Open through Dec. 19
Asian Gallery, Spencer Museum of Art, 1301 Mississippi
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, Friday-Saturday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
Fifty years ago this fall, movie audiences first laid eyes on one of film's most enduring icons. Godzilla, the radioactive lizard whose fiery temper tantrums trashed Tokyo in the 1954 release Gojira, eventually reached far beyond mere creature feature stature, becoming the first Japanese pop culture product to gain mass appeal in the United States after World War II.
The Godzilla film series is now the longest running franchise in world cinema history, and to commemorate the King of the Monsters' 50th birthday, the Spencer presents the exhibition Pop Goes Godzilla: Japanese Pop Culture & Globalization, which opens Sept. 11 and will remain on view through Dec. 19 in the museum's Asian Gallery. The museum's exhibition, featuring many loaned objects from private collections, is organized in conjunction with a late-October, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the University of Kansas' Center for East Asian Studies, during which scholars from around the world will consider the Godzilla films and their surprising impact on global culture.
Programming related to Pop Goes Godzilla: Japanese Pop Culture & Globalization
* Film: "Spirited Away," September 23, 7 p.m., SMA Auditorium. (2002, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 124 minutes). Rated PG. Free.
* Tour du Jour: Hillary Pedersen, intern, September 30, 12:15 p.m., Asian Gallery. Free.
* Film: "Princess Mononoke," October 7, 7 p.m., SMA Auditorium. (1999, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 133 minutes). Rated PG-13. Free.
* Children's Art Appreciation Class:
"Japan-a-mania!," October 30, 10-30
a.m. and 1:30 p.m. $. Pre-registration required. Contact Karen Gerety at 864-0137 or kcgerety@ku.edu
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