Archive for February, 2005
February 28, 2005
An exhibition of photographs by Rebecca Matlock entitled “The Time of Mikhail Gorbachev” is planned March 18-April 20 at Whitebox Studio in the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensboro. An opening reception is planned March 18 from 5-9 p.m.
Guilford is co-sponsoring the event as part of its year-long examination of “Challenges Facing Democracy.” The college hosted a Bryan Series lecture by Gorbachev last October and a talk by Jack Matlock, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and husband of the photographer, last September. The former ambassador is a Greensboro native and his father was an alumnus of the college.
Rebecca Matlock lived in the Soviet Union for 11 years while her husband was an American diplomat. She visited 14 of the 15 Soviet republics, and as a Russian-speaking lecturer, appeared often on Soviet television and radio programs. She recently published a book, At Spaso House, which chronicles the U.S.-Soviet relationship from 1933-91. Much of the book focuses on the Gorbachev era.
Matlock has had more than 40 photo exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. Recently, an exhibition of her work entitled “Special Places in Thirty Countries” was shown in Tbilisi, capital of the Georgian Republic. In New York City, her photographs have been exhibited at the Parsons School of Design, the Explorer’s Club, the National Council of Churches and at Columbia University. Her work has also been exhibited at Princeton University, Duke University and in Chautauqua, N.Y.
The Nussbaum Center, a co-sponsor of the exhibition, is a business incubator located in the former Revolution Cotton Mills building on Yanceyville Street. Other co-sponsors of the exhibition are Studio St. George, Whitebox and Greensboro College.
The public is invited to view the exhibit from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and on Saturdays by appointment. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted at the door for Russian orphanages. For more information, contact George Fesenko-Navrotsky by calling 235-2119.
February 28, 2005
Please join the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations in offering good luck and best wishes to MAX CARTER for submitting a proposal to the Anna H. and Elizabeth M. Chace Fund to support the development of a program on Quaker Principles Integration. The proposal requests $15,000 and will support a three-year program both on and off campus, if funded. The Quaker Principles program is based on the college’s strategic plan. A response is expected in mid-May.
February 28, 2005
Robert Thurman, a worldwide authority on religion and spirituality, Asian history, philosophy and Tibetan Buddhism, will be featured speaker for opening academic convocation Sept. 7.
The program, which kicks off the Year of Spirit and Spirituality, is planned for 3:45 p.m. in Dana Auditorium. Convocation is a traditional year-opening assembly for students, faculty and staff.
In naming Thurman one of the 25 Most Influential Americans in 1997, Time magazine reported, “He is the Billy Graham of American Buddhism. Or perhaps the St. Paul, a latter-day, larger-than-life scholar-activist destined to convey the dharma, the precious teachings of Siddhartha, from Asia to America.”
He is author of many books including the best-seller, Inner Revolution (1999). He translated The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1993), a classic of Buddhist wisdom. His latest book is Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well (2004). Several of Thurman’s texts are on sale in the campus bookstore.
Thurman’s search for Enlightenment began while he was a student at Harvard University. After an accident caused him to think more deeply about the meaning of life, he left school on a spiritual quest through Europe and Asia. In India he met the young Dalai Lama. Quickly learning Tibetan, he studied Buddhism intensively and became the first Westerner ever ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
Thurman was a professor at Amherst University (Mass.) for more than 15 years and has also served as a visiting professor of religion at Harvard, Wesleyan University (Conn.) and Smith College (Mass.). Now, as chair of Religious Studies at Columbia University, he imparts the lessons from thousands of years of Buddhist wisdom and philosophy.
Thurman earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1962, his master’s in East Asian studies in 1969 and his doctorate in Sanskrit and Indian studies in 1972, all from Harvard. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the American Philosophical Association and the International Association of Buddhist Studies.
At the request of the Dalai Lama in 1987, Thurman co-founded Tibet House U.S. in New York City with Richard Gere and Philip Glass (later joined by daughter Uma Thurman and others). This museum and cultural center is dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan civilization and offers programs in all of the Tibetan arts and sciences.
February 28, 2005
The Correspondence Center will be closed March 11 for spring break. The center will be open March 7-10 with regular hours from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
February 28, 2005
President KENT CHABOTAR has approved a change to the official holiday schedule. The modification involves changing Memorial Day to a “regular” holiday and adding two days to the winter holiday. This means that the college will always be officially closed from Christmas Eve through the New Years Day holiday.
This year will be a transition one in which employees will be given three “free holidays.” The first is the recently announced closing of the college on Memorial Day. The next two will be during the winter holiday in December 2005. The college will be closed for the entire last week of the month (December 26-30) instead of the previously scheduled winter holiday from December 26-28. This will give employees a winter holiday break from Christmas Eve through the New Years Day holiday.
This change will not reduce the number of floating holidays available to employees for calendar year 2005. In addition to the three free holidays, all eligible employees will still be allowed to take their five floating holidays this year. However, starting with calendar year 2006, the holiday schedule will include eleven regular holidays and at least two floating holidays each year.
Some departments must remain open operational during college-defined official holidays. Employees assigned to these offices, in consultation with the supervisor, will receive equivalent compensatory time off during other days of the year.
February 28, 2005
Internationally acclaimed artist James Turrell will make two presentations as Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar later this month.
Turrell will speak on “Plato’s Cave and the Light from Without” March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at New Garden Friends Meeting and “Quakers in Art and the Light from Within” March 25 at 10 a.m. in the Guilford College Art Gallery. Both programs are open to the public at no charge.
Born in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1943, Turrell earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and mathematics from Pomona (Calif.) College. Only later did he pursue art. He received an MFA in art from Claremont (Calif.) Graduate School.
Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. Influenced by his Quaker faith, Turrell’s art prompts greater self-awareness through a discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation.
The recipient of several prestigious awards such as Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships, Turrell lives in Arizona. He is developing a natural observatory in an ancient volcano.
For more information about Turrell’s visit, contact MAX CARTER by calling 316-2445 or e-mailing mcarter@guilford.edu.
February 28, 2005
ELIZABETH BURKE ’90 and business partner Abby Messitte, co-owners of the Clementine Gallery in the Chelsea section of New York City, will mount an exhibition, “Art Rock Center,” at the Rockefeller Center March 7-14. They persuaded Tishman Speyer Properties to give over the Rockefeller Center plaza for an alternative fair of 15 international galleries. They are putting on this show as a counter to the Armory Show set for March 10-14.
Ten artists’ work will be shown on the plaza, both outdoors and inside modular units. Among the artists featured are Rob Fischer, who has created a mirrored house, and Ivan Witenstein, who has made a life-size, three-dimensional rendering based on one of de Kooning’s famous “Woman” paintings.
The exhibition will be sponsored by Condé Nast’s three shopping magazines – Lucky, Cargo and Domino. The exhibition was noted in the Feb. 25 edition of The New York Times, “Inside Art,” by Carol Vogel.
Burke was the keynote speaker at the Alumni Art Exchange and Exhibition in 2004 and featured in the Summer 2004 edition of the Guilford College Magazine. She majored in art at Guilford.
February 28, 2005
FOR RENT: Town home at 4916-E Tower Road, Greensboro, NC 27410. Hamilton Village Townhomes (1.5 miles from campus – off Dolley Madison Road). 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, galley kitchen, dining area, great room. Unit is all on one level. Approximately 1,000 square feet. All electric appliances and water included. Call KAREN STEWART in the Registrar’s Office, 316-2174 or 414-0750.
February 26, 2005
The German and study abroad programs will host two lectures by faculty members of the Munich semester program later this month.
BERNHARD LEHMANN, a history and English teacher at the Paul-Klee-Gymnasium in Gersthofen, Germany, will give a talk entitled “Sixty Years after World War II: How a German Town Deals with its History of National Socialism” March 21.
LEO BRUX, who teaches German for the “Initiativgruppe,” a group that provides assistance for immigrants in Munich, Germany, will speak on “The USA Today, from a German Perspective” March 23.
Both lectures are at 7:30 p.m. in the second-floor gallery of Founders Hall and are free and open to the public.
Lehmann has received international attention and acclaim for a unique research project that he has been conducting with his students since 2001. After overcoming obstacles preventing their access to archival materials, Lehmann and his students have uncovered the history and discovered the fate of forced laborers in Gersthofen under National Socialism. He has taught history as a faculty member of the Munich semester since 1994.
Brux is business manager and Webmaster for a project entitled “Historische Lernorte Sendling 1933-45,” an initiative that is researching the history of a district of Munich during the Third Reich. He has been a faculty member of the Munich semester since 1987.
The lectures are sponsored by Barbara and Richard Jennings. For more information, contact DAVE LIMBURG by calling 316-2204 or e-mailing dlimburg@guilford.edu.
February 25, 2005
UnitedHealthCare Certificates of Health Insurance Coverage are now available for reference and review in the Human Resources Shared Database. To learn more about the details of your health insurance coverage (both in-area and out-of-area coverage) go to the HR Shared database at http://phoenix.guilford.edu/HumanResShrdDocs.nsf?OpenDatabase.
