October

How did we get to Oregon, and how have we reimagined outer space since 1800? We will first trace revealing similarities between the Lewis and Clark expedition and the recent Voyager project, which successfully poked a probe beyond the solar system. In the second hour, we will reflect on Oregon's place in American geography, successive conquests of space by American inventions, and paradoxes that ensue from bringing the exotic under technical domination.

Albert Furtwangler grew up in Seattle, studied at Amherst College and Cornell University. He taught English and American literature at Mount Allison University, a liberal arts college in Maritime Canada. His teaching specialties were poetry and the 18th century, but his research became focused on documents by Western American explorers and settlers. His books include "Acts of Discovery: Visions of America in the Lewis and Clark Journals, "Answering Chief Seattle" and "Bringing Indians to the Book".

"Cyber conflict is a new and continually developing threat, which can include foreign interference in elections, industrial sabotage and attacks on infrastructure. Russia has been accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential elections in the United States and China is highly committed to using cyberspace as a tool of national policy. Dealing with cyber conflict will require new ways of looking at 21st century warfare. Is the United States prepared to respond to such threats?"

In this lecture, we'll see how Giuseppe Verdi's operas - which were often about throwing off the yoke of oppression - became a rallying point for the Italian people. Verdi himself - a tough, uncompromising, independent straight talker - offered Italians a masculine, creative no-nonsense image that jibed perfectly with national aspirations of the time. The big history behind this lecture is how Verdi almost inadvertently became the embodiment of the Italian Risorgimento: the Italian rebirth, the Italian question for nationhood.

Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Great Courses.

It's traditional that in operas and oratorios the arias, duets, and other solo ensembles are meant to express very personal feelings, whereas choruses represent those of a group. Verdi, with his outspoken nature, was a master at this powerful means of group expression, as we certainly saw in the Chorus of Hebrew Slaves. In this hour will continue to hear and enjoy Verdi's mastery in choruses from Il trovatore, La traviata, Macbeth, La forza del destino, and Aida. There may even be time to hear the terrifying Dies irae from his Requiem, in which mankind expresses its horror and fear of the Last Judgment.

Dr. Holmquist majored in voice and organ at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, singing with the renowned St. Olaf Choir. She holds a Master’s degree in Music Education from Western Oregon University, and a DMA in Music Education and Choral Conducting from the University of Oregon. She is a distinguished member of the Institute for Continued Learning.

The first part of this presentation will focus on the areas ICL frequents each week (the intersection of 12th) and Mill Street with a specific focus on how the current buildings/businesses and transportation hubs have evolved. I will structure this as a kind of virtual tour comparing what things look like today with what they looked like in the past, drawing on maps and photographs. The second part will be structured as a game show/pub trivia testing your knowledge of what Salem was like a hundred years ago based off of what we can learn out of the Salem City Directory and news papers of that time period.

Kylie Pine is the curator at the Willamette Heritage Center where she takes care of the collections and helps facilitate new exhibits. She was born and raised in Salem, attending South Salem High School and Willamette University. She holds a Masters Degree in Museum Studies from the University of Washington and feels fortunate to be back in her home town, helping to preserve and tell its rich and interesting history.

Professor G. DeLeonibus teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced French language as well as French literature and cinema. His literature courses cover the Middle Ages through the 20th century with the focus on the integration of history, politics, art, and music into the study of literature.

Ron Hays, who lives in the Mt. Angel-Scotts Mills area, has an extensive background in nonprofit management, strategic planning, and community outreach. He most recently served as president of the Department of Mission Advancement, a philanthropic subsidiary of the Mountain West Investment Corporation. Before that, he was president of Marion-Polk Food Share.

"These kids now'a'days!" and "What's this world coming to?" If you've ever uttered these words or thought something similar, get to know what creates and sustains differences in the current generations. There are five generations in the workforce today and seven generations alive. While the cycle of generations leaving and entering the workplace isn't anything new, the rate of change is accelerating more rapidly in recent years due to the large number of boomers, and will continue to accelerate until most of them have retired. This generational shift is important to take note of as the ranks of leadership turn over. And if there are that many different perspectives working together, how do we manage to satisfy them all or, at least, complement each other to get the work done? It is also important to focus on what unites us because the younger generations will be making decisions that will affect us as we age. Generational differences and similarities--a gap worth closing.

Throughout history, humor and satire have played an important role in promoting democracy and boosting morale during peacetime and combat. The military cartoons created during these times were often rendered by talented artists who understood how to make light of a serious situation. These cartoonists expressed a humorous, but often truthful account of the varied opinions shared by enlisted men and women. This presentation will highlight a variety of cartoons from the Army and Navy Military Art Collections.

Curator Salem Art Association.

Winner of 5 Academy Awards, the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed here in Salem. Dennie Brooks, daughter of Superintendent, will tell how the Oregon State Hospital was chosen as the movie site as well as stories from the making of the movie. Also learn how the Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health continues to tell the story of the making of the movie and the evolution of Mental Health care in Oregon.

Hazel Patton is the Board President of Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health. She received an Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Willamette University 2018.

Enjoy a nostalgic trip back in time to the Golden Age of Radio. ICL Play Readers will present two radio shows from the 40’s and 50’s. Maybe as a child you listened to "Our Miss Brooks" which starred Eve Arden. Another show from that era was "The Bickersons" which featured Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Your ICL friends will treat you once again to the entertainment that kept families tuned in each week to the living room radio, the predominant media of the time.

This award-winning author retired with one goal in mind: to write a novel inspired by the life of her great-great-grandmother. A child laborer in Victorian England, her ancestor converted to the Mormon Church and immigrated to Utah in 1856. In Brigham Young's remote desert kingdom, she became a child bride to a 54-year old Mormon polygamist. Her historical novel takes place against the backdrop of the fiery Mormon Reformation.

Nadene LeCheminant has degrees in art and history from Utah State University. While working in the University Communications office at Willamette University, she was recognized with eight writing awards.

Description TBA

Ms. Silva will discuss her role in the overall management and operations of the county's emergency management program. This includes planning and directing emergency activities and projects; teaming with other agencies in the public, private and non-profit sectors to conduct and coordinate preparedness, response and recovery activities; and updating and maintaining the county's comprehensive emergency operations plan.

Ms. Silva also served as the Emergency and Risk Manager for Chemeketa Community College and Emergency Planning Specialist for the State of Nebraska Military Department. Ms. Silva graduated from Grand Canyon University in 2012, where she earned a Master of Science in Leadership, Disaster Preparedness & Executive Fire Leadership, as well as California State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice.

Joan will discuss various rulings from the Supreme Court.

Joan Robinson has been a member of ICL since 2014. In her working life she was a lawyer in the Office of Legislative Counsel, Oregon Legislative Assembly. She has a JD from Rutgers, an MA in Philosophy from Columbia and a BA in Philosophy from Wellesley College.

My students and I have been monitoring how bee abundance varies along a continuum from the urban Willamette University campus to restored prairie at Zena. We have found that non-native honey bees are common at all our sites, but that some of the hundreds of local native bean are absent in urban areas, suggesting that they have declined as the valley developed

Professor Lindh is Continuing Instructor of Biology and Associate Director, Sustainability Institute at Willamette University. Briana does research on plant community ecology, focused on prairie restoration and forests. Her most recent publication is "Changes in urban plant phenology in the Pacific Northwest from 1959 to 2016: anthropogenic warming and natural oscillation". Her current project involves documenting bee communities on urban and rural communities. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in 2003.

Oregon artist Betty LaDuke has a career that spans more than 60 years. This talk will discuss LaDuke's life and art - from her childhood growing up in the Bronx and formative years in the 1950s in Mexico to her teaching position at Southern Oregon University and the world travels that continue to influence her work today. The talk will look at a range of LaDuke's art and specifically at the two areas her work most often addresses - cultural diversity and social Justice. 86 years old and still going strong, LaDuke is truly a remarkable force and inspiration for anyone who believes that art and community combined can change lives.

Jonathan Bucci is Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University. He curates exhibitions of work by regional artists and is responsible for the care and management of the museum's permanent collection. His most recent exhibitions include George Rodriguez: Embellished Narratives (Summer 2019) and Make Your Mark: Work from the Rick Bartow Print Archive (current). In 2017, he curated Betty LaDuke: Social Justice Revisted presented on campus at Willamette University and is the author of the catalog essay for LaDuke's retrospective catalog at the Coos Art Museum opening in October. Bucci has worked at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art since 2006. Prior to to coming to Willamette, he was Assistant Director and Curator of Collections at the American University Museum in Washington, DC. He holds an MFA in Painting from American University and BA in Studio Art from Connecticut College.

In describing a piece of art, we use words like composition, contrast, and texture--but what do those descriptors really mean? Lynne will explore the artists' structural tools and how to identify them .

Lynne is a Teaching Artist based on the Oregon Coast. She has degrees from Linfield College and Pacific Northwest College of Art. A native Oregonian, she began her career at Pendleton Woolen Mills followed by many years as a retail store owner in Lake Oswego. She now teaches throughout the Northwest and is represented by several fine art galleries.

As schoolchildren, many of us were taught that Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere and that the Europeans who came to the New World brought civilization to what had been a barbaric wilderness. However, over the last 50 years this Eurocenytic narrative has been discredited. In its place is a more nuanced version of what happens when different cultures collide as a result of predatory, invasive action. This lecture will take us back to a time before our national consciousness became so enlightened, to the 400th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America. It was a celebration that brought about the composition of one of the great chestnuts in the orchestral repertoire, Antonin Dvorak's Symphony no. 9, the symphony "From the New World."

It's never enough to hear just snippets and excerpts of this beloved work! Professor Greenberg seems ever so slightly patronising in calling The New World Symphony a "chestnut", implying that it's not too exciting. During this segment we'll experience each movement in turn and listen for elements that seem to reference this Czech composer's unique, newcomer's impression of the United States. These fresh eyes give us a unique perspective.

Richard Wagner's towering, four-evening long mega-masterwork entitled The Ring of the Nibelung--or The Ring-- is typically discussed as an epic retelling of various Nordic sagas, central to which is a magic ring that grants its owner the power to rule the world. But The Ring is much more than that. It is, in fact, a metaphor for and a radical critique of 19th-century European society: a story of greed, corruption, sacrifice, and hope. The big history behind this lecture is the extent to which Extraordinary Ring cycle is a commentary on contemporary politics and society.

Hear and be amazed by the life and voice of baritone Thomas Quasthoff, a Grammy-winning classical performer who would most certainly have been sent to a death camp by Hitler, as an undesirable. He's not Jewish, but he is certainly deformed, and like Alberich is the height of a dwarf: his mother took Thalidomide while carrying him. His huge soul and incredible voice have brought him to the greatest performing venues in the world, but not without discrimination along the way.

Bob Plantz "A Glimpse of Goya"

Bill Blitz "James Kirk: Local Legend"

Bob Muir "Gordon Russell: A Champion of Design in the Arts & Crafts Movement"

Ken Panck "Composite Photography"

Beverage service will be provided by WU Catering, and goodies by ICL members with last names M-Z.

Nuclear weapons have not gone away, and the Trump administration has brought a new urgency, if not a new approach to dealing with them. The President has met with Vladimir Putin as Kim Jong-un to discuss denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and President Trump has decertified the Obama nuclear deal with Iran. To what degree should past nuclear talks guide future U.S. nuclear arms negotiations? How can we stabilize the nuclear future?

"Music Potpourri" presented by ICL Members:

Roger Budke: "Some Insights into Improvisation".

Bob and Kathy Plantz: "Irish Music".

Betty Kasoff: "Michael Jackson and 'Thriller"".

Lee Coyne: "Judy Garland/Gene Kelly".

Kathleen McKierman: "James Galway, Flautist Extraordinaire".