 |
Newsbriefs
“Nature and the Artist: The
Work of Art and the Observer,” by renowned Mexican artist Rufino
Tamayo, is back. It took more than two weeks to install
the 43-foot-long mural in the atrium of the Brown Fine
Arts Center. Commissioned for the wall of the Hillyer Art
Library in 1943, the vivid mural was removed and remounted
on panels in 1969, and the epic work traveled the world
on exhibit for some 35 years. The recent renovation and
expansion of the Brown Fine Arts Center provided the opportunity
to design a space tailored for the colorful mural and its
permanent installation at Smith. Photo by Fish/Parham.
Rededication: The Mwangi
Cultural Center has moved to a new home. The center is named
after the late Ng’endo
Mwangi ’61, the first female physician in Kenya. During a special
ceremony in late January, President Carol Christ paid tribute to the
center’s namesake. “Her legacy provided a powerful vision
to students of what they can accomplish when they walk out of the Grécourt
Gates,” she said. The center, which houses offices and common space
for Smith’s cultural heritage student organizations -- including
the Asian Students Association, Black Students Alliance and Nosotras -- relocated
from Lilly Hall to the renovated first floor of Davis Hall,
formerly the Davis Student Center.
Kahn Institute Welcomes New Director: Smith Professor of Sociology Rick Fantasia, who this year
is serving as director of the Junior Year Abroad Program in Geneva, will
take over the helm as new director of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute.
He succeeds Marjorie Senechal, who has served as the institute’s founding director since it was established eight
years ago to support interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects
undertaken by faculty and student fellows. She steps down in June. Fantasia
has been a member of the Smith faculty in the Department of Sociology
since 1982, and he served as acting director of the Kahn Institute in
2001-02. His research and writing have focused on labor, culture
and their interpenetration, both in the United States and
France.
Maybe You Were Watching: “Smith alumnae” was one of the
categories for contestants on the television game show “Jeopardy” on
March 24. The correct answer included the names of Julia Child ’34,
Nancy Reagan ’43, Barbara Bush ’47, Gloria Steinem ’56
and Ann M. Martin ’77.
A Changing Alaska: Alaska is not just a
land of majestic wilderness and the midnight sun. It is also
a place where some communities are isolated, winters are long and the
effects of oil exploration are long lasting. The Harriman Alaska Expedition
Retraced, a Century of Change, 1899-2001,
published by Rutgers University Press in January 2005 reveals not only
the boundless beauty of Alaska but also the hard facts and challenges
Alaska faces after a century of change. Edited by Thomas Litwin, director
of the Smith Clark Science Center, founding director of college’s
environmental science and policy program and Aldo Leopold Fellow, the
book includes photographs and essays by a group of scientists, writers
and artists who made a Smith-sponsored 2001 expedition to Alaska, retracing
the route of railroad baron Edward Harriman’s journey in 1899. “This
is a profoundly perceptive and beautifully written book that sheds tremendous
insights on Alaska and is a must-read for anyone who wants a deeper,
richer understanding of America’s last frontier,” says
Deborah Williams, executive director of the Alaska Conservation Foundation.
See rutgerspress.rutgers.edu for more information.
Film Festival: An Israel Mini Film Festival, featuring films in Hebrew
with English subtitles, recently offered the Smith community a broader
perspective of modern Israeli society. All the films focused solely on
Israeli Jewish life, says Justin Cammy, festival organizer and Smith
assistant professor of Jewish studies and comparative literature. “The
goal,” he adds, “is to enhance the existing Jewish studies
curriculum through film.” Held in February, the film festival was “also
a way to bring the warmth of an Israeli climate to a New England winter,” Cammy
told the Jewish Ledger. The festival was sponsored by the Smith Program
in Jewish Studies, the Office of the Jewish Chaplain at Smith, Congregation
B’nai Israel of Northampton and the Solomon Schechter Day School
of the Pioneer Valley.
New Comprehensive Fee: At its February
meeting, the Smith College Board of Trustees approved a comprehensive
fee of $41,024 for 2005-06,
reflecting an overall increase of 5.5 percent over the 2004-05
fee. The comprehensive fee incorporates tuition ($30,520),
room and board ($10,270) and a student activities fee ($234).
New
Media Relations Director: Kristen A. Cole, former senior
news writer at Brown University and a graduate of the University of Massachusetts
Amherst, began her duties as media director at Smith in
fall 2004. She brings to the college a wealth of experience in media
relations and journalism and is a frequent contributor to the pages of
NewsSmith.
Eager for signs of spring, hosts of visitors
converged on Smith’s Lyman Conservatory in March to soak in a colorful
array of blossoming crocuses, hyacinths, narcissi, irises,
lilies and tulips. Some 5,000 bulbs, which normally flower
weeks apart, were forced into peak bloom after being potted
last October and then put into cold storage. Smith’s bulb show
is a tradition of the Botanic Gardens, dating back more than
75 years. Photo courtesy Botanic Garden. |
|
