4th annual 'The Secor' event features art, music, demonstrations

Maggi Dandar's photo 'Sunrise' is one of nearly 100 nature images that are on view at the University of Toledo, 6200 Bayshore Rd. in Oregon.

'Tis the Secor is 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday in the Secor Building. In addition to many artists' studios being open, the work of painters, pencil and mixed-media artists, photographers, fashion and makeup artists, graphic designers, and leather crafters will be available for purchase in the fourth annual event. Also, installation pieces done by University of Toledo art students will be displayed. Six bands will play through the evening, and glass makers from Quest for Fire Studios will demonstrate their craft. A cash bar and light appetizers will be available. The Secor is at 425 Jefferson Ave. at Superior Street. Information: 419-514-7496 and rareparts33@yahoo.com.

• The 2010 Nature of Maumee Bay photo contest entries are exhibited at the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center, 6200 Bayshore Rd. in Oregon. Nearly 100 images are on view in categories of adult, teen, youth, and adults who have special needs. Photos will be displayed through February. The center is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and offers tours at 10 a.m. Wednesdays. Information: 419-530-8360 and utoledo.edu/as/lec.

• Venice: Crossroads of the World is the subject of a free talk Friday at 7 p.m. in the Green Room of the Toledo Museum of Art. Carolyn Putney, the museum's curator of Asian art, and Richard Putney, professor of art history at the University of Toledo, will discuss how Venice's art and architecture incorporate the aesthetics of both East and West.

Another free presentation at 8 p.m. Friday in the Glass Pavilion is People, Piety, and Pilgrimage in Ancient Egypt. The discovery of a series of votive chapels built near the tombs of earlier ancestors allows linkages of private and royal religious practice and the ability to track the movement of individuals across parts of the Abydos landscape in different phases of their lives. Speaker will be Janet Richards, associate curator for Dynastic Egypt at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. The presentation is in conjunction with the Archaeological Institute of America-Toledo Society.

• Tote bags sewn from banners that hung on downtown lamp posts earlier this year are for sale. Banners have tree themes and were designed by 50 Toledo artists for the Urban Forest Project. Bags sell for $100 each, and can be viewed and ordered at www.etsy.com/shop/ufptoledo. Proceeds support Young Artists at Work, a program of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo.

• A Holiday ArtTrail in Sylvania includes nine galleries and studios that will be open Friday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Information: 419-517-0118 and sylvaniaarts.org.

• A partnership between Health Care REIT and the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo has been forged to adorn with $140,000 of art the company's new West Toledo headquarters at 4500 Dorr St. (the former home of Dana Holding Corp.). Deadline is Dec. 17 for $50,000 worth of art purchases (mostly but not solely two-dimensional) created by people living in Allen, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood, and Wyandot counties in Ohio, and Lenawee and Monroe counties in Michigan.

The company also plans to commission one or two large works each totalling $45,000. These will be sited in prominent locations throughout the complex. Open nationally, artists may submit proposals until Jan. 3. The Arts Commission will manage the selection process. Information: 419-254-2787, acgt.org, and info@acgt.org.

At its Hot Glass 2010 auction Nov. 12, the arts commission raised $84,000 for its programs and $23,000 for the Young Artists at Work program.

In addition, participating glass artists were paid $110,000 for their work, $42,500 of which went into the pockets of Ohio and Michigan artists, said Marc Folk, executive director of the commission.

• Firenation hosts a holiday open house from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, offering visitors a chance to blow a glass holiday ornament as well as to watch glass-blowing demonstrations. The studio/gallery is at 7166 Front St., Holland. Information: 419-866-6288 and firenation.com.

Creative types are invited Thursday night to Art Night at the Attic, a social gathering. People are encouraged to bring their portfoliio to this monthly mixer. Host is photographer Boyd Hambleton. The Attic on Adams is above Manos restaurant, 1701 Adams St. Information: theatticonadams.com.

• Call for artists: the Midwest Sculpture Initiative is organizing 13 outdoor sculpture shows and is seeking submissions from sculptors. The exhibitions will run from May 1 to April 15, 2012. Deadline is Feb. 28. Information: 517-486-4591 and msisculpture.com.

Art of the late Don Droll is displayed through Jan. 31 in the Wesley Memorial Gallery, in the narthex of Wesley United Methodist Church, 1200 Van Buren St., Fostoria. A reception will be noon to 3 p.m. Sunday in the church. The gallery is open daily and by appointment. Information: 419-435-8551.

The work of 34-year-old Swiss-born Mai-Thu Perret will be in the University of Michigan Museum of Art Dec. 18 through March 13.

Perret uses painting and sculpture along with literature, design, craft, film, and performance. Some of the exhibit stems from The Crystal Frontier, a story she began writing in 1999. Ongoing and unresolved, it follows a group of women who attempt to escape capitalism and patriarchal society by relocating to the New Mexico desert where they form a community called New Ponderosa Year Zero. Perret will speak at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 in Helmut Stern Auditorium. The museum is at 525 South State St. in Ann Arbor. Information: 734-764-0395 and umma.umich.edu.

Items for News of Art should be sent to tlane@theblade.com at least two weeks before the event.