Chestertown, MD — Washington College's Department of Sociology and Anthropology has received a grant award of $100,000 under the Maryland Crime Mapping and Analysis Program, a part of the State of Maryland's Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention.
The year-long project will produce a broad array of maps utilizing data from state and local police and criminal justice agencies and will aid officials in developing a long-range strategy for statewide analysis and mapping.
April 25, 2008
Chestertown, MD — The Rose O'Neill Literary House, the Department of English and the Writers' Union will present the annual Washington College Senior Reading, an ever-popular springtime showcase of writing talent, at the Rose O'Neill Literary House on Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m.
Presenting readings from their works will be Seniors Bobby Bangert, Zach Bennett, Ericka Buet, Juliana Converse, Michelle Cook, Jeff Donovan, Leah Ganse, Caroline Herman, Reilly Joret, Ben Kozlowski, Marielle Latrick, Lindsay Lusby, Wes Schantz, Emma Sovich, Lauren Stranahan and Marian Robbins.
Admission to the Senior Reading is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
April 22, 2008
Chestertown, MD — The Washington College Department of Drama will present Wendy McLeod's "Juvenilia" in Middle Hall Basement on Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, at 8 p.m.
"Juvenilia" is an insightful skewering of the manners, morals, pretensions and hidden fears of modern-day college students. Bored of frat parties and second-run movies, a pair of dorm friends challenge each other to engineer a salacious encounter with the virtuous co-ed residing next door. Once their cool, ironic facades begin to slip, however, things don't go quite as planned.
The play premiered off-Broadway in 2003, earning a glowing review from Variety: "With the possible exception of politicians, college students are the most self-regarding creatures on earth. Wendy MacLeod nails that narcissism with a wry vengeance in this comic drama...."
The upcoming Washington College production of "Juvenilia," directed by Senior Bobby Bangert, features James Maguire, Alec Rosa, Maggie Farrell and Allison Valliant.
Admission to "Juvenilia" is free, but reservations are required; call 410/778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.
April 17, 2008
Chestertown, MD — April 25 might well be dubbed "Green Friday," as it is the date for a series of "George Goes Green" events at Washington College.
The Friday flurry begins with tree plantings on the campus lawn at 3:00 p.m., highlighted by the Arbor Day Tree Dedication at 3:30 p.m. The Virginia Gent Decker Arboretum, the Center for Environment & Society, the Student Environmental Alliance, and the Student Events Board will plant and dedicate a young descendant of the historic Wye Oak, the centuries-old landmark and nation's largest white oak tree until its tragic loss in a thunderstorm in 2002.
At 4:00 p.m., the Center for Environment & Society, the Department of Business Management, the Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of Information Technology will present "Green Business & Entrepreneurship" at Litrenta Lecture Hall. The symposium will feature key players in banking, eco-tourism, agriculture, real estate development, and advocacy. Panelists who integrate ecological and social values in their fields of work will explore sustainability in terms of business ventures, operations, minimizing risks, seizing economic opportunities, and ensuring continued growth. Admission is free and open to the public.
The momentum continues with "Green Drinks & Eco-movies" in the McLain Atrium from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Celebrate "George Goes Green" and the power of film as forces of environmental change. Network with eco-minded professionals, students, faculty, staff and alumni who support environmental awareness and social responsibility. Catch the premiere of "Driving Greener" by the Office of Information Technology's Brian Palmer—"see the car and meet the star," as the tagline goes—then enjoy the best of "60 Seconds or Less" student videos on "recycle-mania," energy conservation and water conservation.
Litrenta Lecture Hall and McLain Atrium are located in the John S. Toll Science Center. For more information, call 410/778-7295 or visit www.georgegoesgreen.com.
"George Goes Green" is a campaign for campus- and community sustainability. The name is a light-hearted reference to George Washington, the College's first benefactor, who was one of the first public figures to promote sustainable community practices even as he built a new nation and laid the foundation of the American Presidency.
April 17, 2008
Chestertown, MD — The Kent County Humane Society and Washington College's Center for Environment & Society will present the annual Mutt Strut, Pet Fair and Earth Day Celebration in downtown Chestertown on Saturday, April 26.
Festivities begin in Fountain Park at 9 a.m. with the 11th annual Mutt Strut, and continue with a variety of pet and Earth Day activities in Wilmer Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Mutt Strut is the spring fund-raiser for the local Humane Society's animal shelter, which hopes to generate enough revenue to start up a spay-and-neuter clinic. "Our goal this year is a hundred-dog march," said Humane Society Shelter Associate Courtney Phelps. "The most we've ever had is 67."
The dog parade culminates at Wilmer Park, the venue for the day-long celebration of the Earth and its animals. JoAnn Fairchild, CES program manager, said: "Our goal is for people from all walks of life to join together in praise of clean air, clean land and clean water. The Earth is our home. To protect the Earth is to protect our pets, our families, our future."
There is a $10 registration fee at Fountain Park for those who want to promenade with their dogs in the Mutt Strut. Admission to Pet Fair and Earth Day in Wilmer Park is free and open to the public.
Highlights will include live music, food concessions, eco-exhibits, pet tricks, canine competitions (the high jump contest, a limbo contest, and the dog/owner look-alike contest), a pet beauty contest, pet photos, pet safety and education, environmental education, recycling, t-shirt tie-dying, henna tattoos, a moon-bounce, and other fun offerings for kids of all ages.
In honor of April being Maryland Archaeology Month, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. the Washington College anthropology club and Lamda Alpha will demonstrate the use of the atlatl, a neolithic hunting spear. Making a special appearance as the life-like quarry will be "Murray the Mastodon," a 7-foot replica of a prehistoric pachyderm.
For more information, call 410/778-7295, or visit ces.washcoll.edu and www.kenthumane.org.
April 17, 2008
Chestertown, MD — The Washington College Department of Art and Art History will present the 2008 Student Art Exhibition, "Chronotopes: Where Space and Time Meet," at the Constance Stuart Larrabee Art Center from Tuesday, April 29, to Sunday, May 4, from 1 to 5 p.m. The opening reception, featuring award announcements, will be held on Wednesday, April 30, at 5:30 p.m.
The show's highlight is an exhibition of Senior Capstone Experiences by graduating art majors Joanna Baker, Josh Burkhart and Megan Travers.
Also on display are works by both advanced and beginning students of various studio divisions such as photography, drawing, ceramics, video art, painting and design.
The three young artists graduating this year have created interdisciplinary works that combine various forms of installation art: projected image, sound environment, sculptural object, found object and drawing.
Their work "provides us with inspiring, thought-provoking and highly creative ways of experiencing the world and their take on it," said Assistant Professor of Studio Art Monika Weiss, who curated the exhibition. "The three works can be thought of as linked via the motif of meditation on space and time, the inside and the outside of our personal membrane."
Joanna Baker's "Ethereal Illusions" is a three-dimensional installation combining drawing, found objects and fabrics. Flowing white tulle material surrounds a series of small-scale drawings of female dancers, their bodies fragmented and presented in states of suspension and flight, while a pile of pointe shoes rests trapped under sand bags. It's a meditation on dance and the dueling strengths and limitations of body movement.
Josh Burkhart's "Dimension of Thoughts" consists of a liquid crystal display hidden inside a five-feet tall white box, where two separate yet almost identical images are viewed as a synchronized stereogram projection. The stereoscopic double image and its accompanying musical composition represent the solitary world of memory and imagination—the inner world of the artist.
Megan Elaine Travers' "Your Revolution Starts Here?" is a three-dimensional landscape combining drawing and sculpture depicting parts of the Washington college campus. The work reconceptualizes the very notion of "landscape," imbuing it with undercurrents of the social landscape and the political landscape in addition to the mere physical landscape.
The 2008 Washington College Student Art Exhibition was coordinated and designed by Maria Taylor '09, majoring in studio art and psychology. Admission is free and open to public.
April 15, 2008
Chestertown, MD — The 56th season of the Washington College Concert Series concludes with a recital by harpist Elizabeth Hainen at the Norman James Theatre in William Smith Hall on Saturday, April 26, at 8 p.m.
Elizabeth Hainen has won international attention as one of today's foremost virtuoso harpists. Sought after as a soloist and chamber musician, she has been hailed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic for her high artistry and unique sound.
As both soloist and recitalist, Hainen has performed in distinguished concert halls on three continents, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Cultural Foundation of Spain in Madrid, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Tel Aviv Art Museum in Israel.
Hainen has released recordings on the Naxos and Eagen labels. She is the Principal Harpist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and teaches on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University.
Tickets ($15 for adults and $5 for youth and students) can be purchased at the door. For more information, call 410/778-7839.
April 14, 2008
