•‘Masquerade’

Saturday, Feb. 18

Mellwood Art Center
1860 Mellwood Ave.
pandoraprods.org
$55 (adv.), $65 (door); 8 p.m.

With an open bar comes great responsibility. Or not — if City Scoot is around. Pandora Productions’ annual benefit party, “Masquerade,” is celebrating all things Mardi Gras Saturday night at the Mellwood Art Center — complete with said open bar, beads, masks and lots more. There will also be a silent auction featuring ceramic Mardi Gras-inspired masks made by local artists, as well as sweet items like airplane tickets, a Steepleton pool table, jewelry and spa packages, just to name a few. With sponsors like Four Roses, Absolut and Schlafly Beer, and entertainment by Robbie Bartlett, it’s gonna be a delicious time gettin’ down for a good cause. Don a mask and be someone different for the night — Tom Cruise did it. —Sara Havens

•Constitution Symposium

Saturday, Feb. 18

U of L Chao Auditorium at Ekstrom Library
2301 S. Third St.
Free; 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

In case you’ve forgotten the basic principles of our three branches of government, here’s a snippet from a catchy “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon comparing the separation of powers to a three-ring circus: Well, everybody’s act is part of the show, and no one’s job is more important.
 The audience is kinda like the country you know,
 keeping an eye on their performance.

A panel of experts will offer a slightly more nuanced explanation of our country’s checks-and-balances system of government during an upcoming symposium entitled “Separation of Powers: The Structural Heart of the Constitution.” Local political science professors and attorneys will address topics including the president’s foreign policy powers, whether Congress has strayed from the Founding Fathers’ vision, and the Supreme Court’s intervention (or lack thereof) on issues pertaining to the previously mentioned branches. —Sarah Kelley

Amongst the improvements called for are:

• Transparent records and open meetings
• Equitable opportunities and funding for all arts groups, including the visual arts
• Support for avant-garde, experimental, and non-traditional artists
• A diversified board to reflect constituency including, artists, art administrators, business and community leaders
• A push for our press to have arts and culture critics
• Routine “town-hall” meetings to take the pulse of folks who create and consume the arts

A final list of questions to be addressed by Sexton-Smith during the Forum will be culled from the field of questions/feedback provided from the community prior to the event. Please email your specific question to www.lousivillevisualart.org by Tuesday, Jan 10, 5 p.m. deadline (put “public forum” in the subject line). If time does not allow for each of the submitted inquiries to be addressed during Public Forum, LVAA will provide a copy of your question to Sexton-Smith and encourage Fund for the Arts to respond to your question via email reply to your email address.

Hyatt Regency
320 W. Jefferson St.
www.derbycon.com
$150 (adv.); 9 a.m.-8 p.m. (till 3 p.m. on Sun.)

Louisville will host one of the biggest hacker/security conferences in the country this weekend, with a stacked line-up of top national experts in the field of information security. One of those speakers will be Kevin Mitnick, a former super-hacker who was the most wanted computer criminal in the country before the FBI arrested him in 1995. He’s now a folk hero to computer geeks around the world. Much of the conference will be dedicated to presentations and training on how to protect yourself (company, government or otherwise) from the Mitnicks of the cyberworld, as the conference delves into the newest hacking techniques and the best defenses against them. Tickets for the event are $150 per day in advance, and $175 at the door, with an optional, two-day training cost of $825. If you’re into hacking or computer security, or just a Mitnick groupie, this is a conference you can’t afford to miss (assuming you can afford it). —Joe Sonka

Ramsi’s Café on the World will be providing food for the event and coffee will be provided by Heine Brothers Coffee. This event is free to the public, however space is limited and a RSVP is required. Contact the Urban Design Studio at 587-7015.