Events
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10/26/2009 08:00 PM 10/29/2009 07:59 PM
James Cuno on "The Promise of Museums"
Over the course of these three lectures I will explore “The Promise of Museums.” I will locate its terms in the Enlightenment ideas that informed the founding of the British Museum, and not only because the history of public encyclopedic museums begins with that museum--the world’s first secular, public, national museum--but because those ideas still apply in our current era. Specifically, I will consider the regard for science as a means of inquiry based on the observation and analysis of things; history, as a means of interpretation, of making sense of meaningful relationships between things; and cosmopolitanism as a framework for understanding the implications of such meanings. Each of these ideas has come under considerable pressure over the past century. Confidence in science—in knowing things, discovering truths, and the belief in the idea of progress—has been challenged by discoveries in science itself and the use to which politics has put them. Confidence in history has been challenged as little more than myth-making, a weaving of “master” or meta-narratives to justify positions of power. And cosmopolitanism as intellectually soft, not rooted in reality of modern, state-based geopolitics.
James Cuno has been President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago since September 2004. Previously he served as Professor and Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London from 2002-2004, and as Professor and Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums from 1991-2002.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, James Cuno has written and lectured widely on topics ranging from French caricature of the 18th and 19th centuries to contemporary American art, as well as on the role of art museums in contemporary American cultural policy. He is the author of Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage (Princeton University Press, May 2008). A top flight scholar, with a remarkable reputation here and abroad, he writes extensively on the role of museums – the current state and future of American art museums.
http://campbell.rice.edu/home.aspx
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10/26/2009 08:00 PM 11/01/2009 06:59 PM
Our Town
Through November 1
Hubbard Stage, Alley Theatre
Alley Theatre kicks off the 09-10 season with the enduring, unsurpassed American masterpiece, Our Town. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Thornton Wilder's Our Town follows the courtship and marriage of George and Emily, and in following the two, reveals the hidden mystery behind the everyday. Wilder's portrait of life, love and death is set in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, a fictional New England town at the start of the 20th century. With a penetrating wisdom about living in community, this play is an enduring American treasure and one of the greatest plays of world theatre. Recommended for general audiences.
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10/26/2009 08:00 PM 11/07/2009 06:59 PM
The Elixir of Love
Now through November 7
Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center
A bel canto favorite, in a fresh production from Glyndebourne! Lovesick poor boy Nemorino falls for the wealthy minx Adina and turns to the scheming Doctor Dulcamara for help . Cast includes internationally-acclaimed singers Ekaterina Siurina, John Osborn, Liam Bonner and Alessandro Corbelli.
Tickets start at $23.
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10/26/2009 08:00 PM 11/08/2009 06:59 PM
Mary Poppins
Now Through November 8
Sarofim Hall, Hobby Center
Combining the best of the original stories by P. L. Travers and the beloved Walt Disney film, the Tony® Award-winning MARY POPPINS is everything you'd hope for in a Broadway musical—and more. Produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, the show includes such wonderful songs as Chim Chim Cher-ee, A Spoonful of Sugar, Let's Go Fly a Kite and, of course, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The NY Daily News hails MARY POPPINS as "a roof-raising, toe-tapping, high-flying extravaganza!" Don't miss all the magic of Broadway's super hit musical, and let your imagination take flight.
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10/26/2009 08:00 PM 11/15/2009 06:59 PM
Gruesome Playground Injuries
Through November 15
Neuhaus Stage, Alley Theatre
A new play by Rajiv Joseph, Gruesome Playground Injuries charts two lives, using scars, injuries and calamity as the mile markers. An imaginative tour de force, the play explores why people hurt themselves to gain another's love, and the cumulative effect of such damage, of such demands. Recommended for mature audiences. Strong language, profanity, violence.
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