Local Weather Forecast
Today: Current:81	Saturday: 94/73	Sunday: 96/74
Complete Forecast for  Aug 29 2008

TOP JOBS

Ceremonies to honor men and women who have died in service to the country are set for Monday.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert is set to give the address at a Memorial Day ceremony in Rose Lawn Memorial Park, organizers said.

It is set for 1:30 p.m. on the cemetery grounds, 2003 Blue Mountain Road, off Old Jacksonville Highway.

Tiffany Perdue of Rose Lawn said the Korean War Veterans Association will preside over a solemn ceremony of remembrance paying honor to those who have given their lives in the service of our country.

A Memorial Day ceremony also is set for 11 a.m. Monday at Tyler Memorial Cemetery, U.S. Highway 64 west of Loop 323.

Organizers said speakers will include Rep. Gohmert and state Rep. Leo Berman.

Both ceremonies will include the placing of a wreath, the playing of bagpipes, the Pledge of Allegiance and posting of colors, organizers said.

Lowe’s and KLTV are hosting a blood drive with Carter BloodCare Stewart Center on from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday in honor of the men and women who have died in service to the country.

The drive will be in the parking lot at Lowe’s, 5720 S. Broadway Ave., in Tyler. Donors will receive a patriotic-themes T-shirt, said the blood center.

Donors must be at least 17, 110 pounds and healthy.

A panoramic view of a cultural identity spread across a broad canvas of history is the focus as the Tyler Museum of Art prepares to open its next major exhibition, “The Eye of the Collector: The Jewish Vision of Sigmund R. Balka.’’

Celebrating more than five decades of collecting and study by celebrated attorney and civic activist Sigmund Ronell Balka of New York, the exhibition opens to the public today and continues through Aug. 10 in the Museum’s North Gallery. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged.

Balka himself is scheduled to be on hand for a gallery talk to open the exhibition at 11 a.m. May 23 at the TMA, 1300 S. Mahon Ave. adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus. The public is invited to attend at no cost, but reservations are requested by calling (903) 595-1001.

Assembled over a period of more than 50 years, the Balka Collection provides an expansive impression of Jewish life and cultural production during a golden era of creativity.

The more than 50 works assembled for the TMA exhibition – selected from among more than 200 pieces in the collection – spotlight the contributions of Jewish artists including Marc Chagall, Josef Isra?ls, Abel Pann, Herman Struck and Ben Shahn, as well as works by Max Beckmann, Lyonel Feininger and Robert Motherwell.

In 2006, Balka donated his encyclopedic survey of the major European and American Jewish artists and themes in Jewish art during the 19th and 20th century to Manhattan’s Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, which awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to the benefactor in April 2008.

“It’s almost impossible to overstate the scope of Sig Balka’s contribution through his insight and generosity – not only in its celebration of Jewish culture, but to the art world in general,” TMA Director Kimberley Bush Tomio said.

“His gift to Hebrew Union College and the exhibitions that have been organized as a result, including ours, are the foundation for an indelible legacy which this Museum is honored to celebrate.”

Featuring works that vary widely from nostalgic scenes of 19th-century Eastern European shtetls, to Depression-era social realist paintings, to contemporary abstract responses to the Holocaust, The Eye of the Collector reflects a philosophy about acquiring and “living with art” that has animated the life of Balka, who first decided to pursue his passion for collecting while working for the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Kennedy presidential administration.

“Being a collector enhances my opportunity to capture my own little worlds that hopefully represent more than just things of interest to me, but that have a significance that stems from the spring of the human spirit to be the force that helps to regenerate mankind,” he said.

“In this past century of Holocaust and destruction it is my link with man’s creative spirit, which in the end must prevail or we will extinguish ourselves.”

“Art is not of value if it is not presented so that people have the opportunity to interact with it,” Balka continued. “I don’t think I am anything but a custodian during my lifetime.

Art speaks for itself. And the more public the opportunity to have it speak for itself, the better society is, in general.”

The Eye of the Collector was organized by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion Museum. Support for this exhibition is provided by Anonymous and Fairfield Inn by Marriott.

Corporate Member sponsors are The Genecov Group and Fitzpatrick/Butler Architects.

The Tyler Museum of Art is located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street.

Regular hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Light lunch is available in the Museum Cafe from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and the TMA Gift Shop is open during exhibition hours. For more information, call (903) 595-1001 or visit www.tylermuseum.org.

The East Texas Handbell Ensemble is scheduled to present a Memorial Day concert at 6 p.m. Sunday in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, 230 W. Rusk in Tyler, publicity officials announced.

The free program will be filled with a variety of American music.

ETHE is a professional group and was formed in 1994 to provide ringers in the Tyler area with an opportunity to advance their ringing skills and broaden their knowledge of handbell literature.

Since that time the group has performed numerous concerts throughout the Dallas and East Texas areas as well as other venues across the United States.

In 1996 and 1998 the ensemble rang the opening concerts for the AGEHR (American Guild of Handbell Ringers) Area IX Festival/Conference in San Antonio and the AGEHR Area XI Festival/Conference in Albuquerque, N.M..

In January 2000 ETHE was one of 10 ensembles to give a Showcase Concert during Pinnacle 2000, a handbell event for advanced ringers held in Las Vegas, Nev.

January 2001 and 2003, the ensemble was showcased as the premier concert at the Handbell Exploration in Hershey, Pa., and in June 2002 the group performed concerts in Reno, Nev., Grass Valley and Stockton, California.

The group has also presented concerts in Little Rock and Texarkana, Ark.; Pinnacle 2004 in Dallas; the 2005 HEB Handbell Festival in Hurst and Lombard, River Forest and Downers Grove, Ill.

ETHE has also been feature as the annual Christmas concert on the Tyler Community Concert Association’s concert series for the past four years and has already been invited to appear on the 2008 series.

Dedicated to advancing the art of English Handbell ringing, the group performs on four and a half octaves of Malmark and one octave of Schulmerich bells, seven octaves of Malmark Choirchimes and often incorporates various percussive and woodwind instruments into its performances which help to create the group’s style of musical interpretation.

Equally at home ringing sacred and secular repertoire, ETHE has dedicated a large share of its’ programming to American music, ringing everything from spirituals and folk hymns to ragtime, movie and show tunes.

ETHE’s first CD, “Cafe’ Noel,” was released in the spring of 2005.

In addition to concerts, the group has made demonstration recordings for Hope Publishing, Red River Music, Alfred Publishing Company, Bechenhorst Press and Concordia Publishing House.

For more information call 903-565-4154.