Month: March 2014

LEXINGTON Ky.—With the ink barely dry on their Lexington Tattoo Project, Transylvania University professors Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde have drawn a bead on another feat—setting a Guinness world’s record. The artistic duo hopes to gather more than 250 people in the William T. Young Campus Center gym on Wednesday, March 19, from 6 to 8 pm. for the world’s largest beading party. It’s part of their Community Engagement Through the Arts class project, Northern Lights, which will illuminate a nearby neighborhood with about 60 artistic lanterns. The set of lanterns decorated by the potentially record beading crowd will hang either over or along North Limestone Street. It will be assembled from recycled burlap and bike tire rims and graced with almost 150,000 red, white and black beads arranged in an owl pattern made by Cricket Press specifically for the project and to reflect the neighborhood’s character. This illuminated mural will be two feet tall and 43 feet long. “If we can get everyone to be there for an hour-and-a-half or two hours, we’ll probably finish the entire thing,” said Gohde, who teaches art. To break the record, at least 251 people must simultaneously make a string a beads at least six inches long—and spend a minimum of three minutes doing it. Anyone from the Lexington area is invited to join the Transylvania community in the beading; no prior experience is necessary, and youths are welcome but should be accompanied

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University will host a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremony on March 21, 2014, in which more than 200 individuals representing more than 70 countries will take the Oath of Allegiance, completing the path to American citizenship. Karen Caldwell, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, will preside. Caldwell, a 1977 graduate of Transylvania, is a member of the university’s Board of Trustees. Plans call for Transylvania student Esi Kalefe ’14, a naturalized citizen from Togo, to welcome those in attendance. Vivian Tsai ’16 of Taiwan will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Kerry Harvey, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Larry Kammerer, field office director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, will offer introductions. Administering the Oath to candidates will be Nathan W. Lee, chief deputy clerk, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Lee is a 1997 graduate of Transylvania. With citizenship candidates coming from all around the Commonwealth, the ceremony is scheduled to begin at noon in Haggin Auditorium and is open to the public. Shuttle service to the auditorium will be provided from parking lots next to and directly across from Transylvania’s new Athletics Complex on West Fourth Street, just west of the intersection with Jefferson Street. Transylvania last held a naturalization ceremony in 1998, filling Haggin to capacity. The Oath Here is the Oath of Allegiance, which has led to American citizenship for more

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—The Transylvania University music program and Bluegrass Area Music Teachers Association are co-sponsoring a piano master class conducted by Michael Sitton on Sunday, March 23. Transylvania piano students and Lexington community students will perform. The public is welcome to observe the class from 1-3 p.m. in Carrick Theater. Sitton is dean of The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He has served as dean of fine arts at Eastern New Mexico University and as a faculty member and administrator at Hollins University in Virginia, according to his faculty profile. “A pianist and composer, he holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and literature from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor’s degree from Mars Hill College in his native North Carolina. He also studied in Paris, earning the Diplome de Concert from the Schola Cantorum as a piano student of Mme. Gaby Casadesus. He has performed widely as a soloist and collaborative musician, and his compositions, primarily in the choral medium, have been published and performed throughout the country.” Carrick Theater is in Transylvania’s Mitchell Fine Arts Center on West Fourth Street, between North Broadway and Upper Streets. Free parking is available in the adjacent lot. The Mitchell Fine Arts Center is wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Gretchen Shoot, administrative assistant for the Division of Fine Arts, at 859-233-8141.