UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents Intermedia: The Dick Higgins Collection, on display from September 8 through December 13, 2003. The Dick Higgins Collection, acquired by UMBC in 1999, features works by leading Fluxus artists, including Joseph Beuys, Alison Knowles, Seiichi Niikuni, Jackson Mac Low, Wolf Vostell, Ben Patterson, Al Hansen, George Brecht, Mieko Shiomi and Dick Higgins. The exhibition is curated by Lisa Moren, assistant professor of visual arts at UMBC.

Dick Higgins (1938–1998) was an influential visual artist, composer, poet and art theorist. Because his work transgressed many art forms, he coined the now-popular term intermedia, stating, “I find I never feel quite complete unless I’m doing all the arts—visual, musical and literary…that’s why I developed the term intermedia, to cover my works that fall conceptually between these.”

As a young artist in New York in the late 1950s, Higgins studied with composer John Cage and Henry Cowell. By 1961, he co-founded Fluxus, a seminal experimental art movement that held that change is the only constant. Immediately interdisciplinary and international, Fluxus blurred the boundaries of music, theatre, poetry, and visual art, and engaged artists, musicians, and poets from Japan, Korea, Europe, Brazil, New York and California. By 1964 Higgins founded Something Else Press, a publishing house, in part to help disseminate the work of Fluxus artists and writings about their work. Something Else Press published editions of work by John Cage, Emmett Williams, Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenberg, Gertrude Stein, Marshall McLuhan, Merce Cunningham, Dick Higgins and many other influential artists. By 1987, he authored the first scholarly work on pattern poetry through SUNY Press.

After Higgins’s death in 1998, his wife, Fluxus artist Alison Knowles, and daughters Hannah Higgins and Jessica Higgins contributed much of Higgins’s remarkable collection to UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Special Collections. Intermedia: The Dick Higgins Collection is the first opportunity for the public to view this remarkable material, which includes visual and audio art, over a dozen limited edition boxes and hand printed folios (objects, printed matter, silkscreens, hand letter press prints including concrete poems), books, book jackets, pamphlets, newsletters, audio recordings, catalogs, journals, and other items.

Publication
A scholarly illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition, and includes essays by Ina Blom, Ken Friedman, Hannah Higgins and others.

Events on October 16th
The exhibition of Intermedia: The Dick Higgins Collection will be enhanced by public programming. On October 16th from 4 to 6 p.m., a symposium will feature Hannah Higgins (University of Illinois at Chicago and daughter of Dick Higgins), Chris Thompson (Maine College of Art), Owen Smith (University of Maine), and co-moderators Kathy O’Dell (UMBC) and Lisa Moren (UMBC). A reception will follow from 6 to 7 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., Fluxus artists Alison Knowles and Larry Miller will present a performance with UMBC students in UMBC’s Fine Arts Recital Hall. Their concert will be immediately followed at 8:30 by a concert by the Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo, which will include performances of three works by Dick Higgins (Sparks, Haydn in the Forest and Touch #1 for Piano). All events are free. (For more information on the Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo concert, see here.)

Gallery Information
The Albin O. Kuhn Gallery serves as one of the principal art galleries in the Baltimore region. Items from the Special Collections Department, as well as art and artifacts from all over the world, are displayed in challenging and informative exhibitions for the University community and the public. Moreover, traveling exhibitions are occasionally presented, and the Gallery also sends some of its exhibits throughout the state and nation. Admission to the Gallery is free.

Acknowledgements
Intermedia: The Dick Higgins Collection has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The programs of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery are supported in part by an arts program grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts, and by the Friends of the Library & Gallery. At UMBC, support has been provided by the Department of Visual Arts, the Dean of Arts & Sciences, and the Humanities Forum.

Hours of Operation
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 12 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday: 12 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 12 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Thursday: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Friday: 12 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Saturday: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Telephone
General Gallery information: 410-455-2270
UMBC Artsline (24 hour recorded message): 410-455-ARTS
Media inquiries only: 410-455-3370

Web
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts
Gallery website: http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/gallery/

Images for Media
High resolution images for media are available online: http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/ or by email or postal mail. The images in this release are available at 300 dpi on high resolution image website.

Directions
From Baltimore and points north, proceed south on I-95 to exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

From Washington and points south, proceed north on I-95 to Exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

Daytime metered visitor parking is available in the Walker Avenue Garage and in Lot 10, near the Administration Building. Visitor parking regulations are enforced on all University calendar days. Hilltop Circle and all campus roadways require a parking permit unless otherwise marked.