Readings from “The Glooskape Chronicles: Creation and the Venetian Basket,” written by author and University of Maine adjunct faculty member Donna Loring, and directed by Native American author and playwright William S. Yellow Robe, Jr., is being offered free in Room 101 of Neville Hall at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 21. The cast includes members of the UMaine and surrounding communities, including the Penobscot Nation, according to Yellow Robe, the UMaine Libra Diversity Professor in the Department of English. Loring is a UMaine political science alumna, a former Penobscot Nation representative in the Maine Legislature, and now is CEO of Seven Eagles Media Production Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to giving voice to Native people and providing an outlet for their creativity through video documentaries and multimedia.

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756

The University of Maine Department of Art will present starting May 24 two new exhibits at the Lord Hall Gallery. “Art of the 80s,” which represents a wide spectrum of American art created in the 1980s, will feature works from the University of Maine Museum of Art Collection. “Structures” features works by Matt R. Foster, an art student who graduated from UMaine in May. Both exhibitions run through July 20. The Lord Hall Gallery is free, open to the public and handicapped accessible.

Contact: Laurie Hicks, 581-3247

Howard Segal, professor of history at the University of Maine, recently published a new book, “Utopias, A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities,” with publishers at Wiley-Blackwell. The book complements his earlier publications on utopia and utopianism, “Technological Utopianism in American Culture,” written in 1985 and revised in 2005, by now delving into late 20th and early 21st century inventions such as the Internet, social media, edutopia and virtual communities. The book also discusses the largely neglected topics of Latin American and Asian utopias, especially Chinese and Japanese.

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756

More than 40 members of the University of Maine Singers choral ensemble are on their way to Switzerland, Italy and Austria for a weeklong European concert tour. The singers, who raised the money themselves for the tour, will serve as musical ambassadors for the University of Maine throughout Europe. The University Singers is a select choir whose members come from all disciplines across campus. They are accompanied by Dennis Cox, a faculty member who directs the choir, and faculty members Liz Downing (flute), Louis Hall (oboe) and Laura Artesani (piano).

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756