1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Events

Pieces from Transylvania’s extensive collection featured in first Morlan Gallery exhibit of 2008-09 season; runs through October 10

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery opened its 2008-09 season September 12 with an exhibition featuring the finest of Transylvania University’s own collection. The exhibition runs through October 10. Curated by Estill Curtis Pennington, considered by some to be Kentucky’s resident expert on the fine arts of the state, The Transylvania University Collection exhibition features early historic portraits, as well as academic, pastoral and early modern artwork. “The collection of Transylvania University is distinctive as a repository for many early Kentucky portraits which might otherwise have been lost,” said Pennington. “But the University also owns later work, like those of Sudduth Goff and Robert Burns Wilson that are clear indicators of the climate of taste at various times in the Bluegrass.  All of the works in the collection help illuminate the role Transylvania has played in shaping the intellectual history of the Commonwealth.”A special event will be tied to this exhibition. The Making A Kentucky Master: Gilbert Stuart and Matthew H. Jouett Symposium, Walking Tour and Reception is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, from 3-5 p.m. Guest lecturers are Ellen G. Miles, Head Curator of Painting and Sculpture for the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution and Estill Curtis Pennington. The event begins in Transylvania’s Cowgill Building, room 102, tours through historic Gratz Park and concludes with a reception in the Morlan Gallery. This event is free and open to the public, although reservations are suggested. To make a reservation, contact

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2008 Governor’s School for the Arts session begins Sunday, June 22

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – A record number of Kentucky’s best young artists will gather on the Transylvania campus on Sunday to begin the three-week 2008 session of the Governor’s School for the Arts. The latest GSA class includes 241 rising juniors and seniors from all corners of the Commonwealth, including 15 in a new discipline called “New Media,” which will focus on more recent forms of art communication, including animation, video production, and digital imagery. The student-artists will receive intense instruction in a total of nine areas. Along with New Media, those disciplines are Architecture, Creative Writing, Dance, Drama, Instrumental Music, Musical Theatre, Visual Arts, and Vocal Music. Educational experience is gained through a variety of daily seminars, master-classes, lectures, hands-on workshops, and field trips to regional arts attractions. More than 3,500 of the state’s most talented high school artists from 120 counties have attended the 21-year-old GSA summer program following a challenging selection process. Over 1,300 students apply for the program each year for one of the available scholarships valued at over $3,000. Currently, 18 colleges and universities, including Transylvania, offer scholarships to GSA alumni. The program will culminate on Saturday, July 12 with an all-day festival that celebrates the achievements of the young artists through performances that are open to family and the public. Corporate and government supporters of the program and the GSA Advisory Board have also been invited to attend the day-long pre-finals rehearsals on Friday, July

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Largest graduating class in Transylvania’s 228-year history will receive degrees Saturday, May 24

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—A record 259 seniors will receive the Bachelor of Arts degree during Transylvania’s Commencement exercises on Saturday, May 24, at 10 a.m. in front of historic Old Morrison. (The rain location is the Clive M. Beck Center). The previous largest class was 257 in 2004. John Churchill, secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, will deliver the commencement address and graduating senior Lucienne Hartmann, a political science and psychology major with a women’s studies minor, will speak on behalf of the students. Churchill was educated at Rhodes College, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, at Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and at Yale University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1978. Churchill was formerly vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Hendrix College, where he also served as professor of philosophy and twice as interim president. In the 1970s, he served as assistant American secretary to the Rhodes Scholarship Trust and has been active since that time in the selection of Rhodes scholars. His scholarly interests include the philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and David Hume, as well as topics in the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of liberal education. He has published several dozen articles in these and related fields. Churchill’s professional activities have included membership on the Board of Directors of the American Conference of Academic Deans and the Arkansas Endowment for the

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Transylvania’s theater and music programs present Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece “Carousel”; opens May 15 for three night run

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Selected “Best Musical of the 20th Century,” by TIME magazine, “Carousel” is the enduring effort to overcome prejudice, greed, and self-doubt. Transylvania’s theater and music programs’ production features 26 students in the classic roles and another 17 in the orchestra conducted by music professor Ben Hawkins. The beloved classic runs Thursday, May 15 through Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium. Tickets are $10. Written in 1945, “Carousel” was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s second collaboration, following “Oklahoma!” in 1943. With an overture that is visually evocative as well as musically exciting, a love duet between two characters who never admit they are in love with each other and the suicide of a main character who is later seen in Heaven, “Carousel” has a strong set of real characters, a fast-paced plot and a powerful theme of forgiveness and redemption through genuine caring and love. The lyrics suggest a specific time and place, and Transylvania’s sets, costumes and lights echo that New England atmosphere while also giving the production a transcendent and surreal mood. “The basic concept I’ve been following in directing the musical is the need to find some balance between rigid conformity and absolute independence,” said director and drama professor Tim Soulis. “There is much in the script to suggest that those who only conform to societal expectations are just as lost as those who seek total freedom. A carousel is fun, but also predictable and you

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Transylvania Theater presents the relationship drama “Closer,” April 10-12 at 7:30 p.m.

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania Theater presents “Closer,” a play by Patrick Marber, Thursday, April 10 – Saturday, April 12 in the Lucille C. Little Theater. This powerful drama of contemporary relationships features four actors in disturbing, haunting and poignant portrayals of longing and betrayal. “Closer” is for mature audiences only. “‘Closer’ is an intense drama about relationships among four characters in contemporary London,” said Tim Soulis, director and Transylvania drama professor. “The play is extremely well-written, innovative in its presentational style and honest in its depiction of modern love triangles, fidelity and betrayal.” “TIME” said of Marber’s play that, “‘Closer’ is a bruising dissection of modern relationships, in which sex is the subject even when it’s not, honesty is frequently not the best policy and people with choices almost always make the wrong one.” The “San Francisco Examiner” wrote, “Bitingly comic but unavoidably poignant, curiously compassionate in the midst of its pervasive cynicism, ‘Closer’ belies the implied promise of its title with a look at love as a game of sexual musical chairs.” Marber also wrote the screenplay for the 2004 film adaptation of his play, starring Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen and Jude Law. Tickets are $10 and are on sale in the Little Theater box office Monday- Friday, 1:30-4 p.m. Call (859) 281-3621 for tickets.