MOUNT VERNON — Author and activist Marge Piercy will read from her work and sign copies of her books at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, at Cornell College in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons. Admission is free. Read More…
MOUNT VERNON — The Cornell College fine arts renovation project of Armstrong Hall and Youngker Hall, including Kimmel Theatre, has received an honor award for design excellence for architecture from the Iowa chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The project was designed by Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck (HLKB) Architecture of Des Moines. Armstrong Hall, built in 1938, was renovated in 2002-2003 for the music and theater departments. Youngker Hall opened in 2003 featuring a new 266-seat, state-of-the-art theater.
The jury’s comments on the project included the following:
- Clear expression of new versus old while responding to the historical character of the existing building (Armstrong).
- The setback of the new building (Youngker) respects siting of original building (Armstrong).
- Nice special joint between; clarifies circulation.
- Volumes read well beyond glass façade.
- Tells story of evolution of building through its architecture.
There were 60 entries vying for three honor awards, two merit awards and a special recognition award at the AIA chapter’s annual convention Oct. 15. HLKB received four of the total six awards presented, including all three honor awards.
Previous campus projects completed by HLKB are renovations to McWethy Hall, Law Hall and Cole Library, the new Marie Fletcher Carter Pedestrian Mall, improvements to Bowman-Carter residence hall, the new Meyer Strength Training Facility in the Richard and Norma Small Multi-Sport Center and renovations to the lower level of West Science Center.
MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College presents its biennial Shakespeare production by the English department when “The Tempest” opens Friday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. in the Plumb-Fleming Studio Theatre of Armstrong Hall.
Performances continue Oct. 30 at 2 and 8 p.m. and Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. Reserve tickets at (319) 895-4293.
The production’s guest director is Carey Upton, who helped found and was the resident director of The Shakespeare Project in Frederick, Md. He has directed professionally at Shakespeare & Company (Massachusetts), Actors Theatre of Louisville, Horse Cave Theatre (Kentucky) and the Richmond Shakespeare Festival (Virginia). He taught acting and directing for five years at the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently he is co-artistic director of Waging Theatre, a newly formed enterprise in Los Angeles.
Upton is actively involved in the Original Practices movement of producing Shakespeare. For Cornell’s production of “The Tempest,” the students examined how the play was originally performed in the early 17th century and how that practice can be used to bring the play to life for 21st-century audiences.
“The purpose of this exploration is not to create a museum reconstruction, but a piece that can breathe with new life in our time, in relationship with our community,” he says.
Most of the students involved in the production are enrolled in “Shakespeare I: Comedies and Romances” with Katy Stavreva, associate professor of English. Running the play in conjunction with a class was the idea of the late Stephen Lacey, an English professor who brought in as guest director Desmond Barrit, award-winning actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
“Stephen wanted to give his students the opportunity to study Shakespeare through the body as well as the mind,” Stavreva says.
Under Cornell’s One-Course-At-A-Time system, the class runs 3 1/2 weeks. The production cycle for “The Tempest,” largely overlapping with the class, is five weeks.
MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will celebrate its homecoming Saturday, Oct. 9, by honoring alumni along with authors who chronicled the college’s history for its sesquicentennial last year.
Cornell’s homecoming celebrates the reunion classes of 1954, 1959, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994 and 1999, plus the 50th anniversary of one of the college’s largest social groups for women, Kappa Theta. Events begin Friday, Oct. 8, and include a pep rally and fireworks in Ash Park, starting at 9:30 p.m.
Two alumni and four authors of books for Cornell’s sesquicentennial last year will be honored at a convocation in King Chapel at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9. Michael Conklin, longtime Chicago Tribune writer and a 1969 graduate, will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award. The Young Alumni Achievement Award will be presented to Matt Weiss, a 1999 graduate. After an outstanding academic and athletic career at Cornell, Weiss completed medical school and is a general pediatric resident in Kansas City, with ambitions in international humanitarian medical work.
Alumni Leadership and Service Awards will be presented to Cornell historians and authors Charles Milhauser, William Heywood and Richard Thomas, as well as Vivian Heywood, who assisted in producing her husband’s scholarly history volume. Milhauser wrote “ Cornell College: 150 Years from A to Z.” Heywood and Thomas produced the two-volume “ Cornell College: A Sesquicentennial History.”
Following the convocation, Milhauser and Thomas will sign their books at the bookstore in The Commons from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Also signing books will be Robert Dana, professor of English and poet-in-residence emeritus who was recently selected Iowa’s poet laureate. His newest book of poetry is “Morning of the Red Admiral.” The English department will host an open house for Dana from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in South Hall.
Also on Saturday is a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. for the current exhibition in the Peter Paul Luce Gallery of McWethy Hall. “Cornell Alumni Woodfire” features wood-fired ceramic works by five alumni: Gary Hootman, Leila Denecke, Barbara Reinhart, Takusuke Kawasaki and Joe Cole.
The Kappa Theta 50th-anniversary celebration includes a picnic luncheon and reunion dinner Friday, and then the annual reception at halftime of the football game Saturday. The group, whose founders will return for the homecoming celebration, is working to raise $25,000 to establish Cornell’s first social group-endowed scholarship.
Other special activities are the historic tours of campus, featuring reenactors representing characters from Cornell’s past, starting outside The Commons at 3 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Saturday; an exhibit of color landscapes of the upper Midwest and West by alumnus and professional photographer Jim Becia, who will attend a reception Saturday from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in The Commons; and the homecoming football game against Simpson, kicking off at 1 p.m. in Ash Park.
MOUNT VERNON — A Philadelphia religion scholar and author who grew up in Mount Vernon will make two October appearances at Cornell College related to her book, which details her marriage to a man dying of AIDS. Read More…
MOUNT VERNON — New Testament scholar and Cornell College alumnus Victor Furnish will lecture on “Homosexuality and the Bible” on Thursday, Oct. 14, at 11 a.m. in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons at Cornell. Admission is free.
Furnish is a 1952 graduate of Cornell, ordained United Methodist minister and University Distinguished Professor of New Testament emeritus at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas.
From 1988 to 1992, Furnish was a member of the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality, and he has spoken and written widely on the topic of scripture and homosexuality. He was one of the expert witnesses asked to prepare an affidavit for the Canadian appeals court whose 2003 decision led to the legitimizing of same-sex marriages in Ontario. He will serve as an expert witness in an upcoming church trial of a United Methodist minister for being a partnered lesbian.
A world authority on the Apostle Paul, his writings and theology, Furnish is teaching a course, “The Epistles of Paul,” during Cornell’s current term, which ends Oct. 20. On Cornell’s One-Course-At-A-Time academic calendar, students take a single course for 3 ½ weeks nine terms a year.
MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College’s steel drum band Pandemonium will perform a family-oriented concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, in King Chapel. The concert also will feature the Two-Can Pan Band. Admission is free.
The concert is sponsored by Cornell and the Mount Vernon Area Arts Council. The concert has been rescheduled from its original date, Oct. 14, and moved to an inside location.
In May, Pandemonium released its second CD, “Organized Chaos,” featuring 14 tracks arranged by music professor and director Martin Hearne, including his original “Ubeque Samba,” along with hits by Carlos Santana, Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder and John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Pandemonium debuted in March 1997, released its first CD, “Six Layers of Shrimp,” in spring 1998 and has performed in France, along the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans, in Kansas City and at several area elementary schools. Current members of Pandemonium include Cornell students, alumni and geology professor Paul Garvin.