The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) will partner with the Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment District (ha!) to present Wish You Were Here, a pop-up gallery installation March 3 through 17. A community opening event will be held on Saturday, March 3 from 5 to 7 p.m. Both the exhibition and opening event are free to the public.

Wish You Were Here, an exhibition by Lexie “Mountain” Macchi, interdisciplinary artist and CADVC graduate research assistant, recontextualizes the relationship of one leftover object to another, transforming and distorting the feeling of occupation, potential and space. Organized by the CADVC and ha! with additional support from the Highlandtown Community Association, this ground-floor installation calls towards a future of the space using the tools and language of its past—namely the detritus, debris, and accumulated silent memory-bearers within.

Pop-Up galleries and shops act as catalysts for activity that will help revitalize the Highlandtown business district and activate the residential community while providing UMBC students an opportunity for experiential learning. “We’re calling these ‘Pop-Up Galleries’ because they will suddenly appear in unoccupied spaces, and then close down shortly thereafter,” says organizer Sandra Abbott, ha! member, and curator of collections and outreach at UMBC’s Center for Art Design and Visual Culture (CADVC).

The Pop-Up Gallery opening event will be held at 3216 Eastern Avenue, a formerly unoccupied retail space. Charm City Land Co., LLC, which is currently planning a first-class residential rehab for the space, donates the space to the project. At the opening event, visitors will be invited to walk into the space and explore the first floor of the building. For the next three weeks, the installation will remain as a storefront installation featuring the site-specific artwork designed to activate the space from the vantage point of the curbside viewer.

The Pop-Up Gallery Series Installation will remain on view through the closing event on Saturday, March 17 from 5-7 p.m. Gallery admission is by appointment only, but the installation can be viewed from the storefront every evening starting at dusk.

Members of the Alumni Relations staff traveled north last week to meet up with Boston-area alumni and cheer on the women’s basketball team as they took on the Boston University Terriers. Enjoy the slideshow below, and check out more photos from the trip on the UMBC Alumni Flickr page!

[slideshow]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CimFrnWexx0&w=560&h=315]

Glass may be fragile. But the process of making it is not for the delicate of hand or heart. Tony Baney, a second-generation glass blower who works in UMBC’s glass shop, manages to keep his cool even while working with his hands ungloved amid Pyrex as hot as 1,500 degrees Celsius. On the floor near his feet, a cardboard box of broken shards bears the sign: “Tony FIX ME please!” A nearby radio blares “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones.

Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.

There are so many ways to leave a legacy.

By all accounts, over her many years at UMBC, Dr. Alice Robinson, a founding professor in theatre, left legacies in the broadened hearts and minds of countless students here. After her passing, her legacy lives on through a scholarship fund aimed at the very students she taught.

(Click on the photo at right to enlarge the full piece in UMBC Magazine.)

We are inspired by the gifts Dr. Robinson gave to UMBC.

What will your legacy be?

Constantine Vaporis, director of the Asian studies program and professor of history, is a consultant and writer for a new exhibit at the National Geographic Museum entitled “Samurai: The Warrior Transformed,” which opens March 7 and runs through September 3.

The exhibition was planned to coincide with and D.C.’s annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, which this year marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C. by the government of Japan

In the video below, Vaporis answers the question, “What do samurai have to do with cherry blossoms?”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUCayZlvvdU&w=560&h=315]

The Maryland Senate this week followed the Maryland House of Delegates in passing legislation allowing same-sex marriage, but opponents are planning a voter referendum. In the Gazette’s coverage of the issue, UMBC professor and chair of public policy Donald Norris argues that the referendum vote might depend on who is nominated as the GOP presidential candidate — a more extreme or more centrist candidate — and who comes out to vote as a result. Either way, says Norris, “It’s going to be a squeaker.”

UMBC assistant professor of political science Laura Hussey also offered her comments for the article, as well as another story on what remains for the current legislative session. She suggests that in this session bills dealing with the death penalty and firearms will likely get less attention than bills dealing with fiscal issues due to the economic climate.

“Lin case you hadn’t noticed, people have become Lin-fatuated with the Lin-spiring rags-to-riches story of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. He’s a regular Linternet phenomenon!” begins a story on msnbc.com’s “The Body Odd.”

The appeal of puns such as the one’s inspired by Lin’e name may be that they’re fun to create, and they can seem almost addictive because they have clever elements and insights to them. But not everyone likes them.

“Puns are considered the lowest form of humor — a reason why speakers say, ‘no pun intended,’ denying responsibility for their spontaneous e-joke-ulation,” said Robert Provine, professor of psychology.

The story, “Our Lin-sane attraction to terrible puns, explained,” appeared on the site on February 24.

UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller will appear on MSNBC’s “Up w/Chris Hayes” on Saturday, February 25. The morning show airs 8:00-10:00 a.m. Schaller frequently comments on national politics in his regular Baltimore Sun column, on Salon and through programs such as Current TV’s “The Young Turks.” He is the author of Whistling Past Dixie.

We’re pleased to announce that UMBC’s giving site, Giving to UMBC, has been recognized by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

The site, which won a 2012 Region II silver medal in the Website: Fundraising/Development category, went live in fall 2010 and features a Tumblr account that clues you to daily campus happenings, a new blog on giving, donor and student stories, and plenty of chances to learn about the effects of philanthropy. You can even share your own giving experiences with the world.

The latest issue of UMBC Magazine features a nice little piece about the win. Read the full story here.

On Friday, February 24, Symmes Gardner, executive director of the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC), addressed the Maryland House of Delegates as a special speaker on Black History Month. His presentation featured images of the CADVC’s major touring exhibition, For All the World to See, organized in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and now on display at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Among the delegates attending the presentation were Speaker of the House Michael Busch and Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne Jones (’76 psychology). In his remarks, Mr. Gardner emphasized the importance of the Maryland State Arts Council, which provided significant funding for For All the World to See.