Lawrence University News

Rolf Westphal 1945-2016: A “poet” whose medium was steel

Rolf-Westphal_newsblog
Rolf Westphal (center) spent six years as Lawrence’s first Frederick R. Layton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Studio Art.

Rolf Westphal, Lawrence University’s first Frederick R. Layton Distinguished Visiting Professor in Studio Art, died Wednesday, Feb. 17 of natural causes at his home in Spring Hill, Fla. He was 70 years old.

A “poet” whose medium was steel, Westphal held the Layton Professorship from 1984-1990. One of his works, “Aerial Landscape,” a trio of brightly painted arched structures and four lower bollards, graces the outside of the Wriston Art Center. Originally installed in 1988, the piece was taken down in 2010 for repairs and restoration work and re-installed in 2014. Westphal returned to campus for its re-dedication ceremonies last spring.

During his tenure at Lawrence, Westphal converted a paper factory into a sculpture studio where he worked on his own massive creations while also giving Lawrentians the opportunity to create their own artwork.

In addition to Lawrence, he held teaching positions at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania, Vancouver College of Art and Design in British Columbia, the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Texas, Austin.

As a large-scale metalworker whose personality matched the scale of his sculptures, his quest for commissions frequently took him to Eastern Europe, in particular to countries in or on the fringes of the socialist bloc. His first major international com- mission was for the state of Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia in 1978. Other large, abstract and powerfully geometric Westphal creations adorn sites around the world, including Austria, the Central African Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. Besides Appleton, his sculptures can be found throughout the United States, including Anchorage, Detroit, Houston and Pittsburgh.

Aerial-Landscape_newsblog_3
Rolf Westphal’s “Aerial Landscape,” which graces the west entrance to the Wriston Art Center, was rededicated in 2015.

He once proudly proclaimed, “I have used every kind of material, but my forte has been steel.’’

Born in Germany in 1945, Westphal grew up in International Falls, Minn. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri, where he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree, and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he earned a master of fine arts degree.

He is survived by his son, Ahti, 35, Bejing, China, and his first wife and life-long friend, Susan Schug of Gladewater, Texas.

A celebration of his life will be held this summer on a date still to be determined at Stop Island, Rainy Lake, International Falls, Minn.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Roads of the Future: Cornell University public policy expert discusses challenges of driverless cars

Cornell University Professor R. Richard Geddes examines the changes lawmakers will need to anticipate to operate and maintain the nation’s infrastructure in an age of increasing automobile technology in a Lawrence University economics colloquium.Richard.Geddes_newsblog

Geddes presents “The Policy Challenge of Driverless Cars” Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.

The anticipated increased use of driverless vehicles will generate a variety of benefits, most notably increased traffic safety due to their ability to be  programmed to stay in their lane, reducing vehicle-to-vehicle collisions and pedestrian injuries. There are also potential environmental benefits due to lower vehicle weights and improved fuel economy.  At the same time, however, the new technologies create new problems, such as determining responsibility for collisions and developing robust cyber-security measures.

Since roads are relatively long-lived and slow to change, Geddes believes policymakers must forecast how decisions made today will impact infrastructure-vehicle interaction well into the future. Because driverless cars rely on cameras, sensors and GPS to navigate the roadway, Geddes says it will be increasingly important to maintain line paint, signage, reflectors, visual markers and add such things as reflective glass beads embedded in line paint to assist driverless vehicles navigate at night.

Director of Cornell’s Program in Infrastructure Policy, Geddes specializes in policies addressing the regulation and funding of large infrastructure, including transportation, energy and water systems. He has  served as an advisor to numerous Fortune 500 companies, including United Parcel Service and CSX and has provided expert testimony before House and Senate committees more than a dozen times.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” comes to Cloak Theatre

The power of words for good and ill are explored in the Lawrence University Theatre Arts Department’s production of one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies.

Much-Ado-About-Nothing_newsblog
Kip Hathaway plays Benedick and Olivia Gregorich portrays Beatrice in Lawrence’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Four performances of “Much Ado About Nothing” will be staged in Cloak Theatre Feb. 18-20 with an 8 p.m. show each night and an additional 3 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Feb. 20. Tickets, at $15 for adults, $8 for students/seniors, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Written around 1598, within a few years of “As You Like It” and “Twelfth Night,” the play’s most well known story features  Beatrice and Benedick, bantering foes who are tricked into falling in love with each other by their well-meaning friends.

It chronicles the almost fairytale world of reunion, celebration, barbarous wit and mischief when Benedick and his fellow officers return from a successful battle and turn their attentions to pleasanter, more domestic matters. That witty world comes crashing down into a still comic, but gentler and more complex reality, where words cause real pain and communicate real love.

According to director Kristin Hammargren, the production is set in Regency England (1811-1820) in order to provide an appropriate context.

“Regency England is a time period that gives us the class distinctions, structured polite society, appreciation for conversation and even the military element (the Napoleonic Wars) that this play needs,” said Hammargren, a 2008 graduate of Lawrence, now a professional actor and teaching artist who is spending Term II at her alma mater as a visiting instructor of theatre arts.

Kristen Hammergard_newsblog
Director Kristen Hammergard

In her writing about the production she notes the production she envisioned is just as important for the coherence of the play as it is for the benefit of the student actors.

“Here you see an environment crafted for the imagination and play of young theatre artists,” Hammargren wrote. “History gives us a setting and a mood, Shakespeare gives us the story and poetry and the students give it all life.”

Olivia Gregorich, a junior from Greenwood, plays Beatrice while Kip Hathaway, a junior from Nimrod, Minn., plays Benedick. Senior Aiden Campbell, from Fort Collins, Colo., is cast as Claudio while freshman Ming Montgomery, from Minneapolis, Minn., plays Hero.

After graduating from Lawrence, Hammargren earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked with several Shakespeare festivals, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and Door Shakespeare in Wisconsin. She created an original one-woman show entitled “Discovering Austen,” which she performs regularly throughout the Midwest.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lawrence Jazz Series welcomes the Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet

Incorporating modern classical, vanguard pop and spoken word, composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire brings his unique brand of modern jazz to Lawrence University’s Jazz Series.

Ambrose-Akinmusire_newsblog
Trumpet player Ambrose Akimusire

The Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet performs Friday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. in Lawrence’s Memorial Chapel. Tickets, at $30/$25 for adults, $25/$20 for seniors and $20/$18 for students, are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

Joining Akinmusire on stage will be pianist Sam Harris, bass player Harish Raghavan and drummer Justin Brown.

Winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2007, Akinmusire, 33, released his first album, “Prelude to Cora,” the following year. His second album, “The Heart Emerges Glistening,” released in 2011 on Blue Note Records, drew rave reviews. After being named Downbeat magazine’s Rising Star Jazz Artist of the Year in 2011 and Trumpet Player of the Year in 2012, Akinmusire moved to the forefront of progressive jazzmen, becoming one of the most buzzed-about artists of his generation.

“The first time I heard Ambrose, I was completely captivated, enchanted by his warm, huge, beautiful trumpet sound,” said Jose Encarnacion, director of Lawrence’s jazz studies program. “He speaks from the heart. His musical stories will take you places you have never imagined. This will be a musical experience not to be missed.”

His most recent album, 2014’s “The Imagined Savior Is Easier to Paint,” was compared to Mark Rothko paintings by NPR music critic Ann Powers, who described it as “large, filling every corner of the frame, yet calm, spacious, their colors connected in subtle gradations.”

On “The Imagined Savior,” Akinmusire flexed his composition talents, drawing inspiration from a local homeless man in his neighborhood, a 16 year-old imprisoned young woman and police brutality. He collaborated with numerous vocalists on the album, giving each an outline of the music and allowing them to create their own lyrics.

“He speaks from the heart. His musical stories will take you places you have never imagined.”
— Jose Encarnacion, director of LU’s jazz studies program

In the track “Rollcall for Those Absent,” a young girl reads the names of numerous African-American men and women killed by police.

Having a young voice read the names, according to Akinmusire, was “like the beginning of life talking about the end of life. I wanted to capture that.”

A native of Oakland, Calif., Akinmusire began playing the trumpet professionally while still in high school, touring Europe with the Five Elements band.  He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Along the way, he studied with trumpet luminaries Terence Blanchard, the late Lew Soloff and the late master teacher Laurie Frink.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Enhancing creativity and problem-solving focus of Century of the Brain series presentation

What is creativity? How does it occur?  How do attention, cognitive control, motivation, personality and biology influence it?

Darya-Zabelina_newsblog
Darya Zabelina

Darya Zabelina, a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow at Northwestern University, applies perspectives ranging from cognitive neuroscience to social psychology while attempting to answer those questions.

Zabelina presents “Leaky Attention and Creativity: Behavioral, EEG and fMRI Evidence,” Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium as part of Lawrence University’s The Liberal Arts in the Century of the Brain series. A question-and-answer session follows the presentation, which is free and open to the public.

With a focus on ways of enhancing and fostering the development of creative thinking and problem-solving abilities, Zabelina’s research has shown some people are more sensitive to sensory input than others.

“We find that people with real-world creative achievements are less likely to filter out sound than their less creative counterparts,” Zabelina wrote for “The Creative Post” blog. “Additionally, they do it involuntarily, as this happens very early in the processing stream—only 50 ms (miliseconds) after the onset of the sound.”

This “leaky” attention is a two-way street according to Zabelina. Extra sensory input can be distracting to people, but it also may result in processing ideas that lead to more creative thinking.

Zabelina earned bachelor and master’s degrees in psychology from North Dakota State University and her Ph.D. in psychology from Northwestern.

The Liberal Arts in the Century of the Brain series incorporates the interdisciplinary areas of neuroscience and cognitive science to create connections with other disciplines at Lawrence.

The remaining speakers on the series include:

  • John Iverson, associate project scientist at University of California-San Diego’s Institute for Neural Computation. February, 24. A cognitive neuroscientist, Iverson will discuss his research on rhythm perception and production in music and language, work that spans behavioral and neuroscience approaches. He is currently overseeing a study of the effect of music training on children’s brain and cognitive development.
  • Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the department of philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. April 12. The author of five books and more than 100 published articles, Sinnott-Armstrong is a scholar of moral psychology and brain science, which his presentation will focus on, as well as uses of neuroscience in the legal system.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Outagamie County Historical Society Honors Anthropologist Peter Peregrine

Lawrence University anthropologist Peter Peregrine’s work in locating long-forgotten gravesites at the Outagamie County Asylum Cemetery in Grand Chute has been recognized by the Outagamie County Historical Society.

Peter-Peregrine_newsblog'16
Peter Peregrine

Peregrine has been named the 2016 recipient of the historical society’s annual Lillian F. Mackesy Historian of the Year Award, which honors outstanding contributions to Outagamie County history.

It’s the second straight year a Lawrence faculty member has received the award. Music librarian Antoinette Powell was the 2015 recipient.

Nominated by the Friends of Outagamie County Cemetery, Peregrine will receive his award March 8 at the annual meeting of the Outagamie County Historical Society.

“I am extremely pleased that Peter has received the Outagamie County Historical Society ‘s Lillian Mackesy Historian of the Year award,” said Provost David Burrows. “This award is a wonderful recognition of the high quality of his work. It also symbolizes how talented Lawrence faculty can be successful in projects that cross disciplinary lines — in this case history and anthropology. Lawrence is honored to have one of its faculty recognized in this way.”

With the help of Lawrence students and a magnetometer that allowed him to conduct archeological work below the ground without doing any excavation, Peregrine mapped the cemetery. He was able to identify the final resting place for 133 people buried in unmarked graves who died at the Outagamie County Asylum for the Chronic Insane and whose bodies went unclaimed.

“The entire community is indebted to Professor Peregrine for his extraordinary efforts and commitment to locate the burials at the cemetery.”
   — Linda Shinkin, Friends of Outagamie County Cemetery

A formal rededication of the cemetery, which include the unveiling of a granite memorial stone with the name of each person interred, was held last September.

“Professor Peregrine is receiving the historian of the year award specifically for his work with the Outagamie County Asylum Cemetery and public presentation of that work,” said Matt Carpenter, executive director of the History Museum at the Castle. “More broadly, though, the award acknowledges Peter’s commitment to a community-wide conversation about our past and the importance of heritage preservation and public history based on solid methodologies.”

In nominating him for the award, Linda Shinkin on behalf of the Friends of Outagamie County Cemetery wrote “Professor Peregrine’s report completely changed the scope of the restoration of this historic cemetery.

“It really was an educational community project,” wrote Shinkin. “The entire community is indebted to Professor Peregrine for his extraordinary efforts and commitment to locate the burials at the cemetery.”

Established in 1976 by the Outagamie County Historical Society, the award is named in honor of Lillian Mackesy, a former columnist and editor for The Post-Crescent, whose columns included: “Looking Back 100 Years,” “Historically Speaking” and “Remember When?”

Mackesy, the award’s first recipient, was devoted to the preservation and promotion of the region’s historical heritage. Her personal collection forms the core of the History Museum’s research files and photograph collection.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Broadcaster, author Krista Tippett presents “The Mystery and Art of Living”

Award-winning broadcaster and best-selling author Krista Tippett explores the essence of what it means to be human in a Lawrence University convocation.

Krista-Tippett_newsblog
Krista Tippett

Tippett presents “The Mystery and Art of Living,” Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. She will conduct a question-and-answer session immediately following her remarks. The event is free and open to the public.

As host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated radio program “On Being,” Tippett explores religious and spiritual issues, especially as they relate to how people want to live their lives.

Raised as a Southern Baptist in Oklahoma, Tippett was politically active in her youth, working as a freelance journalist in divided Berlin in the 1980s and later serving as a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to West Germany.

After returning to the states, she earned a master’s of divinity degree from Yale University and launched her radio program in 2003, a project she considered a reconciliation between her intellectual and spiritual selves.

Originally called “Speaking of Faith” and airing on just two stations, “On Being” has become phenomenally successful. It is now heard on more than 400 stations nationally while Tippett’s podcasts are downloaded more than 1.5 million times a month.

The New York Times once described Tippett’s interview style as “a fusion of all her parts – the child of small-town church comfortable in the pews; the product of Yale Divinity School able to parse text in Greek and theology in German; and, perhaps most of all, the diplomat seeking to resolve social divisions.”

Tippett’s broadcasting work was honored in 2008 with a George Foster Peabody Award for “The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi,” an interview she conducted with Fatemeh Keshavarz, a professor at Washington University, on the life of the 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet.

In 2014, President Obama presented Tippett with the National Humanities Medal for “thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence. On the air and in print, Ms. Tippett avoids easy answers, embracing complexity and inviting people of all faiths, no faith and every background to join the conversation.”

She also is the author of two books. “Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit” is a collection of 13 interviews with distinguished scientists and writers on science that made the New York Times bestseller list in 2010. “Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters—and How to Talk About It,” published in 2008, is a conversational journey that explores the role of faith in the world.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Road Trip: Student volunteers visit Philadelphia for collaborative public health project

A seven-person team of multi-national Lawrence University students are accompanying government professor Claudena Skran to Philadelphia to work on a public health-related project the second week of February.

KidsGive_Philly-Trip
Student volunteers in Lawrence’s KidsGive program will travel to Philadelphia to work with Healthy NewsWorks elementary school journalists in a video project. Among the participants in the project are Tierney Duffy, Alex Kurki, Professor Claudena Skran, Delina Abadi, Tamanna Akram and Wesley Varughese.

The students, members of KidsGive, a Lawrence-based scholarship program for children in Sierra Leone, will collaborate with Healthy NewsWorks, a health-focused student media program, to produce two educational videos on water and sanitation that will be shown at Conforti Primary School in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

KidsGive members are cooperating partners in a project that will build a new well and water system for the Calaba Town section of Freetown, an area on the outskirts of the capital city that is not currently served by piped water. When completed, the well will provide a water-tap system for the 500 children at Conforti Primary School and their families.

The video project will enable Healthy NewsWorks student reporters from two Philadelphia elementary schools to work with Lawrence KidsGive volunteers to engage in peer-to-peer public health education with students their own age in Sierra Leone. The videos will focus on health facts about water hygiene and hand washing. The Healthy NewsWorks students also will participate in face-to-face videoconference discussions about health with their counterparts in Sierra Leone.

Skran called the KidsGive engagement with Healthy NewsWorks “a very exciting collaboration.”

“We are pleased that we can contribute in its important mission to train young journalists and promote better health,” said Skran. “Working with student journalists will enable us to better reach children in Sierra Leone with important messages about sanitation and hygiene, which is especially important in the aftermath of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”

Marian Uhlman, director of Healthy NewsWorks, said her student journalists are looking forward to working with the KidsGive volunteers.

“It’s a great opportunity for our students to broaden their understanding of the world and to see how the health communication skills they’re learning can make a real difference in improving lives,” said Uhlman.

KidsGive volunteers participating in the video project will be senior Wesley Varughese, Lake Villa, Ill., project coordinator; junior Delina Abadi, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, elementary school coordinator; senior Tierney Duffy, Riverside, Ill., middle school coordinator; senior Joe Pegorsch, Waupaca, videographer; junior Andres Capous, San Jose, Costa Rica, Spanish language coordinator; junior Alex Kurki, Helena, Mont., financial manager; sophomore Tamanna Akram, Dhaka, Bangladesh, water project liaison.

While on the trip, the students also will meet with Lawrence alumni in Philadelphia and New York City.

Prior to the video project, Skran, the Edwin & Ruth West Professor of Economics and Social Science and Professor of Government, will present “Stories of Loss and Resilience” Tuesday, Feb. 9 at the Free Library of Philadelphia. The public lecture will examine the impact of the Ebola epidemic on the children of Sierra Leone. Skran will share first-hand accounts of children who lost homes, parents and months of schooling while enduring quarantines and hospitalizations during the epidemic and discuss international efforts to assist in the nation’s recovery.

“Working with student journalists will enable us to better reach children in Sierra Leone with important messages about sanitation and hygiene, which is especially important in the aftermath of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”
    — Government professor Claudena Skran

Skran was the first U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Sierra Leone after its 1991–2002 civil war and has visited the country 17 times, including three times during the Ebola epidemic. She is currently writing a book, “Ebola Time,” on the children, schools and the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.

KidsGive, founded by Skran, is part of Lawrence’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. It strives to educate U.S. students about African life and cultures and to promote informed giving while providing children in Sierra Leone with learning opportunities. The student-run organization maintains active partnerships with schools in all four regions of Sierra Leone by providing scholarships and general school support and by sponsoring volunteer missions by American university students.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lawrence’s Mudd Gallery exhibition features work of revolutionary Mexican artists

Mudd-Gallery-Latino-Exhibit_newsblog1
Luis Arenal, “Lázaro Cárdenas y La Reforman Agraria, 1934-1940 (Lázaro Cárdenas and Agarian Reform, 1934-1940),” 1947, linocut.

Lawrence University’s Mudd Gallery hosts the exhibition “Selections from the Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana Portfolio” beginning Thursday, Feb. 11 and running through March 11. The exhibition, located on the third floor of the Seeley G. Mudd Library, is free and open to the public.

The exhibition is part of a series of of community programs highlighting 500 years of diversity and achievement by Latino Americans through a partnership between Lawrence, the Appleton Public Library, Casa Hispana and the History Museum at the Castle.

Featuring works from Lawrence’s permanent collection, the exhibition highlights the work of artists from the Taller de Gráfica Popular — The People’s Graphic Workshop — of Mexico City. The TGP is an artists’ print collective founded to advance revolutionary social causes.

Beth Zinsli, curator and director of Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center Galleries, will deliver a gallery talk on the history and iconography of the Estampas portfolio to open the exhibition at 4 p.m. on Feb. 11.

“The portfolio as a whole attempts to chronologically narrate complex political events in Mexican history from 1876 to1947, but the prints also reveal a great deal about the lives of every day people in this period,” said Zinsli. “The exhibition features a selection of linocut prints from the portfolio that recount crucial events and themes from the Mexican Revolution period through a variety of visual strategies, including caricature, allegory and references to religious iconography and well-known works of art.”

Mudd-Gallery-Latinos_newsblog2
Francisco Mora, “Emiliano Zapata, lider de la revolución agraria (Emiliano Zapata, Leader of the Agarian Revolution),” 1947, linocut.

While the exhibition features such historical figures as Porfirio Díaz, Francisco Madero, and Emiliano Zapata, it is counterbalanced by images that convey real concerns about the human condition and the denunciation of social and civil injustices.

The community-wide “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History” program is supported by a pair of grants Lawrence received from the American Library Association and the Wisconsin Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.

Lawrence named one of the country’s top “Colleges That Pay You Back”

The Princeton Review has named Lawrence University one of the nation’s best colleges for students seeking an exceptional education with great career preparation and at an affordable price.

Princeton-Review_bang-for-Buck_newsblogLawrence was included in the education services company’s 2016 edition of its just released book “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck.”

Lawrence and UW-Madison were the only two Wisconsin institutions to be included in the book.

The Princeton Review selected the schools based on return on investment (ROI) ratings it tallied for 650 schools last year. The ratings weighted 40 data points that covered everything from academics, cost, and financial aid to graduation rates, student debt, and alumni salaries and job satisfaction.

Lawrence also was included on the book’s sublist of the top 25 Best Schools for Making an Impact, which was based on student ratings and responses to survey questions covering community service opportunities, student government, sustainability efforts and on-campus student engagement.Princeton-Review-Book_newsblog

“One of the things we like about this particular ranking is its heavy emphasis on assessing the return on investment families make,” said Ken Anselment, Lawrence’s dean of admissions and financial aid, “Our student and alumni success shines a bright light on the great things that happen at Lawrence.”

In its profile of Lawrence, The Princeton Review editors cited the college for its “rigorous academic experience” and for extolling “the values of a liberal education as a means by which to build character, think critically, and create opportunities for choice.”

Students surveyed for the book described Lawrence as “a very close-knit community” and Appleton as “a great little town with a lot of good restaurants, bars and cafes.”

In the “Career Information” section of the profile, Lawrence earned an exceptional ROI rating score of 89, with median starting salaries for graduates of $36,400 and median mid-career salaries of $89,500.

Princeton-ReviewBang-for-Buck_newsblog2Schools included in the book “stand out not only for their outstanding academics, but also for their affordability via comparatively low sticker prices and/or generous financial aid to students with need or both” according to Robert Franek, lead author and The Princeton Review’s Senior VP/Publisher.

“Students at these colleges also have access to extraordinary career services programs from their freshman year on, plus a lifetime of alumni connections and post-grad support,” said Franek.

Of the 200 schools profiled in the book, 66 are public and 134 are private. There were also nine tuition-free schools included.

About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College” and Fiske’s Guide to Colleges 2016. Engaged learning, the development of multiple interests and community outreach are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,500 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries.