The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents “A Legacy of Love: Italian Memorial Sculpture.” Dramatic social, political and artistic changes swept across Italy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, finding expression in remarkable funerary sculptures commissioned by the newly affluent middle class. Featured in “A Legacy of Love” are photographs of memorial sculptures created between 1820 and 1840 and ranging in style from Neoclassicism through ever more astonishing forms of Realism, Symbolism and Art Deco. These sculptures, artifacts of both a personal and a public history, express the values, aspirations, virtues and sins of a rising social and economic class which had attained an unexpected degree of power.

The 62 photographs presented in this exhibition are by renowned photographers and friends Robert Fichter and Robert Freidus. Fichter is noted for his satirical images reflecting on American culture and Freidus is highly respected for his dedication to documenting and advocating for the preservation of Italian funerary sculpture.

On Tuesday, November 1, 4 p.m., Robert Fichter and Robert Freidus will present a public talk on their work.

The Gallery is open Monday through Friday, noon-4 p.m., on Thursday until 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 1-5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call ext. 5-2270.

For more information, visit http://www.umbc.edu/arts.

Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, will give a talk at the National Postal Museum on Sunday, October 8, at 1 p.m.

The subject of his talk will be his book, “Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express,” and the 150th anniversary of the end of the Pony Express. A book signing and opportunity to tour the exhibit “Pony Express: Romance vs. Reality” will follow.

The National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian Institution museum, is located in the old Post Office building next to Union Station in Washington, D.C.

Jaimes Mayhew ’10, MFA in imaging and digital arts, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship to Iceland, where he will spend the next nine months working on a social practice art project, Autonomous Energy Research Lab.

Mayhew states, “Autonomous Energy Research Lab is an art research project that will investigate the idea of autonomy through conversations, art events, visits from other Baltimore-based artists and any other methods of research that may come about. All of these events will take place involving my research lab, which is a modified bike cart that includes a table, chairs, protection from the rain and is capable of producing and storing energy in a mobile battery. I will be using this lab to research ideas of autonomy, with special interest in Iceland’s use of geothermal power, of preservation of the Icelandic language and culture and, of course, in talking to people about Iceland’s economic collapse and strategies to recovery.”