medicine who is donating $7 million to establish the UNC McAllister Heart Institute; Dr. Cam Patterson, UNC's chief of cardiology; and Bill Roper, dean of the UNC School of Medicine will take part in laboratory tours at a dedication ceremony in which the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center will formally become The McAllister Heart Institute at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The event will take place in the lobby of the Medical Biomolecular Research Building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, 103 Mason Farm Road.

McAllister has given $7 million to date in outright gifts and other commitments. In addition, he has provided for the Institute in his will and made provisions for its support through his personal foundation, which will benefit the Institute for years afterward.

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of death and disability in the state of North Carolina and in the United States as a whole.

Scientists in the UNC McAllister Heart Institute use cutting-edge research to unravel the causes of diseases that affect the heart, blood and circulatory system. Their mission is to advance the care of patients in North Carolina and beyond. McAllister's support highlights UNC's excellence in heart research and will help attract more world-class scientists.

Poet to give free public reading

CHAPEL HILL -- Southern content will flavor some of the works read on Wednesday by Natchez, Miss., poet Peter Buttross at UNC.

The free public reading of his poems will be at 3 p.m. at UNC's Center for the Study of the American South, located at 410 E. Franklin St.

Those wishing to attend should contact Lisa Beavers at (919) 962-0503 or lbeavers@email.unc.edu.

Buttross' books include "Natchez Cantos" (Red Dawn Press, 2001) and "Beyond the Bars: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose from a Mississippi Prison" (Red Dawn Press, 2004), which he edited with Thomas McNeely Jr.

"Beyond the Bars" resulted from a Great Books Discussion Club the two lead in four Mississippi prisons.

Buttross has traveled to France as a Fulbright Scholar, Belgium as a Rotary International Fellow and Germany as a soldier in the U.S. Army.

He pursued a career in banking before becoming a full-time poet in the mid 1990s.