News from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County

The Circus is Coming to Town-Tickets go on sale SOON!
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus will come to the St. Pete Times Forum from January 6 - 10, 2010.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® is roaring into town with Barnum’s FUNundrum, a celebration of P. T. Barnum so big, it is an event 200 years in the making! Hop aboard and go on an unbelievable excursion that brings together performers and characters from exotic countries all over the world - even from places for which there are no geographic borders. From the moment that you arrive, the momentum explodes as The Greatest Show On Earth® comes to life in a way that can only be inspired by the greatest showman who ever lived.

Thrill-seekers may pay for the entire seat, but will only need its edge as a rip-roaring motorcycle troupe performs an incredible feat where seven motorcyclists brave fear and physics in the 16-foot Spherical Miracle. Height-seeking high-wire artists perform atop a wire no wider than your thumb 40 feet in the air, all while at a 45 degree angle. Masters of Musculature use their bodies in the ultimate test to see how far the human body can be pushed in a mind-blowing world of distortion and contortion.

And what would Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey be without the funomenal animals leading the way? Barnum’s FUNundrum features fangtastic tigers, esteemed elephants, prancing ponies, horses and goats that authenticate the affinity between animals and humans.

At Barnum’s FUNundrum, the funtastic and funbelievable experience answers the conundrum so get your tickets today before this train leaves the station!

TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets go on sale starting November 20 at 10 a.m.

Ticket Prices: $15, $20, $25, $35, $55 (VIP), $85 (Circus Celebrity)Ages 0-23 months admitted free on ticket holder's lap (no ticket required). If child has celebrated their 2nd birthday, they MUST have a ticket to enter.

Author Judith Ortiz Cofer at UT this Thursday
Writer, poet and translator Judith Ortiz Cofer will present a reading on Thursday, November 12 in Reeves Theater on the University of Tampa campus. All readings are at 8 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Cofer’s book The Latin Deli was selected for the Georgia Center for the Book’s Top 25 Reading List. The Meaning of Consuelo was selected as one of two winners of the Américas Award in 2003 and was included on the New York Public Library's "Books for the Teen Age 2004" list. Her young adult short story collection, An Island Like You, received the inaugural Pura Belpré Prize from the American Library Association in 1996.

Florida Conversations lecture tomorrow at the Columbia in Ybor
On Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00 p.m. the Tampa Bay History Center will present a Florida Conversations lecture featuring USF historian Andrew Huse and Columbia Restaurant owner Richard Gonzmart. The two will discuss Huse's new book, The Columbia Restaurant:Celebrating a Century of History, Culture and Cuisine.

Although the Florida Conversations Lecture Series is normally hosted at the TampaBay History Center, this special installment will be held at the Siboney Room at the Columbia Restaurant's Ybor City location.

Huse, a librarian with the University of South Florida Libraries Special and Digital Collections, worked closely with the Gonzmart family to write this new centennial history of the famed Tampa restaurant. With a historian's eye for accuracy and a storyteller's ear for anecdotes, Huse traces the fortunes of the Columbia from the founder, Casimiro Hernandez Sr., to his great-grandson, fourth generation restaurateur Richard Gonzmart.

Florida Conversations features authors presenting on the history, culture and people of Florida and is a partnership with the University of South Florida Libraries Florida Studies Center.

The event is free and open to the public. For additional information or to find out about upcoming lectures, visit our website or call (813) 228-0097.

The Quartet de Minaret - To Perform Tuesday November 10
The Quartet de Minaret will present a concert titled Quartet de Minaret and Friends, on Tuesday, November 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Grand Salon at The University of Tampa.

The public is invited, and admission is free.

The program includes Quintet for Piano and String Quartet by Samuel Adler, the world-renowned composer and conductor, as well as the world premiere of Of Prayers and Praises for soprano, violin, viola, cello and piano, by UT Professor David Clark Isele, and the Quintet in E flat Major, Opus 44, by Robert Schumann.

UT's quartet-in-residence will be joined by special guests Hein Jung, soprano and a UT assistant professor of voice, and Nancy Chang, violinist and associate concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra.

The quartet, returning from successful performances in Europe this summer,is comprised of UT faculty members: Libor Ondras, violist; and Grigorios Zamparas, pianist; and Florida Orchestra members Lei Liu, assistant concertmaster; and Lowell Adams, assistant principal cellist.

For more information, contact Ondras at (813) 257-3762.