Are you tired of “Beavis & Butthead?” Are you hungry for some major culture? Then visit the College of Design this fall for some upcoming exhibits that are sure to beat an evening of NBC reruns.

Gallery 181 features five exhibits a year (three are scheduled this fall), and all of them come at the request of design professors.

“The faculty of the College of Design see things, meet people all over the world,” said Barbara Bruene, director of Gallery 181. “Then they propose shows for the gallery in the Gallery Advisory Committee.”

The first display will feature “Paintings by Georg Heimdal” starting today and continuing through Sept. 19. Heimdal is a professor of art and department chair at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

He literally puts himself in his paintings. His trademark is intense application of small, painted marks that suggest figures and landscapes; these paintings are, in effect, self-portraits or “snapshots” of his world, but he himself is not necessarily in human form. “It’s very much related to pointillism,” Bruene explained.

He will give a lecture entitled “Georg Heimdal: A Decade in Retrospect” Monday, Sept. 11, with a reception following.

Another exhibit sure to get your creative juices flowing is set from Sept. 27 through Oct. 20. “Urban Diaries,” by Walter Hood, an architect and landscape architect from Berkeley, uses drawings and models to explore “improvisation” as a design process.

His goal is to reshape open spaces, like parks and streets in inner city communities using different media, including text and photography to journal the routine patterns and practices in the urban environment.

“He works a lot in neighborhoods that are difficult to live in,” Bruene said. “His approach to design is quite unique. He’s very interested in jazz and improvisation. He works a lot with ideas that you might find in jazz. He uses that to design spaces in public places, in a variety of neighborhoods.”

There will also be a lecture by Walter Hood entitled “Urban Landscapes” Monday, Oct. 16, with a reception following.

Another exhibit that will break the monotony of fall, and keep you from shutting yourself indoors, will be on display from Oct. 30 through Nov. 29 (closed, of course, for Thanksgiving recess, Nov. 19-26). The work of three artists will come together to form “Women’s Ritual Art of India: Views from Three Photographers.”

Stephen Huyler, an American anthropologist, Jyoti Bhatt, a well-known Indian painter, and Raghev Kaneria, an Indian sculptor, are branching out and exhibiting their collective work in black and white photographs. The photos predict the beautiful diversity of women’s ritual art in India.

“[The exhibit features] the exterior surfaces of houses and courtyards decorated by women,” Bruene explained. “The paintings don’t last forever, and they have to redo them; they have to do with women’s culture and heritage.”

In conjunction with the display, Stephen Huyler will give a lecture Monday, Nov. 6. It is entitled “Painted Prayers: Women’s Ritual Art in India.”

Bruene encourages both students and members of the Ames community to take advantage of what the gallery has to offer. “It’s a real hidden treasure on campus,” she said. “Many people probably don’t realize it’s here.”

Gallery 181 hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. There is free parking available in the lot west of the College of Design on Sundays only. It is open to the entire community free of charge. For more information, please call Bruene at 294-3038.