The somewhat elusive Springfield Ditch Projects gallery opened its latest exhibit May 18, and it runs through June 15. Ron Graff and Donald Morgan: New Work features the abstract expressionist paintings of Graff, a UO associate professor of painting, and 2-D and 3-D works of Morgan, a UO assistant art professor. Morgan’s graphic sculptures have had a playful (and sometimes dark) bent in the past, including a topographic wall hanging of Crater Lake’s Wizard Island, a pair of mirrored spider webs and a noose rack. For more information visit ditchprojects.com.

Corvallis’ The Arts Center, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, will host an exhibit by the Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts beginning May 23. Crow’s is a nonprofit Native American arts organization with an emphasis on printmaking nestled in the Blue Mountain foothills on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Don’t miss the poignant lithographs of Wendy Red Star, who explores the juxtaposition of life on and off the Crow Reservation where she grew up, especially “The (HUD),” a print featuring a stack of brightly colored, modest homes. Opening reception 5:30 to 7:30 pm Thursday, May 23, at The Arts Center, 700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis.

We want a shrubbery! The UO Ford Alumni Center is hosting the one-day symposium “Landscape Thinking” Saturday, May 25, featuring a who’s who in the world of landscape architecture. The symposium will feature scholars from University of California, Berkeley; University of British Columbia Vancouver; the Israel Institute of Technology and MIT. Kenneth I. Helphand, the Philip H. Knight Professor of Architecture and Allied Arts Emeritus, is retiring after 40 years of teaching, leaving a slew of landscape books in his wake including the critically-acclaimed Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime.

Into Parkness. J.J. Abrams move over because the outdoor Trek Theater is hosting open auditions for August and September performances of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Tin Man” (season three, episode six) at a Eugene area park (TBD). You don’t have to be a Trekkie to audition but “some understanding of the characters as portrayed in Star Trek: TNG will be helpful.” Auditions run noon to 2:30 pm Sunday, May 26, at Sam Bond’s. Contact TNGinthePark@gmail.com for more information. 

Hopefully you have Memorial Day off so you can stay up late for a free night of funny hosted by local comedian Leigh Anne Jasheway and friends at Sam Bond’s 8 pm Saturday, May 26.