Friday, March 28, 2008

Janson-La Palme Lecture Addresses French Painting in the Age of Napoléon

Chestertown, MD — The Washington College Department of Art and Art History presents the Janson-La Palme Annual Distinguished Lecture in European Art History, "Composition and Decomposition in Girodet's 'Revolt of Cairo'," a lecture by Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in the Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, April 17, at 4:30 p.m. The event is free, and the public is invited to attend.

One of the world's most prominent art historians, Thomas Crow was until his recent appointment (2007) at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, the Director of the Getty Research Institute in California, a position he had held since 2000. At the same time, he was Professor of the History of Art at the University of Southern California.

Before that, Professor Crow was Robert Lehman Professor of the History of Art at Yale University (1996-2000), where he was Chair of the Department from 1997 onwards; Professor and Chair in the History of Art at the University of Sussex, UK (1990-1996); Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1986-1990); Assistant Professor of Art and Archeology at Princeton University (1980-1986); and Assistant Professor of the History of Art at the University of Chicago (1978-1980).

Dr. Crow is the author of many books, including Painters and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Paris (Yale University Press, 1985); Emulation: Making Artists for Revolutionary France (Yale University Press, 1995; revised edition with new afterword, Emulation: 2006);Modern Art in the Common Culture (Yale University Press, 1996); The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent (Abrams, 1996; Yale University Press and Laurence King, 2005); and The Intelligence of Art (Bettie Allison Rand Lectures in Art History)(University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

Dr. Crow is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship; the Charles Rufus Morey Prize of the College Art Association; the Eric Mitchell Prize for the best first book in the history of art; being named the Durning-Lawrence Lecturer at University College, London; being named the Clifford Lecturer, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies; and being named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, among others. He is a contributing editor of Artforum and a member of the National Committee for the History of Art.

The Janson-La Palme Annual Distinguished Lecture in European Art History was established by Washington College Professor Emeritus Robert J. H. Janson-La Palme and his wife, Bayly, to bring internationally known scholars on European art to campus for public lectures and presentations.

Previous lecturers in the series include Nicholas Penny (presently Director, National Gallery of London), Jonathan Brown (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU), the late Robert Rosenblum (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and Guggenheim Museum), and Paul Barolsky (University of Virginia). The speaker for 2010 will be Peter Humfrey (St. Andrews University, Scotland).

March 27, 2008

Gym Class Heroes to Perform at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Alternative hip-hop hitmakers Gym Class Heroes will perform at Washington College's Lifetime Fitness Center on Sunday April 13, at 7 p.m. (Doors open at 6 p.m.)

Melding elements of rap, rock, R&B and funk into one cohesive and melodic sound, upstate New York's Gym Class Heroes have diverse appeal based on their impressive musical dexterity. Often touring with indie rock and pop-punk bands, they don't fit comfortably into one specific genre; the quartet's music is rooted in traditional hip-hop, but features live instruments instead of looped samples or beats. Lyrics are often socially conscious, but also infused with humor and wry perceptiveness.

The group formed in 1997 when Travis McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley and decided to make a band. After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts, they were signed to Decaydance Records, on which they released the gold-selling album As Cruel As School Children.

Since that release, the band has garnered much success, with the single "Cupid's Chokehold" reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Clothes Off!!" peaking at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.

Tickets to the April 13 Gym Class Heroes concert are $19 for Washington College students, $21 for staff and alumni, and $25 for non-students. All tickets will be $25 on the day of the show. Advance tickets are available at Ticketmaster; call 410/547-SEAT, or visit www.ticketmaster.com (type "Gym Class Heroes" into the search field and follow the prompts).

March 27, 2008

Thursday, March 27, 2008

'Oyster Restoration' Explored at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — One of the salient dilemmas facing the Chesapeake ecosystem will be confronted when the Center for Environment & Society presents "Oyster Restoration in the Chesapeake Bay," a lecture by Dr. Donald "Mutt" Meritt, Senior Agent at Horn Point Laboratory, and Dr. Donald Webster, Marine Science Agent at the Wye Research and Education Center, at Washington College's Wingate Lecture Hall on Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m.

Dr. Meritt is a leading authority on the Crassostrea virginica (that is, the American oyster) and has been at the forefront of research related to Chesapeake Bay oyster restoration. He has published widely on the subject and has appeared frequently on Maryland Public Television's "Maryland Outdoors" program.

Dr. Webster is another prominent voice addressing Chesapeake oyster issues, being known for his expertise in commercial fish and shellfish aquaculture. A highly skilled scientific SCUBA diver, he is a member of the Maryland Aquaculture Coordinating Council.

Wingate Lecture Hall is located in Goldstein Hall, Room 100. Admission to "Oyster Restoration in the Chesapeake Bay" is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/778-7295.

March 26, 2008

'Green' Industry Initiatives Explored at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Washington College's Center for Environment and Society will explore ways in which the building industry is becoming more environmentally conscious with "Geothermal Energy & Zero Waste," a lecture by Dave Hoffman, Senior Vice President of Gipe Associates Inc., and Ruth Newell, Director of New Millennium Development, at Litrenta Lecture Hall on Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m.

The event comes during "George Goes Green" Month at Washington College, a reference to the College's sustainability program now entering its third year.

Gipe Associates is a mechanical/electrical/plumbing consulting and engineering firm with a 28-year history of providing cost-conscious designs. The firm has offices in Baltimore and Easton, allowing it to serve the entire Mid-Atlantic region.

Gipe Associates serves an array of clients, including architects and engineers, universities and colleges, public and private schools, health-care organizations and all levels of government, as well as industrial and commercial concerns.

Centreville-based New Millennium Development (NMD) specializes in sustainable project assessment and development, inspired by and adhering to goals set forth in the Sustainable Development Initiative promulgated by the United Nations in 2000. NMD's mission is to expand the market demand for zero-waste technologies, particularly those utilizing rapidly renewable resources and waste byproducts. NMD's stated goals are "to educate, enable and empower multiple industry sectors, one community at a time by providing high-impact learning experiences."

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to "Geothermal Energy & Zero Waste" is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/810-7162.

March 26, 2008

Philosophy, Rare Editions and 'Witcraft' at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — It will be an occasion of gifts—the intellectual gifts of a distinguished American philosopher, and the tangible gifts of rare literary treasures he is donating to Washington College. Dr. Alan Pasch, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland Department of Philosophy, will present "The Art of Witcraft" in the Sophie Kerr Room at the College's Miller Library on Tuesday, April 8, at 4:30 p.m.

The talk and reception celebrate Dr. Pasch's donation to Miller Library of his considerable collection of rare historical texts on logic and the English language.

Some of the texts date to the 1400s and include early or otherwise rare editions by such thinkers as Thomas Hobbes, Henry Aldrich, Isaac Watts, Noah Webster, Lewis Carroll, George Boole and others.

Dr. Pasch has long been a respected voice on the American philosophical scene. His Experience and the Analytic: A Reconsideration of Empiricism was published in 1958 in the midst of what was being described as "a series of fratricidal quarrels" among philosophers. The arrival of Pasch's book, according to the review in the journal Ethics, offered "the latest, and best formulation" for a way out of the war that had arisen between logical empiricists and pragmatists.

Pasch was lauded for "the virtues of this book which combines a sense of a larger philosophic and historical context with a careful treatment of recent, vexed controversies.... Pasch performs a useful service."

The rare texts Dr. Pasch is donating to Miller Library will be on view during the presentation. Admission to "The Art of Witcraft" is free and open to the public.

March 26, 2008

'Miss Witherspoon' Staged at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — The Washington College Department of Drama will present Christopher Durang's "Miss Witherspoon" at the Prince Theatre on Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29, at 8 p.m.

Durang is one of America's most celebrated current playwrights, renowned for his skewed, insightful sense of humor. Both Timeand Newsday hailed "Miss Witherspoon" as one of the Ten Best Plays of 2005.

Time's Richard Corliss dubbed it "an endearingly meditative farce... It's a pleasure to note that [Durang] hasn't lost his screwball." And Newsday's Linda Winer raved, "This is Durang at the top of his metaphysical, apocalyptic, high-cultural game ... thoroughly lovable. And funny."

"Miss Witherspoon" charts the otherworldly course of a recent suicide who discovers that she must return in order to fix her "brown tweedy aura." Aiding and accompanying her on her quest from here to eternity and back again is an unusual spiritual guide.

The upcoming Washington College production of "Miss Witherspoon," directed by Senior Carey Walden, features Mary Lide, Ashley Jones, Ben Mason, Maggie Kobik and Jess Dugger.

Admission to "Miss Witherspoon" is free, but reservations are required; call 410/778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

March 26, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Poet/Alumna Erin Murphy Presents Reading at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — Erin Murphy, a Washington College graduate who has gone on to enjoy a post-collegiate career as a poet, will return to her alma mater to present a reading in the Sophie Kerr Room on Wednesday, April 9, at 4 p.m.

Murphy (class of 1990) is the author of Dislocation and Other Theories, Science of Desire, and Too Much of This World (winner of the Anthony Piccione Poetry Prize). She is Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Altoona.

She has received the Foley Poetry Award, the National Writers' Union Poetry Award judged by Donald Hall, a $5,000 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Murphy's reading is part of Washington College's 2007-2008 Sophie Kerr Lecture Series. The series honors the legacy of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, Md., whose generosity has enriched Washington College's literary culture.

When she died in 1965, Kerr left the bulk of her estate to Washington College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor"—the famed Sophie Kerr Prize—and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Admission to Erin Murphy's April 9 poetry reading is free and open to the public. The Sophie Kerr Room is located in Miller Library. For more information, call 410/778-7879.

March 25, 2008