Noted Historian Robert Peck to Relate Tales, Treasures from Audubon's Last Expedition

Robert McCracken Peck

CHESTERTOWN, MD—In the spring of 1843, the well known naturalist and artist John James Audubon set off from New York City on what was to be his longest and last great expedition of discovery.  With a small party of friends and associates, the self-proclaimed  “American Woodsman,” who had recently completed his landmark work, The Birds of America, traveled by boat from Saint Louis up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Yellowstone. Officially, he was gathering information and specimens for a newly launched book on American mammals, but he was also on the lookout for new birds.

In a slide lecture at Washington College on Thursday, Nov. 15, noted historian Robert McCracken Peck will use images of Audubon’s western paintings and the surviving specimens and artifacts gathered during his nine-month expedition to describe this last great adventure and put its accomplishments in context.  His talk will take place at 5 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the main campus, 300 Washington Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

A Fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (to which Audubon was elected a corresponding member in 1831), Peck is the author of the B.B.C. book Land of the Eagle: A Natural History of North America and co-author of A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences and the Making of American Science.  He was a consulting curator for the exhibition “Audubon in the West,” which traveled throughout the United States in 2000 and 2001. A fully illustrated catalog with essays by Mr. Peck and others accompanied the exhibition. In 2010 Peck and a colleague discovered Audubon’s first published illustration of a bird on an Ohio bank note.

Peck’s visit to Washington College complements the special exhibition in the College’s Kohl Gallery, “In Pursuit of Beauty: John J. Audubon and the Golden Age of Bird Illustration,” which continues through November 30. Peck consulted with curator Alex Castro for the exhibition. On display are 19 prints and 20 books that showcase works by Audubon (including a rare original watercolor of a pheasant) and other master naturalists of his era. The Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m., and admission is free. 

Portrait of John J. Audubon

Kohl Gallery to Host Extraordinary Exhibit on Golden Age of Bird Illustration, Opening Oct. 9

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Kohl Gallery of Art at Washington College will soon exhibit an exquisite collection of rare volumes and prints with illustrations by some of the finest artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. “In Pursuit of Beauty: John J. Audubon and the Golden Age of Bird Illustration” opens Tuesday, October 9, with a reception in the gallery from 5 to 7 p.m., and continues through Friday, November 30. View photos from the opening.

         The 20 books and 19 prints in the exhibit, on loan from private collections, showcase works by Audubon and other great but lesser-known naturalists—William Beebe, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Daniel Giraud Elliot, John Gould, and Alexander Wilson. Highlights include an original Audubon watercolor of a pheasant that has rarely, if ever, been displayed, and a 17th-century book with a decree by King James granting his subjects the right to hunt birds on Sundays.

         According to exhibit curator Alex Castro, who is Architect, Exhibition and Book Designer in Residence at the College, the gallery will be filled with the sound of bird songs and calls. It also will feature video and photographs taken during the bird-banding project underway nearby at the Foreman’s Branch Bird Observatory, part of the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.

         The video will add to what Castro calls “this bird spirit” that will embrace gallery visitors. “To see birds being released, taking wing—it’s the most wonderful thing,” he says.  “And at the center of it all, these beautiful still images of birds from the past.”

Daniel Giraud Elliot's peacocks. 

         Robert McCracken Peck, Curator of Art and Senior Fellow of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, has been consulting with Castro on the exhibit. A renowned author, naturalist and historian, Peck says the upcoming Kohl exhibit is remarkable for the quality of prints and illustrations being shown.  “This exhibition includes representative examples of some of the most beautiful, popular, and/or influential books about birds to be published in Great Britain and the United States over the last two hundred years,” he writes in an introduction to the exhibition. 

         “Whether the artists have household names, like America’s Audubon or Britain’s Gould, or are less well-known figures, the quality of their work is consistently high,” he adds. “Many of these works of art were created as illustrations to accompany scientific texts, but the artists went beyond mere technical expertise to capture the birds and their environments in extraordinary ways.” 

          Located on the ground floor of the Gibson Center for the Arts on the Washington College campus, 300 Washington Avenue, the Kohl Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. and closed Monday and Tuesday. For more information on the gallery, visit http://kohlgallery.washcoll.edu/.

 William Beebe's portrait of Chinese ring-necked pheasants.

College Event to Honor Baltimore's Top Librarian Hayden and Palestinian Musician Ashkar

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Fall Convocation at Washington College will honor the head of one of the oldest public library systems in the nation, a Palestinian musician using his art to unite Arabs and Jews, and two young graduates who have distinguished themselves in their careers—one in theater, the other in international space exploration. The September 6 event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 3:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre in the Gibson Center for the Arts on campus.

            Dr. Carla Hayden, chief executive officer of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library and a past president of the American Library Association (ALA), is the perfect honoree to help the campus celebrate the renovation of its own Miller Library, a major construction project nearing completion. Hayden is credited with revitalizing the historic Pratt system, bolstering its financial health and expanding its outreach to the city’s neighborhoods.

            The Library Journal named Hayden the 1995 Librarian of the Year, and Ms. magazine named her one its 2003 Women of the Year. The Ms. honor recognized Dr. Hayden’s leadership of the ALA, especially praising her stand against the provision of the USA Patriot Act that allowed the FBI to delve into the borrowing records of library users. “Hayden’s stance against the Patriot Act is part and parcel of her vision of the library as an integral element of democracy,” the magazine summed up.

            Hayden grew up in Chicago, where she earned her undergraduate degree from Roosevelt University and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Prior to taking the top spot in Baltimore in 1993, she was chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library. A former member of the Washington College Board of Visitors and Governors (2001-2004) she now serves on the National Museum and Library Services Board. Washington College will confer on Hayden an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

            Also receiving an honorary degree will be Dr. Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, an Israeli Arab violinist who has earned international praise for bringing young Jews and Arabs together through music. At age 34, he has already created a conservatory and an orchestra and been recognized with a Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award.  Washington College will award him an honorary Doctor of Arts degree.

            A native of Nazareth and a graduate of Tel Aviv University, Ashkar earned a master’s degree in music in Germany before returning to his hometown determined to open musical doors for Arab youth there. Six years ago, with support from the Barenboim-Said Foundation, he opened what is now the Polyphony Conservatory in Nazareth and hired some of the best young Jewish musicians from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to teach his students.

            Three years later, in 2011, he helped found the Polyphony Foundation and launch the Polyphony Youth Orchestra. “By introducing classical music to our young students, we open their minds, we open their hearts,” he has said of Polyphony’s mission. “They  become creative and constructive members of their community and Israeli society, and very quickly they become part of the international community.”

            Two members of the Washington College Class of 1998—Karen DiLossi and Tim Tawney—will receive Alumni Horizon Ribbons, which recognize graduates from the past 15 years who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, service or scholarship in their lives.

             Karen DiLossi, co-artistic director of Madhouse Theater Company in Philadelphia, earned her undergraduate degree in drama and history at Washington College, then completed a master’s in theater at Villanova University. She has worked as stage manager, director, and producer for many respected theater companies. During her eight-year tenure as Director of Programs and Services for the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, DiLossi produced and directed the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre.                

            DiLossi is the first national director of Arts in Sacred Places, part of the Partners for Sacred Places program, which advocates for sound stewardship and active community use of America’s older religious properties. Her pioneering “Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places” program is established in Philadelphia and Chicago and is expanding nationwide.

         Timothy R. Tawney will be honored for his contributions to the nation’s space-exploration program, including last month’s flawless landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. A 12-year veteran of NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) who first joined the agency as a Presidential Management Fellow, he currently serves as a Senior International Programs Specialist and Space Science Team Lead in the Office of International and Interagency Relations. In that role, he creates and oversees NASA’s collaborative agreements with scientists and engineers around the world on projects that range from the study of the Sun, to the exploration of the outer planets of our Solar System and the farthest reaches of the Universe.

            Tawney graduated from Washington College magna cum laude with honors in International Studies and Economics and a minor in German. As an undergraduate, he rowed for the Men’s Crew team, joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity, and participated in the Cater Society of Junior Fellows. He also studied abroad—in London, England as part of the Hansard Scholars Program; in Berlin, Germany; and in Manila, the Philippines, where he interned for the U.S. State Department. He went on to earn a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University.

           The Convocation ceremony also will recognize high-achieving students for their academic performance the previous year. Afterward, guests can congratulate all the honorees at a light reception in the Underwood Lobby and visit the adjacent Kohl Gallery to see the exhibition “What Comes Later,” which features multimedia works by studio-art faculty Heather Harvey and Benjamin Bellas.

Kohl Gallery Exhibit Features Multi-Media Work by New Studio-Art Faculty at the College

A still from a Benjamin Bellas landscape video. 

Heather Harvey's "Stretched Membrane," 2012, in plaster, fiberglass,  and acrylic.

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Kohl Gallery at Washington College showcases the work of two new studio-art professors in an exhibition opening Friday, August 24.  “What Comes Later,” featuring multimedia works by Heather Harvey and Benjamin Bellas, will run through September 16. A reception with the artists, both members of the Art and Art History Department, will be held Friday, August 31, from 5 to 7 p.m. Both the exhibition and the reception are free and open to the public.

            Bellas works in photography, video, sculpture and performance and has exhibited his work around the globe, from Istanbul and Hong Kong to Los Angeles and Chicago. He earned a degree in studio arts from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has also taught as a member of the faculty in the Contemporary Practices Department.

            Bellas, who begins teaching this fall, says he is “honored and excited” to be joining the faculty at Washington College.  “The exhibition will be, first and foremost, an opportunity for the community to familiarize themselves with the work of Professor Harvey and myself,” he adds. “My hope is that it may also facilitate a dialogue within the community regarding the state of the visual arts at Washington College and beyond, past, present, and future.”

            Harvey, who finished her first year of teaching at the College with the Spring 2012 semester, says she was drawn to the opportunity of being in a small art department where she could have a big impact. She adds that she is energized by the atmosphere on a liberal arts campus.  

            “Artists work with science, philosophy, poetry, music, psychology, politics, and the natural world,” she explains.  “So, an interdisciplinary approach is the natural state for most artists, and certainly for me.  Interactions with colleagues, students, and visiting scholars are one of the primary pleasures of being part of an academic community.”

            Harvey, who received her MFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007, began her career with paintings, drawings, and some digital work and has since moved towards a hybrid form of two-dimensional art and sculpture. This past January, Harvey's work was included in the group show “Re-Generation” at The Painting Center in New York.

             “We are very pleased to feature our two new studio-art faculty in the exhibit,” says Patrice DiQuinzio, associate provost and director of the Kohl Gallery.  “Their work is very thought provoking, and I’m sure the community will really enjoy it.”

         The Kohl Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m. and closed Monday and Tuesday. For more information, visit http://kohlgallery.washcoll.edu/.

Lecturer Fatma Ismail Explores Foreign Influences on the Art of Ancient Egypt

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Visiting lecturer Fatma Ismail will talk about how ancient Egyptian art affected the rest of the world and was, in turn, affected by other cultures when she presents “Continuity and Transformation: Late Period Egypt,” on Wednesday, April 18 at Washington College. Her talk will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, John S. Toll Science Center, on the College campus.

During the time period from about 712 to 332 B.C., Egyptian artistic influences, Egyptian gods and their sanctuaries were widely attested to over the whole range of the Mediterranean world. Through a succession of conquests by Kushites, Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks, the Egyptians and their art were, in turn, changed by close contact with foreign cultures. Examining this rich period of ancient Egyptian history, Ismail will illustrate how Egyptian art exhibited both unique qualities and evidence of cross-cultural influences.

Ismail received her Ph.D. from the Near Eastern Department of the Johns Hopkins University in 2009 after completing her undergraduate studies and a preliminary master’s degree in Egyptology at Helwan University in Egypt. She shares her broad knowledge of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world up to medieval Islam as a visiting lecturer in Art and Art History at Washington College. She curated the exhibition “For Now and Forever: Funerary Artifacts from Ancient Egypt” in the Kohl Gallery last fall.

The April 18 lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the William James Forum, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Department of Philosophy and Religion. For more information, visit http://art.washcoll.edu/.