Washington College Panel Discusses Careers in Art

Chestertown, MD — The Washington College Department of Art and Art History, the Art History Club and the Center for Career Development will present "Art And Art History: Careers Within And Beyond The Field" at the Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.

Panelists who work in a variety of contexts will discuss their professional experiences and career options for students who have majored in Art and Art History. The panel will be moderated by Aileen Tsui, Assistant Professor of Art History at Washington College.

The panel will include:

• Robbi Behr, freelance illustrator/designer/independent publisher/printmaker, Chestertown
• Barbara Gordon, Associate Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
• Bradley Hower, partner, Insight Design LLC, St. Michaels
• Mark Lapointe, Principal and Architect at GWWO, Inc./Architects, Baltimore
• Donald McColl, Nancy L. Underwood Associate Professor of Art History and Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Washington College
• Kenneth Milton, Conservator and Director, Kenneth M. Milton Fine Arts and Conservation, Chestertown
• Monika Weiss, installation/intermedia artist and Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Washington College

Members of the Chestertown community and students who are not majors in the Department of Art and Art History, but may have interest in careers related to the visual arts, also are encouraged to attend this career panel.

October 30, 2008

What Is in the Mysterious Time Capsule at Washington College?

Chestertown, MD — A time capsule from the 1960s, discovered during the renovation of Washington College's Gibson Center for the Arts, will be opened during a special ceremony at the College's Martha Washington Square on Friday, November 7, at 4 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

The time capsule was placed in the original cornerstone of the Gibson Center in November 1967. Several prominent Washington College officials who were on hand for the original cornerstone-laying will be present at Friday's capsule-opening.

Martha Washington Square is located alongside the Gibson Center, where work has been underway since summer 2007 for the grand reopening of the facility in summer 2009. The Department of Drama will enjoy a completely renovated 440-seat proscenium theater, a brand-new 140-seat experimental theater, expanded rehearsal space, office space, classroom space and green-room space. The Department of Music will have its own 200-seat recital hall, better rehearsal space, more classrooms and individual rehearsal rooms, and better storage for instruments. The dance program will continue to rehearse in its present facility in the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center, but its performances will occur on the new stage of the large theater. Major events such as the George Washington Birthday Convocation, lectures by prominent speakers, admissions open houses, and the concert series will draw campus and community into the newly renovated spaces.

Not least, the upgraded facility will fill a long-standing void by constructing Washington College's first climate-controlled, secure art gallery, enabling theater- and concert-goers to enjoy visiting exhibits as well as the work of Washington College's own students and faculty.

So, just what is in the mysterious time capsule from the 1960s? On Friday, November 7, at 4 p.m., the world will know.

October 30, 2008

Long History of Jews in Germany to Be Presented in Washington College Lecture

Chestertown, MD — Washington College's Office of the Provost & Dean will present "In Search of Ashkenaz: A Bittersweet Journey to Jewish Roots in Germany," a lecture/slide presentation by Dr. Gary S. Schiff, Adjunct Professor of History, at the Casey Academic Center Forum on Tuesday, November 11, at 5 p.m.

The lecture is presented in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom of November 1938 in which nearly 100 German Jews were murdered and nearly 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. It was the prelude to the Holocaust.

"In Search of Ashkenaz" is based on Schiff's July 2008 trip to Jewish historical sites in Germany; these sites tell a story going back through long centuries. "Jews have been living in Germany, as far as we can document, for at least 1,700 years," said Schiff. "There's a much deeper historical narrative there than just the 12 tragic years from 1933 to 1945."

"Ashkenaz" is the Old Hebrew word that referred to the Rhineland in particular and German-speaking lands in general. Herein lay the origins of Yiddish, a unique Hebrew-German language hybrid that the Jews took with them as they later migrated to Eastern Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Today, an estimated 90 percent of the world's Jews are of Ashkenazi descent.

Schiff's journey into the Ashkenazi past included visits to medieval Jewish synagogues and cemeteries dating back to the 11th century, to the ornate 19th-century Rothschild Palace that now houses Frankfurt's Jewish Museum, to the recently restored New Synagogue in Berlin, to the modernistic Munich Synagogue, and to Berlin's Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. (Libeskind, the son of Holocaust survivors, also designed the forthcoming World Trade Center Memorial to be erected at 9/11's "Ground Zero" in Lower Manhattan.)

Schiff also paid a visit to a place where Ashkenaz's most tragic memories dwell: the Dachau concentration camp near Munich. "My biggest impression was how small it was, how crowded it must have been," he said. Originally built to hold 7,000 inmates, "When the Americans liberated it in 1945, there were 32,000 survivors there among all the dead."

While at the concentration camp site, Schiff encountered a group of young German Army officers. "I asked them why they were here. They said, 'This is part of our training.' I thought that was noteworthy, that they're taught to revisit this grim part of their past, so it won't be forgotten."

Schiff found himself before Dachau's crematorium alongside one of the officers. "I asked him what he thought of it," Schiff recalled. "And he looked me in the eye and just said, 'Horror... Horror.'"

Admission to "In Search of Ashkenaz: A Bittersweet Journey to Jewish Roots in Germany" is free and open to the public.

October 29, 2008

Green Business Seminar at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — The Center for Environment & Society at Washington College and Clean Air-Cool Planet are pleased to announce a business seminar: “Thinking Green: Energy, Carbon, and Your Bottom Line.” The event will be held Thursday, November 13, at 3 p.m. in the Litrenta Lecture Hall, in the Toll Science Building, on the campus of Washington College. Green drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served in the McLain Atrium immediately following the seminar.

The risks, costs and opportunities associated with energy and climate change issues are becoming increasingly important in both the public and private sectors. Learn more about strategies for colleges, businesses, and municipalities to go green, and why it is important; what the results of the national elections tell us about the future of a green economy; and, what actions we might expect from the federal government in meeting these economic and environmental challenges. Scheduled to talk are: Rafe Pomerance, President, Clean Air-Cool Planet; Jenn Orgolini, Sustainability Director, New Belgium Brewery; Erica Shingara, Environmental Services Director, Gaithersburg, MD; and Albert Allen, President of Educational Facilities, Sodexo.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Briggs Cunningham at 410.810.7174, or visit ces.washcoll.edu.

October 28, 2008

U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Discusses Latin American 'Politics of Poverty' at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — David Greenlee, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Bolivia, will present "The Politics of Poverty in Latin America: Bolivia as a Paradigm" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Tuesday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs.

Prior to assuming the Bolivian post in 2002, Ambassador Greenlee served as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay and as Special Coordinator for Haiti at the State Department. He also served as U.S. Delegate (Ambassador rank) and Chair of the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group, Political Advisor to the Army Chief of Staff, and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassies in Spain, Chile and Bolivia.

Ambassador Greenlee entered the Foreign Service in 1974. He has served as Rotational Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru; Watch Officer in the State Department Operations Center; Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia; Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel; International Relations Officer in the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs; Deputy Director in the Office of Egyptian Affairs; and as a student at the National War College. He has won Superior Honor and other State Department awards.

A native of White Plains, New York, Ambassador Greenlee received a B.A. from Yale University. He also studied at the Instituto Internacional in Madrid, Spain. He served in the Army from 1968 to 1971, receiving an honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant. His military decorations include the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Vietnam Service Medal, among other awards. Most significant to his current position, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia from 1965-67.

The Louis L. Goldstein Program in Public Affairs was established in 1990 to encourage students to enter public service by introducing them to exemplary leaders, both in and out of government. The Goldstein Program has hosted journalists, political activists, foreign policy analysts, diplomats, military commanders and government officials of both national and international stature.

The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, student participation in models and conferences, and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders experienced in developing public policy.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is located in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to "The Politics of Poverty in Latin America: Bolivia as a Paradigm" is free and open to the public.

October 27, 2008

Playwright J.T. Rogers Comes to Washington College as First-Ever Douglas Wallop Fellow

Playwriting Lecture Offered to Public

Chestertown, MD — New York-based dramatist J.T. Rogers, the first-ever recipient of Washington College's new Douglas Wallop Playwriting Fellowship, will present "Playwriting in Turbulent Times" at the Rose O'Neill Literary House on Wednesday, November 12, at 5:30 p.m.

The lecture, free and open to the public, comes during Rogers' residency at the College as its inaugural Douglas Wallop Fellow. During his stay, he also will join in on drama-class sessions and work one-on-one with drama and playwriting students.

The Douglas Wallop Playwriting Fellowship is jointly sponsored by the Rose O'Neill Literary House and the Washington College Department of Drama. The fellowship is named for the American novelist and playwright Douglas Wallop (1920-1985). He was the author of 13 works, the most famous being The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954), which went on to be adapted by Wallop and co-writer George Abbott into the Tony Award-winning musical "Damn Yankees." Wallop himself graduated from the University of Maryland and for many years lived on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

As for the first-ever Douglas Wallop Fellow, J.T. Rogers lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is a graduate of the professional actor-training program at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He was selected as one of 10 playwrights in the United States to receive an NEA/TCG Theatre Residency for 2004-2005, through which he was playwright in residence at the Salt Lake Acting Company in Salt Lake City.

Rogers's play "Madagascar" received the American Theatre Critics Association's 2004 M. Elizabeth Osborne Award and the 2005 Pinter Review Prize for Drama. It also was a finalist for the ATCA's Steinberg New Play Award and was performed at the New Play Festival in New York City in 2005. In 2004 Rogers was awarded a playwriting fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Rogers is the author of "White People," which had its world première at the Philadelphia Theatre Company and then received the L.A. Drama Critics Circle and John Barrymore Award nominations for Best Play of the Year.

Rogers's play "Seeing the Elephant" was nominated for the Kesserlring Prize for Best New American Play, and his "Murmuring in a Dead Tongue" was produced by New York City's Epic Rep, where he is a company member, in its 2003-2004 season.

Widely regarded as a dynamic, up-and-coming "playwright to watch," Rogers has had his works staged at the Williamstown Theater Festival, New Theatre of Coral Gables, Florida; New Actors Union Theatre (Moscow); Road Theatre (Los Angeles) and often at the Salt Lake Acting Company.

His most recent play, "The Overwhelming," chronicles an American family overseas confronting the harsh life-and-death realities of the Rwandan Genocide. "The Overwhelming" had its world première at London's Royal National Theatre in 2006 and went on to tour the UK.

Last year, Rogers received the prestigious Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award at the 2007 William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas.

For more information on Rogers's November 12 presentation, "Playwriting in Turbulent Times," call 410/778-7899 or visit lithouse.washcoll.edu.

October 27, 2008

Camel's Foot Found in Chestertown

Chestertown, MD — Some people call it camel's foot, squirrel foot, moccasin flower, nerve root, American valerian, Venus' shoes and whippoorwill shoes. But don't be fooled. They're all common names for Cypripedium: Lady's slipper orchids, and the plants are found in pockets as far north as the Arctic Circle in Alaska and occur as far south as the Himalayas in the Old World.

The pink lady's slipper, a particularly flamboyant orchid growing naturally right here in Chestertown, is the subject of a colorful lecture and slide show by Dr. Douglas E. Gill on Thursday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Litrenta Lecture Hall in the John S. Toll Science Building at Washington College.

Dr. Gill, professor of biology at the University of Maryland, College Park, has diligently followed the fates of 1,000 rare flowers for more than 30 years. His specialties include: ecology, tropical biology, conservation biology, population biology, evolutionary biology, fire ecology, ornithology and botany. Research interests include birds, protozoa, red-spotted newts, frogs and salamanders, parasites, plant genetics, Pink Lady-Slippers, orchids, fire, grassland restoration and Grasshopper Sparrows. He also serves as Scientific Director of the Chester River Field Research Center at Chino Farms in Chestertown.

"The Mysterious Biology of Orchids: The Case of the Pink Lady's Slipper" is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College. For more information, visit ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7161.

October 27, 2008