Thursday, November 1, 2012

Second Half of National Arts & Humanities Month 2012

October 16: Friggin long day. Started at 8am with a freshman seminar, and was packed with kids' lessons, CCA Board meeting, then ended the day at the restaurant with a development officer from my undergrad. Each moment, I'm reminded of how embedded the arts are in my life. I am grateful.

October 17: heard a lecture by Dr. Lourdes Alvarez on "The Ends of Tolerance: Medieval Spain & the Def of Pluralism" - this was the first of four lectures to support the Lehigh Choral arts concerts, "The Jewel at the Center of the World." Fascinating information about 15th century Andalusian culture. Stunning relevance to my wishes for a more current society that holds pluralism as a principle worth cherishing. Reminded how delighted I am when a learned scholar revelas a mystery hidden in ancient books; makes the mysterious peoples of the past more humane, and more heroic.

 October 18th: Lehigh's Women's Center launched a fabulous campaign of positive messages on post it notes in ALL the women's bathrooms on campus. Brilliant.

 October 19th: Lehigh's Founder's Day. Posted the student leader speech on the ArtsLehigh bog. That's what it's for, isn't it?

 October 20th: Spent afternoon manning a booth at the West Fest; talking about Zoellner programs with my friend, Linda Ganus. rushed home to clean up, put on my party hat and get all "glammy" for the Zoellner Gala. Did I mention, the artist was spectacular?

 October 21st: What could be more culturally significant than picking up pumpkins for creative carving on Halloween? We named ours: Harold, Ed, Tina and Wendy.

 October 22nd: discovered reddit. Then lost the rest of my day. Wonder how that happened?

 October 23rd: Baker's Creativity Institute - got the kids there for the last 30 minutes. We made buttons and a model of the Wilbur Power house.

 October 24th: Cleaned pumpkins for carving. Arabic poetry lecture just before orchestra rehearsal.

 October 25th: Incredible panel discussion about John Cage inspired exhibits and Black Mountain College, and South Mountain College. Carved pumpkins. Later, I heard the final dress rehearsal for the Choral Arts concert. Always, an extravaganza.

 October 26th: Trick or Treat night. Yes, I can apply Darth Maul make up and false eye lashes (different kids, honest) in less than 30 minutes.

 October 27th: 

Holy Cow, I got to meet Terry Gross! later, made it back to campus to lead the Zeek club discussion before the Choral Arts concert.

 October 28th: The Lehigh Valley got it's most creative in preparing for the the Frankenstorm to hit. At home, I went on a mad cleaning spree. Organized a few creative projects I'd been wanting to get to for a while now. Hoping the power was going to stay on for my home. I's argue there is an art to organizing and preparing. I really had to work at NOT freaking out. The wind was wicked strong this night.

 October 29th: Remember those classic movies I wanted to show the kids? We had plenty of time and didn't lose power the day after Hurricane Sandy. Schools were closed, as was campus. We got very creative at home watching classic films, thanks to Netflix. "Arsenic and Old Lace" with Cary Grant is almost an annual tradition now.

 October 30th: I watched way too much TV. Sad to end this month so poorly. I resolved to embrace my inner Druid, make the most of Samhuin, and start fresh on November 1st as the New Year resolution begins.

 October 31 - I got these posts done! (at least in draft form. Will do a review tomorrow; adding more links and more pictures if I can then.

 Whew! Goal met. What did I learn by doing these two blog posts? The Arts and Humanities is my work, true. But they infuse my life with happiness, creativity and joy. Learning about history, celebrating traditions, and sharing new discoveries with my kids; it all goes back to art and the humanities. Life without either would be really, really pathetic.
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First Half of National Arts & Humanities Month 2012

I had great intentions for the 2012 National Arts & Humanities month. Starting with the unveiling of a great big banner that was designed by a local artist, Holly Fields-Scott as the last part of her residency, the last artist in residence for ArtsLehigh.

The artist came through brilliantly. The challenge came with a few logistical hiccups in the rendering to a large print out. While we were that much closer to seeing the vision of a large banner on Maginnes for October, we still missed it. At least I'm closer for next year. What's the reference here? Last year, I had the idea but couldn't even get it to the concept stage artistically.Maybe I'll write a separate post about the October Banner, in case I need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs on the project....

When I accepted the reality of the Banner not coming to fruition, I started a daily twitter post on my personal account: what I did today to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month. I was pretty good at first:








Special formatting note for this blog post idea - when you need to scroll through your own twitter feed to find a month of daily tweet, and you're pretty active on twitter - it's a pain in the butt! After I copied the embed code for each tweet, the .com version bounced me back to current time line.





I didn't post it on the 3rd - but I did live tweet with Euan Semple for the #EN195 course. Later that afternoon, I live-tweeted a lecture about two historic church buildings, and early Lehigh campus history (#AsaTwins). Later that evening, I went to orchestra rehearsal, and DIDN'T follow twitter for the Presidential Debate. Instead, I tweeted the next day:





Then there was the biggie:



After the award ceremony, I went back to campus to see "Oleanna" - it was the only night I could make it. Lucky me, there was a talk back after this performance led by the director of the Women's Center.

On the 5th day, my son and I spent the early part of the evening while my daughter was in her ballet class, strolling through South Bethlehem's first Friday. We made stops at the artists' studios in the Banana Factory and looked at Richard Redd's exhibit in Home & Planet. Nothing made me prouder that having my son recognize artists without reading the labels; "Oh, that's Ms Angie's painting. that looks like other stuf she's done." Granted, Ms Angie (Angie Snyder Lynde) was their art teacher when the Holy Infancy class went to the Banana Factory for their weekly trip. But the fact that he recognizes and artist's signature style? Wow! I'm a good mommy.

On the 6th Day, I finally produced a new post on my personal blog. While I've been way more productive there, than here - I want to write more. I needed to write on Saturday morning; I physically needed to write. Remembering how urgently I needed to create something feels good even at the end of the month.

On the 7th Day, I spent the afternoon with my family at the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum for a Suzuki Play in. I don't know why, but "Twinkles" never get old for me.

On the 8th Day, I celebrated out family's Italian heritage by making Nonna's minestrone and biscotti. That evening, I had a CCA Education Committee meeting. Yes, recapping a festival is part of the National Arts & Humanities, dammit. These meetings are fun.

On the 9th Day, I supported my local public radio station by attending the quarterly Community Advisory Board meeting .

On the 10th day, I proved the world (and myself) that I can keep an industry secret. Spent the afternoon being the social media "Johnny on the spot" person for announcing the Gala Artist change. Whew! Glad we got that off the ground. (BTW, the Gala artist was Kristin Chenoweth, and she was spectacular!) That night, I conducted the orchestra wind sectionals. Yes, I CAN play bassoon and simultaneously conduct Tchaik 6th. I got most of the notes!

On the 11th day, I mostly controlled myself on Twitter during the VP debates. Being civically engaged is VERY humanistic.

On the 12th day, I took the kids to dance to Delhi 2 Dublin at Zoellner. We had a blast. Some of the pictures they took on my phone made it on the Zoellner FB page. How'd that happen? Kids even got to meet the band. Favorite quote from my daughter, "Mom you have a pretty boring job most of the time. But every once in a while, there's some really cool side effects."

Day 13: After a long night dancing hard, the kids had Nutcracker rehearsals. While they took turns in different scenes, we took in the Downtown Harvest Fest. Nothing says "Arts & Humanities" like a soup and wine tasting. Heard some excellent live music, too. that night, I brought the kids to the Lehigh Jazz concert. Theme was "Hollywood Jazz." I have some old movies we need to cue up for the kids soon.

Day 14: Back to Zoellner for a piano trio recital. Also did some cooking experiments; my favorite kind of creative activity.

Day 15: went to the Nurture Nature Center in Easton, PA. Very cool place. Love the story of the Founder, Theodore Kheel.

Second half of National Arts & Humanities Month on next post.





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