UAB Briefs: ASC’s 20th season inspires some off-the-wall entertainment
This is the second installment of UAB Briefs, Iron City Ink’s weekly online round-up of news from the campus of The University of Alabama at Birmingham and its people – including upcoming events and special programs.
Let us know if there are people, places and activities on the UAB campus that deserve a mention. Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.
Climbing the walls for the ASC
The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center will kick off the 20th anniversary season with a pair of free performances by the famed vertical dance troupe BANDALOOP, according to a UAB news release
The troupe will perform on the exterior walls of the UAB Campus Recreation Center on Wed., Sept. 21, at noon. BANDALOOP will suspend from the roof of the Alys Stephens Center while dancing on the side of the building on the night of Fri., Sept. 23.
The troupe weaves dynamic physicality, intricate choreography and the art of climbing to turn the dance floor on its side. The have presented work at scores of startling or unusual places, including skyscrapers, bridges, billboards, historical sites and natural cliffs.
The Sept. 23 show at the ASC will begin indoors in the Jemison Concert Hall at 8 p.m, and conclude outdoors with a performance on the center’s exterior walls, on the ASC’s Engel Plaza, at 8:30 p.m.
The performances are free and family-friendly. The event at the ASC will feature local food trucks, outdoor bars, live music and other activities, including an after party beginning at 9 p.m.
For details, go to www.alysstephens.org or call 205-975-2787.
A beautiful sight
A unique, moving art exhibit – The Helen Keller Art Show – is on display at The Edge of Chaos, a conference venue and meeting space on the UAB campus.
The exhibition, which remains on display through October 15, features art in a variety of media produced by visually impaired children in Alabama schools, including residential and home schools.
“The show is particularly unique because it emphasizes their artistic abilities even though they have a visual impairment,” exhibit director Carol Allison told Iron City Ink.
The show “presents exciting pieces of art from children of all ages from birth to 21, emphasizing their individual creativeness,” Allison said.
The art show was established in 1983 by the state agencies that serve visually impaired people, according to a news release.
The art activities are part of the children's curriculum in areas such as the development of communication skills, including visual and tactile abilities, according to Allison.
The show can change the viewer’s perceptions of people with disabilities, according to Allison.
“Not only do parents realize what the children can and will do artistically as they are encouraged or allowed to create these pieces, but the public has the opportunity to gain a better understanding of their skills as well,” Allison said. “Educators are encouraged to incorporate the arts into their curriculum, thus developing a much stronger foundation in child development.”
The show is a juried show, meaning that it was judged by other artists, educators, museum directors and the public. The pieces are then professionally framed and shown to the public at museums and galleries across the state of Alabama.
“As an educator, seeing how the art can build self-confidence in children, how much they enjoy what they produce and seeing what other children can do as well really changes perspective,” Allison said.
For more information and an events calendar, go to theedgeofchaos.org.
For more information about the exhibit, go to uab.edu/vsrc/helen-keller-
Diversity
UAB has become the first institution of higher learning in the state of Alabama to be recognized with the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, according to a news release.
And these awards are not given easily, with applicants undergoing “a comprehensive and rigorous application,” said Lenore Pearlstein, the magazine’s publisher, in a news release.
“Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across campus,” Pearlstein said.
INSIGHT Into Diversity is billed as the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, the release states.
Giving organs, saving lives
The Alabama Organ Center honored UAB Hospital with its 2015 Gift of Life Award, given annually to hospitals that demonstrate a commitment to a successful organ and tissue program
“Without engaged hospital partners, we would not be able to offer the donation opportunity to families and provide organs and tissues for transplant to the thousands of people waiting nationally,” said Chris Meeks, executive director of the AOC, in a news release.
More than 120,000 people in the United States are on the organ transplant waiting list, with 3,189 in Alabama. On average, 22 people die each day because an organ is not available in time.
For more information or to register to be a donor, visit the AOC website at www.alabamaorgancenter.org.
Connecting doctors through technology
Using in-person visits and the latest communications technology, pediatric neurosurgeons with the Global Surgery Program (GSP) at Children’s of Alabama have created a flourishing partnership with their fellow doctors in Vietnam, nearly 8,000 miles away.
The relationship began in 2013 when some UAB doctors – including Dr. Jerry Oakes, chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Children’s – visited some doctors in Vietnam, according to UAB News.
The visits have continued, with UAB surgeons going to Vietnam, and Vietnamese physicians coming to Birmingham – including two doctors who spent this summer in the Magic City as visiting fellows in the GSP in a collaboration focused on improving epilepsy care.
And the Alabama surgeons have used technology to provide more chances for the doctors in the two countries to work and consult together remotely.
Dr. James M. Johnston Jr. and Dr. Brandon Rocque have implemented a telemedicine tool called VIPAAR (Virtual Interactive Presence in Augmented Reality) to interact with surgeons in Ho Chi Minh City using streamed real-time images.
“I can interact from my home in Birmingham with surgeons in Vietnam during the actual surgery,” Johnston said. “It’s as if I’m in the OR with them, providing another opportunity for consultation, training and interaction.”
Over the past three years, GSP has also hosted visiting fellows from Ghana, Angola and Kenya.