Most of the world gets its higher education in big public universities or specialized technical or vocational schools. But small liberal arts schools are opening in pockets of Europe, Asia and Africa. Some are branch campuses of U.S. schools, but many were founded by graduates of American colleges who wanted to spread liberal education in their own countries.
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Kudelka Premiere Buoys Ballet B.C.
“After the seven-week hiatus of Ballet B.C.’s shutdown due to financial crisis, these performers have been thrown into the fire. And yet you get the distinct feeling they’re rising from the ashes.” Said fire is this weekend’s world premiere of James Kudelka’s The Goldberg Variations – Side 2: Adam & Eve & Steve.
Hirshhorn Finally Gets A Director
After a search of more than a year, the Smithsonian has chosen Richard Koshalek to be the next director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Koshalek presided over extraordinary growth in his 17 years (1983-99) at MOCA in Los Angeles; last year he was forced out as president of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design in a conflict over tuition and a $50 million library designed by Frank Gehry.
Chicago’s Newberry Library Cuts Loose Newberry Consort
Facing a financial squeeze, the Library will cease funding Chicago’s flagship early music ensemble after this season. But the now-autonomous Consort is landing on its feet, with a new performance-and-teaching arrangement that, says director David Douglass, “in many ways… offers us a healthier arena in which to work.”
‘Can You Credit All Of The Fuss That Was Made Of A Cripple?’
That’s the opening line of the autobiography of Christy Nolan, the prize-winning writer with cerebral palsy who died this week at 43. Francis X. Clines pays tribute, and remembers how Nolan described a book tour: “Breasting along gold limousines, tinted glass creating able access to mighty loot.”
Strapped CBC May Need To Sell Assets
The corporation’s president says that the network, hit hard by an advertising downturn and faced with an unsympathetic Conservative government, may need “to monetize some of our assets.” Such a monetization “could mean anything from unloading Radio 3 to putting a website up for sale.”
Or Worse, CBC May Have To Air (Shudder) More U.S. Programming
“Mr. Lacroix said a number of options were on the table which ‘would substantially change the very nature of our service to Canadians.’ The first is more American programming, which would make the CBC more similar to private Canadian broadcasters who rely heavily on U.S. shows.”
Asheville Lyric Opera, Bucking Trend, Decides Not To Cancel Season
“The opera’s board of directors voted unanimously Thursday night to proceed with Rigoletto March 27-28… The company was pinched by a decline in contributions and box office revenue, and needed to raise $24,000 to produce the opera.”
What The Modern World Owes To Medieval Islam
Many of us already know that it was the Arabs who preserved – and built on – the scientific knowledge of classical antiquity through Europe’s Dark Ages. “More important than any individual piece of knowledge, though, was the Islamic world’s fundamental realisation that science can grant humans power over nature.”
What Drives Some Of Us To Suicide?
“What the statistics do not tell us – and what psychologists most want to know – is exactly which people are most at risk. The vast majority of depressed, hopeless people do not commit suicide, so why do some do it?” One researcher thinks he may have found an answer.