SAN JOSÉ, California (December 21, 2017) — The San José Museum of Art’s spring series of Lunchtime Lectures will begin on Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 12 PM with artist and educator Binh Danh. Danh will speak about his work and the concepts of mortality, memory, history, and landscape. Lunchtime Lectures takes place on the first Wednesday of each month at noon in the museum’s Charlotte Wendel Education Center. Visitors are welcome to bring food and beverages to the program and available for purchase onsite at Café Too. Tickets for the lecture program are included with museum admission.

Binh Danh received his MFA in Studio Art at Stanford University in 2004 and his BFA in Photography at San José State University in 2002. His works investigate his Vietnamese heritage and our collective memory of war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Danh is most known for his invention of the chlorophyll printing process, where photographic images are imprinted onto leaves through photosynthesis. His recent work focuses on the daguerreotype process. Danh currently teaches as assistant professor at Arizona State University, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, School of Art.

Upcoming lectures include:

On Wednesday, February 7, 2018, Michael Ogilvie, City of San José’s Director of Public Art, will give the talk “San Jose Public Art: More Than a Band-Aid.” He will discuss the history and challenges of public art and how San Jose has become a catalyst for a participatory, thoughtful, and active civic landscape.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2018, painter Raimonds Staprans of San Francisco will speak about his life and artistic career that spans six decades. Many of Staprans’s paintings depict the landscape and architecture of California, expanding upon the state’s rich and evolving history of depictions since the Gold Rush. Staprans will be featured in a solo exhibition at SJMA, Full Spectrum: Paintings by Raimonds Staprans, opening February 2, 2018, organized by the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA.

On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, Pascal Bokar Thiam, music instructor at the University of San Francisco and the French American International School, will explore the West African roots American jazz for Jazz Appreciation Month.

On Wednesday, May 2, 2018, Katherine D. Harris, associate professor of literature at San José State University and author of Forget Me Not: The Rise of the British Literary Annual, will trace the house as a central motif in Gothic novels, often as a place with memories and secrets rather than a safe haven.

SAN JOSÉ MUSEUM OF ART

The San José Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time. SJMA is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San José, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM and until 8 PM or later on the third Thursday of each month. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students, and $5 for youth ages 7 – 18. Members and children ages 6 and under are admitted free. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.

# # #

Programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by generous operating support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San José, and the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation.