Artists Castro and Sears Featured in "Sight Specific" Exhibit at Kohl Gallery

CHESTERTOWN – Two artists explore relationships between art and its physical surroundings in a new exhibit opening Saturday, April 3, at the Kohl Art Gallery on the Washington College campus. Alex Castro, artist, architect, exhibition and book-designer in residence in the Department of Art and Art History, has collaborated with visiting assistant professor of studio art  Ricky Sears to produce “Sight Specific,” an exhibition of more than a dozen paintings, sculptures and installations. The works include both new and previously displayed works. “We are playing with the relationship of ‘sight’ and ‘site’ as it relates to art,” says Sears. “Some of the works are being created on site, and others are creating imagined sights.”

Castro’s contributions to “Sight Specific” are what he describes as situations derived from a larger, long-term project. Labeled “Smith,” that ongoing work involves both writing and visual art and explores the idea of the artist/everyman and his relationship to the apparent physical world.

Castro received his undergraduate degree in art and literature at Yale University and received his master’s degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.  His work has been shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and it is also in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and numerous private collections.

One of his larger works, Liberty Garden, a 3/4 acre commissioned public artwork, is located on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Castro is a lifetime member of the board of Yaddo, an artists' working community in Saratoga Springs, NY., and serves on both the Maryland and Baltimore City Public Art Commissions. He is the design architect of the American Visionary Art Museum and the Charles Theater in Baltimore.

             Ricky Sears says his artworks respond to his experience of living in a built environment always under construction. “I use wood and glass windows extracted from urban and suburban homes to make oil paintings and sculptures suggesting the illusion of suburban spaces,” he explains.

Born in Washington D.C., Sears earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Maryland in 2003 and three years later completed his master’s in fine art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has exhibited in New York at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and at Rochester Contemporary Art Center.  Sears’ sculpture “Waterfront” is included in the Public Art Network’s 2008 Year in Review, completed during the 2007 Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park (N.Y.C.). His first solo exhibit in 2008 in California, “The Lines are Drawn,” was listed in the Los Angeles Times as one of  “Eight Things Not to Miss” the week it opened. (For more information, visit www.rickysears.com.)

The Kohl Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Gibson Center for the Arts at Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue. “Sight Specific: Works by Alex Castro and Ricky Sears” runs April 3 through 17.  An opening reception will be held Saturday, April 3, from 4 to 6 p.m.  Gallery hours are Tues., 2 to 8 p.m., Wed. through Fri., 2 to 5 p.m., and Sat., 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Closed Sunday and Monday.)

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer Headlines American Pictures Series at the Smithsonian

CHESTERTOWN, MD – On Saturday, April 17, the 2010 “American Pictures” series continues when Jules Feiffer, one of the nation’s best-loved satirists, explores Bob Landry’s visually thrilling photograph “Fred Astaire in ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’ 1945”.

A joint program of Washington College, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the “American Pictures” series offers a highly original approach to the visual arts, pairing great works of art with leading figures of American culture. This spring's all-star line-up features a trio of Pulitzer Prize-winners: Feiffer, Civil War historian James McPherson (who appeared on April 10), and cultural historian David Hackett Fischer, who will appear on Saturday, May 1. Each speaker chooses a single powerful image and investigates its meanings, revealing how artworks reflect American identity and inspire creativity in many different fields. The series director is historian and essayist Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the college's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Jules Feiffer is an award-winning cartoonist, screenwriter, and playwright whose satirical outlook has helped define contemporary American society. From his Village Voice editorial cartoons to his plays and screenplays, (Little Murders and Carnal Knowledge) to books for children and young adults, (The Man in the Ceiling, A Room with a Zoo) Feiffer has had a remarkable creative career. His illustrations in the perennial children’s classic, The Phantom Tollbooth, continue to delight readers of all ages almost 50 years after the book’s debut. Feiffer’s memoir, Backing into Forward (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), was released earlier this month to critical acclaim. The New York Times called the book “funny, acerbic, subversive, fiercely attuned to the absurdities in [Feiffer’s] own life and the county at large.”

In 1997, Feiffer became the first cartoonist commissioned by the New York Times to create comic strips for the paper’s Op-Ed page. He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1986 and an Academy Award for his animated short, Munro, in 1961. He has also received the George Polk Award for his cartoons, an Obie for his plays and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Writer’s Guild of America and the National Cartoonists Society. He has been honored with major retrospectives at the New-York Historical Society, the Library of Congress and The School of Visual Art.

All “American Pictures” events take place at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, located at 8th and F Streets, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Feiffer’s talk will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the museums’ Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium. Tickets are available in the F Street lobby, beginning at 3:30 p.m. No reservations are necessary for the general public.

Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of Washington College may reserve tickets to this and the other “American Pictures” events on a first-come, first-served basis. The Starr Center is also running free buses from Chestertown to Washington for each talk. For details, please call 410-810-7165 or e-mail lkitz2@washcoll.edu. For more information on the American Pictures series, visit starrcenter.washcoll.edu.


About the Sponsors

Founded in 1782 under the personal patronage of its namesake, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, upholds a tradition of excellence and innovation in the liberal arts. The American Pictures series is a project of the college’s C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and its Department of Art and Art History.

The National Portrait Gallery tells the stories of America through the individuals—poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists—who have built our national culture. It is where the arts keep us in the company of remarkable Americans.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation’s first collection of American art, is an unparalleled record of the American experience. The collection captures the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people from the colonial period to today.

Acclaimed Historian Richard Beeman To Explore The Life And Legacy Of Patrick Henry At Washington College

CHESTERTOWN – Historian Richard Beeman, author of one of the most comprehensive biographies of Patrick Henry ever produced, will explore the life and legacy of this Revolutionary patriot and noted statesman at Washington College’s Hynson Lounge, Hodson Commons, on Tuesday, April 6, at 5:00 pm.

Patrick Henry is an icon in the national imagination, but most Americans’ knowledge of his life begins and ends with his famous, and possibly apocryphal, call for “liberty or death.” Though he is remembered primarily as a great orator, Henry had a vibrant intellectual life and was a sophisticated political philosopher. In the talk, Beeman will address the complexities of Henry’s approach to religion, politics, and the federal Constitution, which he considered an “extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous” departure from revolutionary principles.

Beeman is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books on revolutionary America, including Patrick Henry: A Biography (1974), a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent book, Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, published by Random House, is a finalist for the 2010 George Washington Book Prize– co-sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Beeman recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss the book and the compromises surrounding the drafting of the Constitution.

Former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, Beeman is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center and serves as Vice-Chair of the Center's Distinguished Scholars Panel. He is also a member of the scholarly advisory board of the American Revolution Center. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Huntington Library, and he has served as Vyvian Harmsworth Distinguished Professor of American History at Oxford University.

Beeman’s talk is cosponsored by the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture of the Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs and the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and is free and open to the public.

Washington College, KC Arts Council Present Third Annual Kent County Poetry Festival

Chestertown, MD — Washington College and the Kent County Arts Council will present the third annual "Kent County Poetry Festival: A Day of Public Poetry in Celebration of National Poetry Month" at the Book Plate, 112 South Cross Street, on Friday, April 2, from 4 to 7 p.m.

People from throughout the county will gather to read aloud their favorite lines from the world of verse—a reminder that poetry, rather than being some rarefied specimen, is in fact a vital, living art with widespread appeal.

Sign-up sheets for festival participation have been posted at various locations throughout the county, and advance sign-up is requested; persons interested in participating also may e-mail poetry@washcoll.edu to become part of the readers' roster.

"This program is in the spirit of the 'Favorite Poem Project' pioneered by Robert Pinsky when he was Poet Laureate of the United States," said Christopher Ames, Provost and Dean of Washington College.

"The goal is to bring together diverse peoples in our community around the poetry people know and love to share and, in doing so, debunk the idea that poetry is just something for academics to study. During National Poetry Month, we want to illustrate the role that poetry can have in enriching our everyday lives."

People are welcome to just come listen or participate by reading a favorite poem.

Robert Earl Price, lecturer and writer in residence in the Drama Department at Washington College, is the organizer of the project. Price is an accomplished poet and playwright who has recently moved to Chestertown from Atlanta. His most recent book of poems is Wise Blood, published by Snake Nation Press.

Price studied screenwriting at the American Film Institute and has written for television and film, but his primary writing has been for the stage. Recently produced plays include "Blue Monk," which was part of the Atlanta Cultural Olympiad, "HUSH: Composing Blind Tom Wiggins" and "Come On in My Kitchen." Price's most recent play, "The Golden Sardine," tells the story of legendary Beat poet Bob Kaufman; it had its world premiere at Washington College in 2008.

Habitat for Humanity Took Students to Columbus, GA for Alternative Spring Break

As a spring-break alternative, a group of Washington College students traveled to Columbus, Georgia to volunteer in Habitat for Humanity's Collegiate Challenge Program.

Collegiate Challenge is a year-round alternative break program that offers groups of students the opportunity to visit one of the 250 host affiliates throughout the United States. Students spend one week working in partnership with the local affiliate, the local community, and partner families to help eliminate poverty housing in the area. Washington College has been participating in the program each year since 1999, along with over 700 school chapters nationwide.

Washington College's group of 25 students, faculty, and staff, were part of an assembly of over 150 volunteers from six colleges, universities, and high schools erecting six houses in Columbus in five days during the week of March 8-12. Students embarked on a 14 hour drive, arriving in Georgia on March 7, and leaving on the morning of March 13, feeling a sense of fulfillment and pride.

"We were all very fortunate to be a part of something like this," said volunteer Charles Grigg (Class of '10). "I hope that we can all remember that there are things bigger than we are, and that there are always people in need somewhere."

With the help of carpenters from NeighborWorks Columbus and future home owners Melvin "Pops" and Cynthia Kemp, Washington College built a house at 1039 Benning Drive in Columbus. Despite the large group of different students, coming together and getting the job done was an effortless task.

"My fear embarking on the trip was that students from different interests would separate into various sects and not unite," said Kristina Kelly (Class of '11), co-coordinator of the trip. "I was surprised that immediately we came together over a common cause and became a family."

Volunteer Emily Hordesky (Class of '12) agreed. "Cliques were non-existent and everyone got along. I'm so glad building this house brought me closer to people I barely knew before. [It was] the experience of a lifetime."

Participants were: Bethany Ackerman '12, Anna Baker '12, Sarah Billmyre '11, Brittany Bonday '11, Timothy Danos '10, Mary Fletcher '10, Beverly Frimpong '12, Nicholas Gaeto '12, Charles Grigg '10, Kelsey Hallowell '12, Emily Hordesky '12, Kathryn Hughes '12, Maria Rose Hynson(Office of the Provost and Dean, Staff Advisor), Jacqueline Kelly '12, Kristina Kelley '11, Antonio LoPiano '11, Darnell Parker (Office of Student Affairs), Billie Ricketts '13, Matthew Stiles '11, Steven Stranahan '12, Gabrielle Tarbert '13, Alyssa Velazquez '12, David Wharton (Department of Economics), Amanda Whitaker '12, and Meredith Young '11.

For more information, visit studentlife.washcoll.edu/service/habitatforhumanity.

American Pictures Series at Smithsonian Features Civil War Historian James M. McPherson

CHESTERTOWN, MD – On Saturday, April 10, Civil War historian James McPherson will kick off the 2010 “American Pictures” series with a discussion of Alexander Gardner's stirring 1862 photograph “Confederate Dead by a Fence on the Hagerstown Road, Antietam,” one of the first pictures to bring the shocking realities of war before the eyes of the American public.

A joint program of Washington College, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the “American Pictures” series offers a highly original approach to the visual arts, pairing great works of art with leading figures of American culture. This spring's all-star line-up features a trio of Pulitzer Prize-winners: McPherson, cartoonist/author Jules Feiffer (who appears on April 17), and cultural historian David Hackett Fischer, who will appear on Saturday, May 1. Each speaker chooses a single powerful image and investigates its meanings, revealing how artworks reflect American identity and inspire creativity in many different fields. The series director is historian and essayist Adam Goodheart, Hodson Trust-Griswold Director of the college's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

James McPherson is America's leading historian of the Civil War. He won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, which was a New York Times bestseller and is widely acclaimed as the best single-volume history of the Civil War ever published. The success of Battle Cry of Freedom helped launch an unprecedented national renaissance of interest in the Civil War. McPherson served as an historical consultant on two PBS documentaries, Ken Burns's The Civil War and Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, and on the 1993 film Gettysburg. In 1991, the United States Senate appointed him to the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission, which determined major battle sites, evaluated their conditions, and recommended strategies for preservation.

McPherson is George Henry Davis '86 Professor of American History, Emeritus at Princeton University. In 2007, he received the first Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime contributions to the field of military history. In addition to Battle Cry of Freedom, he is the author of several other important books on the Civil War, including For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, all published by Oxford University Press.

All “American Pictures” events take place at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, located at 8th and F Streets, N.W., in Washington, D.C. McPherson's talk will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the museums' Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium. Tickets are available in the G Street lobby, beginning at 3:30 p.m. No reservations are necessary for the general public.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Washington College may reserve tickets to this and the other American Pictures events on a first-come, first-served basis. The Starr Center is also running free buses from Chestertown to Washington for each talk. For details, please call 410-810-7165 or e-mail lkitz2@washcoll.edu. For more information on the American Pictures series, visit starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

About the Sponsors

Founded in 1782 under the personal patronage of its namesake, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, upholds a tradition of excellence and innovation in the liberal arts. The American Pictures series is a project of the college's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and its Department of Art and Art History.

The National Portrait Gallery tells the stories of America through the individuals—poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists—who have built our national culture. It is where the arts keep us in the company of remarkable Americans.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the nation's first collection of American art, is an unparalleled record of the American experience. The collection captures the aspirations, character and imagination of the American people from the colonial period to today.

Washington College 2009-2010 Concert Series Concludes With Pianist Inna Faliks

Chestertown – The 58^th season of the Washington College Concert Series concludes with a performance by pianist Inna Faliks in Decker Theatre on Sunday, March 28, at 4 p.m.

The young Ukrainian-born musician has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and deeply poetic pianists of her generation. Since her acclaimed debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 15, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart.

The Washington Post praised Falik’s “poetry and panoramic vision,” while the Baltimore Sun enthused about her “riveting passion and playfulness.”

While her star has been in the ascendant, Falik also has been studing with Gilbert Kalish at Stony Brook University, where she recently received her Doctorate.

Tickets, available at the box office, are $15 for adults, $5 for youth 18 and under. Decker Theatre is located in Washington College’s new Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. For more information, call 410/778-7839.