The Nelson Gallery announced that it will host a reception during special hours this Friday night (Dec. 9), in connection with the Davis Downtown Business Association's 2nd Friday ArtAbout.

The special event from 5 to 8 p.m. gives people a chance to visit the gallery at night (normal closing time is 5 p.m.) and on a Friday (when the gallery is normally closed). Admission is free.

The gallery is showing Birds: A Kinetic Installation (see more information below) and selections from the university's Fine Arts Collection.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

• Birds: A Kinetic Installation — Does the term "kinetic sculpture" fill your mind with images of clanking metal gears or corny water-driven fountain elements? Chico MacMurtrie has made his share of drum-pounding giant robots over the years. But, with Birds, he offers a different vision: a lyrical, even meditative exploration of the flapping of wings — a dozen pairs of them. Driven by compressed air, the fabric wings slowly inflate, flap and deflate over a period of minutes, in eerie grace and silence. Through Dec. 11, Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, and Fridays by appointment.

• Growing Up in India — Photographic exhibition that explores the culture of India from a youthful perspective. The exhibition comprises the works of three Indian artists: Dinesh Khanna, the exhibition's curator, and Prashant Panjiar and Anusha Yadav, who focus on different aspects of Indian society and culture. Through Dec. 18, Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Open one hour prior to performances, and during the performances, to people with tickets to those performances.

• New Works by Jaime Montiel — The UC Davis alumnus is the 2010-12 artist in residence at the TANA community art center, where this exhibition is taking place. TANA, run by the Department of Chicana/o Studies, stands for Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, or art workshop of the new dawn. Montiel is exhibiting paintings and prints that he created the last two years, during which time he has been helping as an instructor in TANA's youth workshops. The artist in residence is from Winters, where he has a studio. He received a bachelor's degree in studio art at UC Davis and a master's in painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. TANA is at 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland. Call for hours: (530) 402-1065.

AT SHIELDS LIBRARY

• Campus Community Book Project: Celebrate the Freedom to Read — The General Library Committee on Diversity assembled this exhibition in connection with this year's book project selection, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, an award-winning young adult novel and one of the most challenged books of 2010.

The exhibition comprises classic and contemporary works of fiction that share with Alexie’s novel the distinction of being either challenged or banned in the United States.

Says the committee: "The best literature provokes discussion and challenges us to open our minds to the diversity of this common and uncommon thing we call life.' Our individual experiences are both unique and universal. Author Sherman Alexie’s semiautobiographical novel brilliantly captures this paradox."

• The Ground Beneath Our Feet: The Nikola P. Prokopovich Papers on Land Subsidence — Manuscript archivist Liz Phillips prepared this exhibition on the papers of engineering geologist Nikola P. Prokopovich (1918-99)., who worked as a geologist with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region.

He worked out of the bureau's Sacramento office from 1958 to 1986, investigating the geology and geochemistry of statewide water projects, including the Central Valley Project and the Solano Project. He was an avid field geologist and spent as much time as possible on site, collecting his own data. Prokopovich was particularly interested in the engineering geology of the Central Valley Project's canals and dam sites, and in the effects of state water projects and field irrigation on the surrounding landscape.

The collection includes draft reports, memoranda and published writings, as well as nearly 25,000 slides and photographs documenting his work and the land around his work sites. 

• The Spirit of New Orleans: Culture, Community, Community, Catastrophe, Construction — In conjunction with The Spirit of New Orleans series (film and music) at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The exhibition, prepared by Michael Colby, features items from library collections representing scholarship on the history, music, architecture, culture, practices and, most important, the people of New Orleans.

The Campus Community Book Project and The Spirit of New Orleans exhibitions are designated for fall quarter, and The Ground Beneath Our Feet for fall and winter quarters. All exhibitions are in the Shields Library lobby. Regular hours: 7:30 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-midnight Sunday. Holidays and other exceptions.

OFF-CAMPUS

• Dreams of Toyland — The Design Program's Dolph Gotelli, a professor emeritus, has another holiday treat for the Napa Valley Museum. In bringing back Dreams of Toyland, the renowned collector offers new vignettes that take visitors to a world of miniature fairies, animals and other delightful creatures in snowy forests, cozy kitchens and intricate drawing rooms. "The exhibition is created to delight and inspire, evoking the wonder and innocent joys of childhood," the museum website declares. Through Jan. 29.