Robert Braun started his career in Minnesota where he worked at the Minneapolis Children’s Theater and also at the Twin Cities Scenic Co. where he painted the Brown Grand’s historic Napoleon Grand Drape in 1978. Since leaving Minneapolis, Mr. Braun has worked in New York City as a Design Assistant on Broadway shows, at the Metropolitan Opera, and as a Production Illustrator for such films as The Manchurian Candidate and The Departed. When not employed in the entertainment business, Mr. Braun designs and paints murals for Museums, including the Cavalry Museum at Fort Riley, as well as murals and decorative painting for residences, hotels, and retail businesses. He is very pleased to be visiting Concordia and to be revisiting his work for the Brown Grand Theatre more than 40 years after completing it.

On October 20th, Mr. Braun will be sharing examples of his work in the graphic arts in this fall’s Cook Series at the Brown Grand. This lavishly illustrated lecture explains and uses of the graphic arts for the stage, screen, and beyond. The second half of the lecture gives a preview of one of Mr. Braun’s current illustration projects titled Poultry Mania, and which explores the history of man’s favorite bird and the surprisingly extravagant and beautiful palaces that were built to house them in the 19th century. He uses these ornamental pavilions and their inhabitants as a way of looking at architecture, design, and our ways and attitudes in how we perceive and treat our dependent species.

This lecture is free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the Cook Series at Cloud County Community College, please join us!