Bow Tie moved to veterinary medicine complex

Bow Tie, a life-size sculpture of a horse created by UC Davis alumna Deborah Butterfield, was relocated last week from the outside of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art to a grassy area at the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. 

A fundraising campaign, featured in a UC Davis Magazine story last summer, brought the horse to the veterinary medicine complex. 

Bow Tie’s creation

Bow Tie literally rose from the ashes of the Bridger Canyon fire in Bozeman, Montana, Butterfield said in the magazine story. “The wood (later cast in bronze to form the sculpture) came from a log that had burned down to almost nothing. It looked like a bow tie, and that's how he got his name,” said Butterfield, who lives in Bozeman.

“I am drawn to the terrible beauty of burned wood and the way trees can remain beautiful, even in death. I have always used the image of the horse to represent the earth and nature. By building Bow Tie, I tried to make meaning, beauty, and hope out of tragedy.”

Another Butterfield sculpture, John — on loan from the UC Davis Fine Arts Collection — also is located at the complex.

'In the Shadow of the Mountains: Painting Music,' is this week’s noon concert; more throughout weekend

“In the Shadow of the Mountains: Painting Music,” a Shinkoskey Noon Concert, Thursday, Feb. 26, 12:05–1 p.m. at the Pitzer Center, UC Davis

Featuring strings and piano with Sachiko Yoshikawa, live illustrator

Igor Veligan, violin

Mike Dahlberg, cello

Natsuki Fukasawa, piano

Program

Ernest Bloch: Three Nocturnes, op. 56 (1924)

Arvo Pärt: Mozart-Adagio

Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in B-Flat Major (“Archduke”)

Jazz Combos of UC Davis

Otto Lee and Michael Schwagerus, directors

Thursday, February 26, 5–7 p.m. at the Pitzer Center

Music of Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Samara Joy, Snarky Puppy, and Nate Smith, among others.

'Musics of the World' Saturday

2–3:30 p.m. at the Pitzer Center

Gamelan • Heni Savitri, director

Mariachi Los Mesteños • Oscar Garibay, director

Bluegrass and Old Time String Band • Scott Linford, director

Grains of Connection: Art, Food & Conversation at Manetti Shrem Museum Saturday

1–5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28, Manetti Shrem Museum, 254 Old Davis Road, free and open to the public

Join the Manetti Shrem Museum and university partners for an afternoon of art, communal bread breaking, connecting across cultures, and conversation.

(Courtesy/Robert Mondavi Institute).

Anchored by the exhibition Sahar Khoury: Weights & Measures, the program weaves together dialogue and za’atar making with award-winning Bay Area chef and community organizer Reem Assil and Charlotte Biltekoff, the UC Davis Darrell Corti Endowed Professor in Food, Wine and Culture; guided tastings; hands-on art and agriculture activities; pop-up  gallery talks; and discussions with people as books in a Human Library.

Presented in partnership with Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, UC Davis Library, UC Davis Student Farm, American Studies Department, Department of Food Science and Technology, Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and Human Library Organization.

This event features a variety of interactive experiences such as guided tastings of bread and olive oil, hands-on art and agriculture activities, and pop-up gallery talks with Associate Curtor Susie Kantor.

• Hear stories from “human books” about others’ lived experience with support from the Human Library Organization and the UC Davis Library. (1-2 p.m.)
• Participants can sample foods from Reem’s California and UC Davis’ Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science; plant seeds from the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library with the UC Davis Student Farm; try their hand at grinding wheat; and sculpt dough with herbs and spices, among other experiences. (1-3:30 p.m.)
• Reem Assil & Charlotte Biltekoff Talk: Dialogue and za’atar making with award-winning Syrian-Palestinian chef and community organizer Reem Assil and Charlotte Biltekoff, the UC Davis Darrell Corti Endowed Professor in Food, Wine and Culture (3:30-4:45 p.m.)

Direct link to web listing with schedule and speaker biographies 

Huizache reading, launch party at TANA for 2 publications

Saturday, Feb. 28, 6 p.m., TANA , 1224 Lemen Ave, Woodland
Join Huizache and TANA for a special evening celebrating two exciting new publications: Huizache 12 and Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize winner María Esquinca’s "Where Heaven Sinks," selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.
Poet Eduardo Corral writes that Esquinca’s work “reconfigures familial and national and political narratives into dazzling poems that push border literature into the twenty-first century.” TANA will also be marking Huizache’s fourth and final issue published at UC Davis. The national literary magazine will now head to the University of Texas at El Paso. We will be joined by Huizache’s new editor, renowned writer and UTEP professor Daniel Chacón, as well as outgoing poetry editors León Salvatierra and Javier Huerta, contributing poetry editor Yaccaira Salvatierra, and contributing artist Amy Díaz-Infante Siqueiros.

As at every TANA event, there is plenty of food, music, culture and community.

Comedy Musical 'The Drowsy Chaperone' now playing in campus theatre

Winner of two Tony Awards, for Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Golden Age of the Broadway musical. The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance presents the hilarious musical in the Main Theatre, Wright Hall, and runs Feb. 26, 27, 28 and March 5, 6 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 28 and March 7 at 2 p.m.

Seona Sherman as the title character in T'he Drowsy Chaperone' (Carol Kepler/photo)

“The Drowsy Chaperone is thriving in a collaborative environment, with students, guest artists, and faculty all bringing creativity and commitment to the process,” said director and choreographer Rhett Guter, the winter 2026 Granada Artist-in-Residence in the theatre department. “Working with students as they step into the rhythm and energy of musical theater — seeing the choreography come alive and the production unfold — is as thrilling as it is magical.”

Featuring an original book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, The Drowsy Chaperone pokes fun at all the tropes that characterize the musical theatre genre. As the show opens, a lonely man plays his favorite cast recording, The Drowsy Chaperone, a fictitious 1928 musical. He tells the audience about the musical, which comes to life in his sparse apartment. The plot features two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a scatterbrained hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, an egotistical Don Juan and an intoxicated chaperone; combining to create madcap delight.

Guter’s choreography has earned him a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for his innovative work on West Side Story at Chicago’s Drury Lane Theatre and a Broadway World Best Choreography Award for Cabaret at PCPA. His choreography credits include: The Music Man, Anything Goes, and Peter and the Starcatcher at the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival; Bat Boy at the Griffin Theatre; and A Christmas Story: The Musical at the Paramount Theatre. Last year he played Rooster in the national tour of Annie, performing at Madison Square Garden opposite Whoopi Goldberg for which The New York Times noted Guter was “oozing with charm” and “a terrific dancer.”

Patrick Burns is the music director for The Drowsy Chaperone. An artist and leader who bridges musical theatre, advocacy and education, he has worked as a music director and conductor for regional theaters, universities and national tours, including associate conductor for the national tour of Spamalot. He also served as Production Manager at Broadway Sacramento. As a composer and lyricist, he wrote Life Sentence, which explores the prison industrial complex, and scored Madwomen and Ready Player Three.

Faculty member Ian Wallace designs the scenery, Tasa Gleason (MFA, drama, ‘20) designs the costumes, Assistant Professor Ethan Hollinger designs the lighting, and staff member Megan Kimura is the sound designer. Undergraduate students Mario Sandoval and Mikayla Freeman are the stage manager and assistant choreographer, respectively.

-Michael G. French

About the musical

The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. For information about other department productions, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.

2 concerts at Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Joshua Bell

 Saturday, Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields stands as one of the premier chamber orchestras, celebrated for its fresh and brilliant interpretations of the world’s greatest orchestral music.

Formed by Sir Neville Marriner in 1958 and currently led by Joshua Bell, the ensemble continues to push the boundaries of player-directed performance with its distinctive, polished, and refined sound. Known for his ability to cast familiar works in a new light, Bell takes on Brahms’s iconic Violin Concerto, an elusive and formidable test of virtuosity. The program also features Schumann’s “Spring,” a work brimming with optimism and renewal, capturing the composer’s joyful embrace of the season’s awakening. 

Tickets here 

Program List

Variations on “America” (arr. Iain Farrington)

Charles Ives

Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 77

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major, op. 38 (“Spring”)

Robert Schumann

Alasarah & the Nubatones at Vanderhoef 

Friday, Feb. 27 – Saturday, Feb. 28 (photo above), Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Vanderhoef

Alsarah & the Nubatones were born out of a collective love for Nubian music, modern migration patterns, and the cultural exchanges between Sudan and Egypt.

Under the leadership of Alsarah, the Brooklyn-based group’s sound grew into what they have dubbed “East African retro-pop.” Their critically acclaimed albums, Silt and Manara, blend African, Arabic, and Western sounds. The band has toured extensively, performing at major festivals such as Glastonbury. Indeed, the music of Alsarah & the Nubatones meets audiences across linguistic and cultural borders, proving the power of melodic connection.

Tickets, limited availability, here

Next week

Templeton colloquium in Art History explores intersection of art history, climate change

The 2026 Templeton Colloquium in Art History explores the intersection between climate change and art history, opening new pathways for understanding how visual and material culture mediates human relationships to the natural world. The 2026 Templeton Colloquium in Art History at UC Davis — “Art History and Climate Change” — examines how historical and contemporary depictions of nature illuminate aesthetic practices, register environmental knowledge, and respond to ecological stress. 

This  event is Friday, March 6 at 4 p.m. in the Manetti Shrem Museum on the campus of UC Davis. Free and open to all. 

See more detail in next week’s Arts Blog.