Library’s ‘Art Talks’ start up in January

The 2009 “Focus on Art” series will kick off on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at the Joyner-Green Valley Library with a special welcome from the director of the Tucson Museum of Art.

Robert E. Knight, who was named TMA executive director in 2005, will present an overview of the scheduled spring lectures, followed by a talk from museum docent and Green Valley resident Penny David on artist Maynard Dixon. She will speak on the current exhibition, “A Place of Refuge - Maynard Dixon’s Arizona,” which will run at the museum until February. More than 135 works on display at TMA depict Dixon’s interpretation of the American West, painted from 1900 until his death in 1946.

Knight came to Tucson from the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana and was the founding director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. He has a doctorate from Columbia University in New York.

David is a retired professor of Humanities, Theatre and American Literature who taught at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich., for more than 35 years.

Art Talks are presented at the library every Wednesday in January, February and March, from 2-3 p.m. by TMA docents. A slideshow is shown alongside each lecture. For additional information, call the Joyner-Green Valley Library, 601 N. La Canada Dr, at 520-594-5295.

The schedule of lectures follows: