O'Kane to deliver artist's lecture in honor of Sheldon's 50th anniversary

            As part of the 50th anniversary of Sheldon Museum of Art's landmark building designed by architect Philip Johnson, Irish artist Eamon O'Kane has constructed a sculptural installation in the museum's Great Hall inspired by Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.

            O'Kane's simple wood structure allows visitors to walk through and around it. Inside the structure, a plasma screen merges reflections of Sheldon's architecture and environment with an animation of the Glass House and its surroundings.

            O'Kane will present an artist's lecture, "The Glass Room," in Sheldon's Ethel S. Abbott Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. on July 12. O'Kane's lecture and a reception following it are free and open to the public.

            The installation coincides with the exhibition "'Look for Beauty': Philip Johnson and Art Museum Design," which examines Johnson's three museum structures: the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, N.Y., 1960; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, 1961; and the Sheldon Museum of Art, 1963. The exhibitions run through Oct. 13.

            O'Kane, a professor of visual art at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design in Norway, first visited Lincoln and the Sheldon Museum of Art in 1999 while in the United States as a Fulbright scholar at the Parsons School of Design of New York.

            Sheldon Museum of Art, 12th and R streets on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus, houses a permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects focusing on transnational American art. Sheldon is open free to the public during regular hours: Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Monday.

            Exhibition support is provided by BVH Architects and Historic Resources Group. Additional support is provided by the Ethel S. Abbott Charitable Foundation Exhibition and Programs Fund, the Sheldon Art Association, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.