Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Harold Pinter's Political Plays Staged by the Riverside Players, April 27, 28

Chestertown, MD, April 24, 2007 — Washington College's Riverside Players present "Three Plays by Harold Pinter: 'The New World Order,' 'Precisely,' and 'One for the Road,'" directed by Erika Salomon, Friday, April 27, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 28, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the College's Middle Hall Theatre.

Consisting of three separate plays by Harold Pinter, the British playwright and 2005 recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, the evening commences with "The New World Order." Dark and intense, it centers on a blindfolded man held captive by two women who verbally torture him.

Next in the lineup is "Precisely," a conversation between two women working for the government who want to convince their country to engage in nuclear war. The show culminates with "One for the Road," a series of short interrogation scenes involving one interrogator and one family who vocally oppose their government.

"I fell in love with Harold Pinter's political pieces when I studied abroad at Hull University," Director Erika Salomon notes. "The picture Pinter paints is not a pretty one, but each play that I chose speaks a message that is imperative to today's society. These shows are not specific to any government, time period, or war. They can be any and every society and that was what was most important to me."

The three plays production stars senior Kyle Woerner; junior Rachel Holland; sophomores Hester Sachse and Aileen Brenner; and freshmen Jory Peele, Katie Skarwecki, and Jess Dugger. Admission is $2 for students, $3 for adults, and reservations are required. For reservations, e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu or for more information, please contact Erika Salomon at esalomon2@washcoll.edu.

Monday, April 23, 2007

WC Talent on Display in Second Annual Music Video Challenge

Chestertown, MD, April 23, 2007 — A fun time was had by all at the Washington College 2007 Music Video Challenge, hosted by the Multimedia Production Center (MPC) on April 19. With entries from nine teams consisting of dozens of actors, production crews and editors, this year's entries definitely raised the bar to a higher level.

In addition to encouraging a traditional approach, this year the MPC encouraged students to experiment and to consider using less traditional methods to gather their source video. Some students gathered public-domain footage from sources such as Archive.org, or even carefully selected clips from favorite movies.

Another team used a sequence of hundreds of photos they shot with a digital camera, and then carefully synchronized the images to the music to create a stop-motion animated video, with touches of traditional video. This approach allowed them to bring a sock to life, which left its owner's dorm room to explore the surrounding areas.

Judging was performed remotely earlier in the week by an international team of judges who are professionals in the video and film industry. Each judge scored the videos in four categories, giving a 1 through 5 score in each of the following categories:

  • Originality - Is the concept either original or an original approach to a traditional concept?
  • Videography - Is camera work smooth, well framed, focused, and well lit? If the person is using "found footage," they cannot get credit for the quality of the video, but they can get credit for locating and choosing appropriate footage.
  • Editing - Is the editing done well? Were appropriate clips selected to convey the message, and excess trimmed? Was timing accurate?
  • Effects - Does the use of any effects (created during production or post-production) add to the overall piece? Do titles appear readable and placed logically?

Award winning videos

First Place

Christina Izzo and Piper Owens, with their video titled "One Of These Mornings," took first place with a score of 18.83 out of 20. With three judges giving a perfect 20 out of 20 score, Izzo & Owens received glowing comments from judges: "Clever and creative, and funny too!" "I swear that sock had personality." "Charming and clearly a labor of love." "Wow! The planning that went into this!" and "Very witty, well paced, synced and edited." First prize was a Canon ZR500 MiniDV camcorder kit, which will help this team to participate in future video projects.

Second Place

Jesse Wolcott, with his video titled "Make Mine Freedom," took a close second place, just one point behind the lead team, with a score of 17.83 out of 20. His video was the only other to score a perfect 20 from one of the judges, and received such comments as, "Blown away! Impeccable production!" "BRILLIANT use of video segments—creative and clever," and "If I saw this on TV, I would be impressed, let alone in a student contest like this." Wolcott won a $50 gift card to B&H Photo Video.

Third Place

Corey Holland, with his video titled "I'll Bet My Girlfriend," took third place with a score of 15.83. Judges' comments included "Effectively captured a cool and goofy mood with this video," "The video paired with the music provided moments of great dramatic tension. Nicely done," and "Looking forward to WAC Zombies 2!" Holland won a $25 gift card to B&H Photo Video.

Rookie Award

The Rookie Award, going to the highest scoring entry from a student who has not previously entered one of the MPC Challenges, was awarded to Karen Ferguson, with her video titled "Sacrifice of War." Judges' comments included "Powerful!" "The music moved very well with the film," and "Solid. Clear message underscored by dramatic and sometimes gory video footage." Graciously donated by Apple, the Rookie Award prize was a $50 iTunes card.

Al Fresco Afternoon Theater with WC Drama Department's Dancing at Lughnasa, April 27, 28

Chestertown, MD, April 23, 2007 — Experience theater al fresco with the Washington College Drama Department's presentation of an excerpt from Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel, directed by Professor Polly Sommerfeld, Friday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 28, at noon, at the library terrace ramp in front of the College's West Hall.

Inspired by the memories of the playwright, Dancing at Lughnasa recalls the lives of the Mundy family living in a poor, Irish village during the Autumn of 1936. Through the eyes of Michael, a seven-year-old at the time of the telling, the lives of his mother, Christina, and her four sisters—Maggie, Agnes, Rose, and Kate—unfold on the eve of the annual Festival of Lughnasa, a traditional Celtic harvest festival.

Featuring an ensemble cast of seniors Alaina Anderson, Sarah Byrne, Val Larson, Keighty McLallen, Greg Schaefer, and Molly Weeks, the Washington College vignette charmingly portrays the power of family, music, and memory.

Admission to the show is free, and audience members are invited to bring blankets or chairs, as they will be seated on the College's Campus Green. In the event of rain, the show will be performed in Norman James Theatre. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Annual Student Art Exhibition, 'Materiality and Meaning,' Opens April 20, Runs Through April 28

Chestertown, MD, April 20, 2007 — Washington College's Annual Student Art Exhibition will be held in the Constance Stuart Larrabee Art Center and the Rose O'Neill Literary House from April 21 to 28, 1 to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibition kicks off with an opening reception in the Larrabee Art Center on Friday, April 20, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Curated by Monika Weiss, Assistant Professor of Studio Art, "Materiality and Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Exhibition of Studio Art Senior Capstone Experiences" showcases works by Emily Bisulca, Amanda Finley Boutwell, Aimée Kidd, Anna Lodwick, Laura Nace, Kaitlyn Ruitenberg, Ali Sutton, Lindsey Webster, Emily Willie and Joy Woppert "Materiality and Meaning" offers a glimpse into the respective practices of these 10 young women artists graduating this year in Studio Art from Washington College. "While being simply that, a compilation of Senior Capstone Experiences works for the 2006-2007 academic year, I also hope that this exhibition conveys a thematically coherent and enticing curatorial vision," said Dr. Weiss.

"The assumed conceptual opposition between the two notions explored throughout 'Materiality and Meaning' inspired the show's title: the material and the physical on the one hand, and the meaning or idea on the other.

"How do they coexist in contemporary artistic practices? More importantly, how do they coexist in the works by these 10 young artists? To understand the multiple and overlapping connections, it is also important to remember that these artists are women, creating their works in the time of the second and third waves of post-feminism, certainly acknowledging their gender implications while at the same time striving to overcome any simplifying categorizations."

Emily Bisulca has developed a series of small-scale paintings that take a new approach to portraiture via a feminist glimpse into enlarged fragments of famous European paintings, articulating and contextualizing feminine representations in the classical tradition.

Amanda Boutwell invites viewers to share her private recollections of specific places in the form of painted vignettes/landscapes that seem both utterly familiar and foreign, accompanied by site-specific sounds recorded by the artist.

Language and its visual form as both powerfully meaningful and abstract is presented as a series of images and choreography of signs performed by the artist's family members and friends in Aimée Kidd's multi-media installation.

Playing with ambiguity of form and material, Anna Lodwick proposes an investigation of material structure in her installation built from colored fabrics as abstract and repetitive sculptures.

Portraiture as deconstruction of meaning inspired Laura Nace, who built an interactive and ever-changing sculptural environment where visitors are welcome to take part in altering her work.

For Kaitlyn Ruitenberg an abandoned barn, situated in a local landscape, becomes a site of meditation on the relationship between the artist's body and architecture, as well as the investigation of photography as a means to capture the ephemeral moment.

Exploring the theme of the degradation and destruction of the natural environment, Ali Sutton works with sensuous and organic objects that deal with the notion of collapse and change both aesthetically and ethically.

Investigating change in the development of an organism and questioning humankind's ability to alter life, Lindsey Webster based her watercolor installation on scientific research of Zebrafish embryos.

Memory and its traumatic, transient and manipulable relationship with image-making processes are the subject of Emily Willie's digitally altered family images.

Visual memory also is investigated by Joy Woppert, whose intimate etchings and color prints demonstrate the tension between the arguably universal quality of architecture and the fragmented and remote recollections of things past in her found photography.

The exhibition is accompanied by "Open Studios," a selection of works by students of diverse divisions—Beginning Drawing, Advanced Painting, Contemporary Practices and Methods in Studio Art, Digital Imaging, Ceramics and Printmaking—in the Department of Art, on view at the Constance Stuart Larrabee Art Center. An outdoor sculptural installation by Sara Simonsen is on view in the backyard of the Rose O'Neill Literary House.

"I am exceedingly grateful to my colleagues teaching studio art—Robbi Behr, Marilee Schumann and Andrew Wapinski—for their input in overseeing various aspects of the production of the senior theses as well as in making this exhibition possible," said Dr. Weiss.

"I am also very grateful to my colleagues in art history—Donald McColl and Aileen Tsui—for their advice and consultation; and to Josh Shenk, director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House, for hosting one of the works in the exhibition. Additional thanks go to Amanda Boutwell for her assistance in preparing and installing the exhibition."

Monday, April 16, 2007

Psyches Analyzed in WC Drama Department's Psychopathia Sexualis, April 20, 21

Chestertown, MD, April 16, 2007 — Washington College's Drama Department will presentPsychopathia Sexualis, a senior thesis directed by Eric Schiffer, written by John Patrick Shanley, on Friday, April 20, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, April 21, at 4 p.m., in the basement of the College's Reid Hall.

Packed with punchy dialogue and twists of plot, the play explores the psyche of Arthur, an obscure painter with a rather odd fetish; he must have his father's old argyle socks around him or he cannot make love. Coached by his psychiatrist Dr. Block, Arthur tries to overcome his obsession before his wedding to Lucille, a witty, Texan belle, but, to Arthur's shock, his psychoanalyst steals the socks just days before the big event.

Beneath the humor and fun, Psychopathia Sexualis raises issues about love, friendship, and the help or harm of psychiatry. "I chose this play because it shows that everyone has some type of neurosis," says Director Eric Schiffer, "but it doesn't mean that things can't be worked out. It's a play about real issues, and I've loved seeing it evolve."

Psychopathia Sexualis stars freshman Lauren Guy, junior Kwadwo Frimpong, freshman Tony Reisinger, senior Bob Jones, and Laura O Sullivan. Admission is free, but reservations are required. For show information, call 410-778-7835 or e-mail drama_tickets@washcoll.edu.

Message from President Tipson

Chestertown, MD, April 16, 2007

The terrible news of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University has stunned all of us here at Washington College. Our profoundest sympathies go out to our friends and colleagues at Virginia Tech, and our prayers are with the victims and their families.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Washington College Announces Summer 2007 Graduate Courses in English, History and Psychology

Chestertown, MD, April 13, 2007 — Students, teachers and mental healthcare professionals are invited to register for Summer 2007 graduate courses at Washington College. The College offers Master of Arts degrees in English, History and Psychology that can help to meet requirements for advanced professional certifications. The Summer 2007 terms runs from June 4 to July 26. The following courses will be offered:

  • ENG 516-10 Chaucer, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
  • ENG 598-10 The Lyric Imagination, MW, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
  • HIS 598-10 The Age of Discovery: 1400-1650, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
  • HIS 598-11 Architects of Independence, Sculptors of a Nation, MW, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
  • PSY 598-10 SpTp: Family Counseling, TTH, 7:00-9:30 p.m.

All Summer Semester classes will be held on Washington College's Chestertown campus. Students must pre-register by May 15 to guarantee texts. Students may contact the Washington College bookstore in person or at http://washcoll.bncollege.com to place an order or check on books required for summer study. Graduate tuition is $875 per course plus a non-refundable course registration fee of $75. A late registration fee of $150 per course will be assessed to students who register after the first week of classes. Pre-registration forms will be accepted at the Registrar's Office in person, by mail, by phone at 410-778-7299, or by fax at 410-810-7159.

For complete information on Washington College's graduate course offerings, including detailed course descriptions and registration forms, visit http://grad.washcoll.edu, or contact the Registrar's Office, Washington College, 300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, MD 21620, phone 410-778-7299.

Mysteries of Autism Explored, April 19

Chestertown, MD, April 13, 2007 — The Daniel Z. Gibson - John A. Wagner Visitor Fund, the Department of Psychology, and the Washington College Chapter of Sigma Xi will present "Autistic Spectrum Disorders: The Endless Mystery & National Epidemic," a lecture by Griff Doyle, Ph.D., at Litrenta Lecture Hall on Thursday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m.

For reasons that aren't well understood, accelerating numbers of children are now born with autism, Asperger's disorder and other neurologically based processing problems that generate a cascade of family difficulties.

Early diagnosis is critical, and parents are the major determinants of the child's development over time. Providing parents the support they need to interact therapeutically with a child who doesn't respond with the usual gazes, smiles, play and laughter is critical.

A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Doyle teaches in the Infant Mental Health Postgraduate Program at the Washington (D.C.) School of Psychiatry, and the Summer Training Institute of the Interdisciplinary Council of Developmental & Learning Disorders.

Litrenta Lecture Hall is in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission to "Autistic Spectrum Disorders: The Endless Mystery & National Epidemic" is free and open to the public.

Rachel Kousser Explores Roman Art, Iconoclasm, April 18

Chestertown, MD, April 13, 2007 — The Washington College Department of Art will present "Destroying the Power of Images in the Late Roman Empire," a lecture by Dr. Rachel Kousser, in the Casey Academic Center Forum on Wednesday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m.

Dr. Kousser, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, specializes in Greek art and its reception in imperial Rome.

Her April 18 talk concerns the destruction of images in Roman Germany. In the second to early third centuries A.D., this frontier province was a prosperous and stable region; it was also one of the areas of the Latin West most quickly and thoroughly altered by Roman imperial occupation, as its abundant material culture testifies.

While the monuments of Roman Germany have been documented extensively, few scholars have commented upon their frequent discovery within destruction contexts. "Destroying the Power of Images in the Late Roman Empire" focuses on close visual analysis of these damaged objects and investigation of their archaeological settings; its aim is plausibly to reconstruct when, why and by whom the objects were attacked. The thesis is that the images were attacked, re-erected and destroyed in response to oscillations of power on the Roman Empire's borders.

Dr. Kousser has published articles on the Venus de Milo and the representation of victory on Trajan's Column. Her forthcoming book, Hellenistic and Roman Ideal Sculpture: The Allure of the Classical, will be published next year by Cambridge University Press. The material she is presenting at Wednesday's lecture is part of a new research project on iconoclasm in the ancient world.

Admission to "Destroying the Power of Images in the Late Roman Empire" is free and open to the public.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Celebrate Earth Day with Washington College, April 21

Chestertown, MD, April 12, 2007 — Washington College's Service Council and the Student Environmental Alliance (SEA) invite the public to celebrate Earth Day at Wilmer Park on Saturday, April 21, from noon to 5 p.m.

This year's Earth Day festivities will feature food, live music, tie-dying, henna, bookbinding, mural painting, trash sculptures, Washington College club activities, displays by area environmental organizations and much more.

Four bands will perform throughout the afternoon: Spartan Hound, the Big Picture, Hot Rock and the Heat Strokes, and Chester River Runoff.

Bay Organics—whose president, Lonnie Heflin, gave an environmental lecture at Washington College in February—has donated Earth Day t-shirts to the Student Environmental Alliance as a way for the SEA to raise funds for its ongoing initiatives.

Held each April, Earth Day has become a growing tradition at Washington College, involving the vast majority of the College's clubs, organizations and environmental groups.

This year's Earth Day celebration caps off a week's worth of environmentally themed events at Washington College—including a National Wildlife Federation national broadcast on Wednesday, April 18. Featuring a special message from Al Gore and an interactive discussion with campus environmental leaders, the broadcast will be presented in the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center seminar room from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Admission to Wednesday's presentation and Saturday's Earth Day celebration is free and open to the public.

Culture Night 2007: Sights, Sounds and Tastes from around the World, April 21

Chestertown, MD, April 12, 2007 — It's a voyage around the world without ever leaving Chestertown, when Washington College's International Relations Club presents its annual Culture Night on Saturday, April 21, from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The program celebrates global diversity with an International Buffet Dinner in the back gym of the Cain Athletic Center from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and the Cultural Show and Fashion Show in Norman James Theatre from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Attendees will whet their appetites with a deliciously eclectic cornucopia of traditional dishes from Germany, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Korea, Japan, China, Turkey, Trinidad, Argentina and Wales.

A dazzling array of music, dance and fashion from all corners of the globe follows in Norman James Theatre, featuring traditional dances of Japan, Korea and Ireland; Italian, Welsh and Turkish poetry; and Irish, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian and Afro-Cuban music. Fashions from Japan, Korea, Morocco, Turkey, China and Ghana will be on view.

Admission to Culture Night 2007 is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-778-7762.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Washington College Dance Company Presents Spring Concert

Chestertown, MD, April 10, 2007 — The Washington College Dance Company, under the direction of Dr. Karen L. Smith, will present its annual Spring Dance Concert at the College's Cain Athletic Center, Thursday through Saturday, April 19-21. The concert, which will kick off the beginning of National Dance Week, commences with a special matinee for local schoolchildren on Thursday, April 19, at 1:15 p.m. Subsequent performances are Friday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 21, at 1 p.m.

This year's program will feature a variety of dance styles—classical and contemporary ballet, modern dance, jazz, hip hop and lyrical, as well as Nepali and Japanese dance—performed by more than 30 students.

Ensemble dances include "Get Lost," choreographed by Hilary Sama; "Welcome to the Dollhouse," "Woman" and "Rhythm Management," choreographed by Lindsay Merhige; "Breathe Me" and "Alone," choreographed by Lindsey Webster; "It's Funtastic!" choreographed by Alicia Moore; "Caribbean Blue" and "Alegria," choreographed by Barbara Harrington and Laura Connelly; "Tikuli Hai Mero," choreographed by Shrijana Puri; "Next to You" and "Dare You to Move," choreographed by Lauren Thomas; "Rock Stars" and "SexyBack," choreographed by Katie Himmelberger; and "So-Ran Bushi," a traditional Japanese dance.

The show also will feature a dance from the repertoire of Sho' Troupe, Washington College's dance team. Titled "Break It Off," it is choreographed by Lindsay Merhige and Barbara Harrington.

Nine solos and duets will be performed under the choreography of Diane Swenson, Gillian Bourassa, Jenn German, Karen Lynn Smith, Barbara Harrington, Lindsay Merhige, Amanda Boutwell, Lindsey Webster and Lauren Thomas.

Performers in the concert are seniors Amanda Boutwell, Rachel Calhoun, Lindsay Merhige, Carly Mitchell, Alicia Moore, Rie Nakayama, Yuki Nishida, Hilary Sama, Lauren Stranahan, Lindsey Webster; juniors Carimanda Baynard, Laura Connelly, Gunther DuHoffman, Sarah Dulle, Jenn German, Barbara Harrington, Katie Himmelberger, Tsubasa Iwai, Laura Newman, Sarah Pierson, Diane Swenson, Kana Takio, Masayuki Terashima and Kanae Tokunaga; sophomores Melissa Ackermann, Gillian Bourassa, Maoko Ishikawa, Kisato Takenaka and Lauren Thomas; and freshmen Sanae Aoyagi, Kathy Bands, Riley Carbonneau, Jackie Garcia, Stacey Helmer, Nicole Hovermale, Audrey Kossman, Becky Lang, Chika Miyata, Katie Rivara, Ayaka Sugimoto and Waka Tomita.

The Spring Dance Concert will feature a raffle for a chance to win a "Night at the Movies" or an Eastern Shore-themed basket filled with goodies. Tickets for the raffle cost $1 and can be purchased during all three performances. The winners will be drawn at the end of the Saturday performance.

The Spring Dance Concert is open to the public; a $1 donation is welcomed. For more information, call 410-778-7237.

One Earth, One Climate—Pedal with a Purpose, April 14

Chestertown, MD, April 10, 2007 — If you thought April 14 was going to be just another Saturday at the park, you have another thing coming. On this spring day, Kent Countians get a chance to "step up" their commitment to the earth and rally for environmental action with millions of others across America.

Step It Up is a national movement to raise awareness of the need to stop global warming pollution. The 2007 campaign is comprised of over 1000 events in 50 states, all on April 14. It encourages "actions" in as many places as possible—along coastal wetlands, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps. From Maine to Hawaii, people from all walks of life are organizing events to send a message urging Congress to cut carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2050. Groups and individuals all agree the time has come for America to reduce carbon emissions before it is too late.

As part of Step it Up 2007, the Center for the Environment and Society (CES) at Washington College is sponsoring "Pedal with a Purpose" on April 14. This event helps to create a bike presence in our community and to promote bicycle transportation in and around Kent County.

Participants will meet for a Step-It-Up photo at 9:00 a.m. at the Town Dock on the Chester River and then breakaway for rides to destinations of their own choosing. Or Join CES for a scenic 9-mile loop that ends at the Chestertown Farmers Market about one hour later. Come with friends. Meet new riders. Pedal with a purpose.

April 14 is expected to be the largest day of citizen action focusing on global warming pollution in our nation's history. As Step it Up organizer and founder Bill McKibben says, "Stopping global warming will catalyze a new clean energy revolution which will benefit people across the globe. We must—and we can—protect the long-term health of the environment." Visit www.stepitup2007.org for information on this nationwide movement.

For information on your local event, please contact 410-778-7295. The Center for the Environment and Society at Washington College supports interdisciplinary research and education, exemplary stewardship of natural and cultural resources, and the integration of ecological and social values.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Metropolitan Museum of Art Curator Explores 'History in Houses,' April 19

Chestertown, MD, April 6, 2007 — One of the leading luminaries at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will discuss one of America's great historic houses, when the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Department of Art present "History in Houses: The Cornelius Wynkoop House, 1767-2007." Gary Tinterow, Engelhard Curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will deliver the lecture at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, April 19, at 4:30 p.m.

Tinterow bought the remarkably well preserved Hudson Valley house in 1992. Since then, he has devoted considerable time to researching the life of the original builder, a wealthy young man named Cornelius Evert Wynkoop, in an attempt to understand the function of the house and its context in the community during the last quarter of the 18th century.

Tinterow will convey the fruits of his research with an illustrated lecture that will examine the house in detail and relate it to other examples of 18th-century domestic architecture in New York's Hudson Valley.

As Engelhard Curator, Tinterow is in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of 19th-Century, Modern and Contemporary Art. He has organized many acclaimed exhibitions that have traveled to major museums around the world; his exhibitions rank among the best-attended shows ever mounted at the Metropolitan. He conceived and executed the reorganization of the highly acclaimed 19th-Century European Paintings Galleries and was responsible for the expansion of the galleries for 19th- and early 20th-century painting. He also has worked to acquire several significant paintings for the Metropolitan's collections.

In 2001 Tinterow co-founded the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), created to support the role of curators in shaping the mission of art museums in North America.

Author of numerous scholarly articles, Tinterow has lectured at museums around the world and is the recipient of many professional awards and honors, including France's Légion d'Honneur, which he received in 2000.

Educated at Brandeis and Harvard, Tinterow has been curator and catalogue author of an impressive series of international exhibitions, including "Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting," "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," "The Origins of Impressionism" and "The Private Collection of Edgar Degas."

Since acquiring Wynkoop House, Tinterow has become a leading authority on the property—one of salient Early American architectural/historical significance.

Wynkoop House, the finest gambrel-roofed stone house of the Colonial Period extant in New York State, was built for Cornelius Evert Wynkoop in 1767. The house epitomizes the Dutch Colonial style that would become so widely imitated in the 20th century.

When it was built, Wynkoop House was by far the largest house in Marbletown and the area's chief landmark.

On November 15, 1782, General George Washington favored Wynkoop House with a visit. According to tradition, Washington slept in the bedroom on the southwest corner of the second floor.

Admission to "History in Houses: The Cornelius Wynkoop House, 1767-2007" is free and open to the public. This is the first in an occasional series of "History in Houses" lectures to be presented by the C.V. Starr Center.

Established in 2000 with a grant from the New York-based Starr Foundation, the C.V. Starr Center draws on the special historical strengths of Washington College and colonial Chestertown to explore the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape American culture, through innovative educational programs, scholarship and public outreach. In addition to the Presidential Fellows Program, the Starr Center also offers a range of special programs and extracurricular opportunities to Washington College students, including the Comegys Bight Fellowships and Frederick Douglass Fellowships, as well as weekend road trips and summer programs. For more information, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Laughs along the Chester: Lit House, Washington College Stage First-ever Humor and Satire Festival

Chestertown, MD, April 5, 2007 — In grim and uncertain times, few gifts are more precious than a sense of humor. In politically contentious times, few arts are more relevant than the art of satire. It's telling, then, that humor and satire are in full flourish these days.

In celebration of such, the Rose O'Neill Literary Houseat Washington College is presenting its first-ever Humor and Satire Festival, a multi-layered event featuring nationally prominent wits, scribes, newsmen and parodists. From improv storytelling to panel discussions to performance art, the Humor and Satire Festival offers a smorgasbord of the comedic, the ironic and the literary at various Chestertown venues, April 11-14.

Things kick off with homegrown campus talent on Wednesday, April 11, as Washington College's student wits present "Waiting for McInerny, Meeting the Fonz, Dancing With Mrs. Gillin, and Other Excursions in Humor and Satire" in the Rose O'Neill Literary House at 4:30 p.m. The presentation features readings by Lindsay Bergman, Rae Crabtree, Liam Daley, Michael McGrath, Kyndell Rainer, Supreet Sidhu and Erin Thorp. Admission is free and open to the public.

Do you get your daily news-feed from "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" on PBS or from "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central? The fault-line where journalism collides with satire is the topic for a forum that combines the Humor and Satire Festival with Washington College's annual Harwood Colloquy. Moderated by John Harwood, columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Washington bureau chief of CNBC, "Which One Is 'Fake' News?" will be presented in the College's Hynson Lounge on Thursday, April 12, at 7 p.m. Correspondents from the satirical media—including Joe Garden, staff writer for The Onion—will match wits and experiences with "real" journalists, including Jim Rutenberg, political reporter for The New York Times. Considering that the parody articles in The Onion are so dead-on accurate in tone that they've occasionally been mistaken for true news stories (see www.theonion.com for examples), it should be a dynamic discussion.

"Which One is 'Fake' News?" is being co-presented by the Rose O'Neill Literary House, the Harwood Lecture Series in American Journalism and the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs. Admission is free and open to the public.

On Friday, April 13, the latest pop-phenomenon variation on the ancient art of storytelling makes its area debut. The Wall Street Journal called it "New York's hottest and hippest literary ticket." It's known as "the Moth," a standup narrative-performance gathering that, since it was started in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, has become all the rage in New York, drawing to the stage everyone from movie stars to everyday creative souls with stories to tell. "The performances are enthralling, funny and moving, with a typical New York intensity," reported the London Times. "These narrative sessions are fast becoming an institution," noted the New York Times.

The Moth grew from a New York hit to a national hit, touring the country—its arrival at Chestertown's Prince Theatre on April 13 comes as part of the Humor and Satire Festival. "Crack-Up: Stories of Comedies & Calamities" begins at 7:30 p.m. Novelist/essayist Jonathan Ames, who performs frequently as a storyteller and comedian and has been a recurring guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman," will play host, and the show will feature storytelling by Daryll "DMC" McDaniels (of the pioneering rap outfit Run-DMC) and others. Admission is free for Washington College students, faculty and staff, but reservations are required; call 410/810-5768. For the general public, tickets are available by calling the Prince Theatre at 410/810-2060.

The festivities continue on Saturday, April 14, beginning with a presentation by writer George Saunders on "The Art of Satire" in the Casey Academic Center Forum at 2 p.m.Entertainment Weekly has called Saunders one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment. Thomas Pynchon described Saunders as "an astoundingly tuned voice—graceful, dark, authentic and funny—telling just the kinds of stories we need to get us through these times."

Vince Passaro recently wrote in The Nation, "If you are a new reader of George Saunders, the first thing you ought to know is that Saunders is the funniest writer in America, more likely to make you laugh in public, if that's where you're reading his books, than any writer since P.G. Wodehouse. The competition—David Sedaris, Tom Wolfe, Christopher Buckley— isn't even close."

A faculty member at Syracuse University and a contributor to The New Yorker, Harper's andGQ, Saunders has won four national magazine awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. His books include Civilwarland in Bad Decline, Pastoraliaand, most recently, In Persuasion Nation. Saunders' appearance is made possible with funds from the Maryland Humanities Council, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Also on April 14, performance artist Pat Oleszko, whose work takes an outrageous spin on aspects of the feminine, will present "Hijinks" at the College's Martha Washington Square at 3:15 p.m. The New York Times Magazine calls Oleszko "a founding force majeure in performance art and video ... a raw comic vision."

"The Comic Persuasion in Memoir" will be presented in the Rose O'Neill Literary House at 4:15 p.m. The discussion will feature Dan Kennedy and Sarah Payne Stuart. Kennedy, the author of Loser Goes First: My Thirtysomething Years of Dumb Luck and Minor Humiliation, is editor of Reallysmalltalk.com and a frequent contributor at McSweeney's. Kennedy's second book, Rock On, a "corporate rock comedy," is due in early 2008.

Sarah Payne Stuart is the author of the acclaimed novels Men in Trouble and The Year Roger Wasn't Well, and the comic memoir My First Cousin Once Removed: Money, Madness, and the Family of Robert Lowell. The New York Times Book Review called My First Cousin Once Removed a "story with so much intelligence, humor and affection brought to bear that even the monsters it occasionally offers up are appealing."

"The Comic Persuasion in Poetry and Fiction" follows at 6 p.m., featuring poet Jason Schneiderman and author Jonathan Ames (fresh from hosting the previous night's "Crack-Up"). Schneiderman's poems have appeared in Tin House, Grand Street and Best American Poetry 2005, among other magazines and anthologies. The poet Tom Sleigh called the poems in Schneiderman's first collection, Sublimation Point, "grave, sweetly questioning, often irreverently funny."

Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man and Wake Up, Sir! as well as the essay collections What's Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life and I Love You More Than You Know. He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for the New York Press.

Immediately following the Schneiderman-Ames presentation, the 2007 Humor and Satire Festival will close with a wrap party at the Rose O'Neill Literary House, replete with food, beverages and clown noses.

All of April 14's Festival events are free and open to the public.

Research Scientist Discusses Developmental Brain Disorders, April 11

Chestertown, MD, April 5, 2007 — Dr. Mary E. Blue, a research scientist with the Kennedy Krieger Institute, will discuss "Modeling Developmental Brain Disorders" at Washington College's Litrenta Lecture Hall on Wednesday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m.

In addition to her research role at Kennedy Krieger, Dr. Blue is an associate professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. She received her B.A. cum laude in biology and art from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1977. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas in 1982.

Dr. Blue continued her career as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and has been a research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute since 1989.

The research in Dr. Blue's lab examines the roles neurotransmitters play as trophic agents in cortical development and plasticity. The work involves the study of specific developmental disorders such as Down syndrome, autism and Rett syndrome.

Dr. Blue's lecture is being presented by the Daniel Z. Gibson-John A. Wagner Fund, the Department of Psychology and the Washington College chapter of Sigma Xi. Litrenta Lecture Hall is in the John S. Toll Science Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

From L.A. To WC: Poet Jim Natal Presents Reading, April 5

Chestertown, MD, April 3, 2007 — California-based poet Jim Natal will present a reading in the Sophie Kerr Room at Washington College's Miller Library on Thursday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m.

Natal, a Chicago native who came to Los Angeles by way of Santa Fe, is one of Southern California's most active poetry presenters. He curated and hosted the Poem.X and Rose Café poetry series in Santa Monica for more than 10 years and helped establish and coordinate Antioch University's multi-genre L.A. Writers Series. He also runs and teaches poetry workshops, including the Plein Air Poetry outdoor writing workshops coordinated through Joshua Tree National Park.

Natal's first full-length collection, In the Bee Trees (Archer Books, 2000), was a finalist for the Pen Center USA and Publishers' Marketing Association Ben Franklin Awards. A second collection, Talking Back to the Rocks, was published by Archer Books in 2003.

His poetry has been published, reviewed or is forthcoming in Bellingham Review, Runes, Pool, Reed, The Paterson Literary Review, Poetry International andThe Los Angeles Review, among other journals.

Natal's work also has appeared in many anthologies: Chance of a Ghost, Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies, Blue Arc, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer's Disease, Open Windows, So Luminous the Wildflowers, What Have You Lost?and Fresh Water.

Along with readings at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey and a number of universities, Natal has been a featured poet at dozens of California venues, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Writers in Focus series, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and the Santa Barbara, Long Beach and San Luis Obispo Poetry Festivals.

A creative executive for the National Football League's Publishing Division for 25 years, Natal received his M.F.A. in creative writing from Antioch University in 2005. With his wife, graphic designer and book artist Tania Baban, he founded Conflux Press in 2004, specializing in custom trade books and handmade chapbooks, art books and broadsides. Along with private poetry workshops, he teaches creative writing at New Roads Middle School in Santa Monica.

Natal's April 5 reading at Washington College is presented by the Sophie Kerr Committee. Admission is free and open to the public; a booksigning will follow.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Globalization from a Central American Perspective, April 10

Chestertown, MD, April 3, 2007 — Central American human-rights activist Salvador Sanabria will discuss "Globalization from Below: The Salvadoran Transnational Experience" at Washington College's Hynson Lounge on Tuesday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m.

Sanabria has worked tirelessly to defend the civil and human rights of Central Americans at home and abroad. In 1981 he helped found El Rescate, the first institution created to serve Central American refugees fleeing from the civil war in the region.

Known worldwide, the organization has a tradition of fighting for the civil, human and economic rights of Latin American immigrants in the United States. Since its creation El Rescate has provided legal, social and economic services to more than 250,000 people.

El Rescate's Index to Accountability, a database linking military officers to human-rights violations committed during the war, was used by the United Nations Ad Hoc and Truth Commissions in their deliberations on cleansing the Salvadoran military.

El Rescate's transnational program facilitated the creation of the International Convention of Salvadorans in the World, which is currently leading the fight for the right of the Salvadoran diaspora to cast absentee ballots in elections in their homeland.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council recently declared March 30, 2007, as "The Day of El Rescate" in recognition of the organization's 25 years of service. (For more information, visit www.elrescate.org.)

Salvador Sanabria, who in addition to being an El Rescate founding member is also its current executive director, was trained by the Harvard Negotiation Project for his work as a member of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) Political and Diplomatic Commission. He was a part of the FMLN's negotiating team that signed the 1992 peace accords.

After the accords, Sanabria worked on public policies and local development projects in El Salvador through the Central American Foundation for Human Sustainable Development (FUCAD).

He returned to Los Angeles in 2001 to develop a cooperation program between the North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, El Rescate and FUCAD.

Sanabria also is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Central American Round Table Inc., a group dedicated to defending the civil and human rights of Central Americans in the United States.

"Globalization from Below" is being presented at Washington College by the Goldstein Program in Public Affairs. Hynson Lounge is located in Hodson Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410-778-7116.

Monday, April 2, 2007

University of Virginia's Paul Barolsky Discusses Ovid and Art, April 12

Chestertown, MD, April 2, 2007 — Paul Barolsky, Commonwealth Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia, will discuss "Ovid's Metamorphoses and the History of Art" at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, April 12, at 4:30 p.m.

Dr. Barolsky's appearance is being sponsored by the Janson-La Palme Annual Distinguished Lecture in European Art History.

Dr. Barolsky has been teaching at the University of Virginia since 1969, mostly courses on various aspects of Italian Renaissance art and literature. A Harvard Ph.D., his books include Michelangelo's Nose, Why Mona Lisa Smiles and Infinite Jest. His most recent book is Michelangelo and the Finger of God. In 1988 he received the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize for his book Walter Pater's Renaissance.

Dr. Barolsky was a 2005 Resident Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and a Getty Research Institute Visiting Scholar in 2000 and 2003. He was a 1994-1995 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1990-1991. He was a Villa I Tatti Visiting Professor in 1987, 1991 and 1995, and garnered a Villa I Tatti Fellowship in 1981. While still at Harvard, he received a Fulbright Grant for study in Rome.

Regarding the topic of his April 12 lecture, "I know of no work of literature more wonderful than Metamorphoses," Dr. Barolsky wrote in Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. "Even those who have never read Ovid or have read but fragments of his poem are familiar with many of his stories: Apollo and Daphne, Echo and Narcissus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Icarus and Daedalus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Venus and Adonis. Ovid's book may be popular but it is also radically searching: it is about the causes of things, about how birds, beasts, trees, flowers, and rocks came to be, a book about why things are the way they are....

"When we read Ovid, we become part of a wide community, a community that embraces artists of various types in the modern European tradition who have responded toMetamorphoses—from the authors who forged the Roman de la Rose to the poets of our own day inspired by the Augustan bard. If Ovid has been read by great artists, he is also read by those who like a good story, a story told well, a story that gives pleasure. In that respect, Ovid belongs to everybody."

The Janson-La Palme Annual Distinguished Lecture in European Art History is presented by the Washington College Department of Art. Admission is free and open to the public.