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Changes, Changes…
Membership Changes
The Institute for the Humanities is pleased to announce some exciting new membership and programming changes designed to make its programs available to more people. It will no longer be necessary to be a member in the Institute to be able to attend most Institute events.
Under the new system, the general public is invited to come to most Institute programs, and individual lectures can be paid for at the door. Like many other organizations in our area, the Institute will continue to have a voluntary “patron” membership that will support the work of the Institute. Those choosing to be patron members will receive discounts on all events for the program year.
Current members (renewed as of Fall ’07) will be considered patron members for all of 2008 and will receive reduced fees on programs for the entire calendar year. Another benefit of the patron membership will be the events reserved for members only that will be scheduled from time to time.
The Institute is a non-profit corporation that was founded 27 years ago to offer educational programs and conferences in the disciplines of the humanities to central Texans. When the late Harry Wilmer founded the organization, his idea was to bring well known speakers to Salado and have them interact with local residents on an informal basis. For this reason, he purposefully kept the organization small and attendance was restricted to members of the Institute.
During the past several years, the Institute board has attempted to grow the membership and open up its programs to more people. However, mandatory membership as a requirement for attending programs hindered participation and that growth. For this reason, in late 2007, the board voted to eliminate the membership requirement to attend most events.
Membership
We invite you to become a patron
member and support the work of the Institute. Those
wishing to become voluntary, Patron members of the Institute may do so at the
following levels:
Supporting -- $35.00
for a single membership, and
$65.00 for a dual membership.
Contributing -- $200/year
Sustaining - $500/ year
Directors Circle - $1,000
Silver Circle - $5,000
Golden Circle - $10,000
Patron member
benefits include discounts on all Institute events, programs for members only,
advance notice and priority registration, and recognition in publications
To join, please complete the annual Membership
Form here or the one received in
your annual membership packet with your most current information and send it to
the Institute. Membership dues are still tax deductible. As always, you may pay either by check or VISA/MasterCard.
Program
Year Change
The Institute is also changing
to a single, year-long program series instead of a spring and fall series.
This will give the Institute the flexibility to add subjects and to
address topics of current interest as they arise throughout the year, and will
allow for creative programming through possible joint ventures with other local
organizations.
There will still be four
to six programs throughout the year, including the annual Wilmer Memorial
Lecture in June. In
addition, some smaller events and joint sponsorships of other activities during
the year are planned.
The 2008 lectures will provide a forum to include topics
of concern to a broad audience and will include such topical subjects as
the environment and politics, as well as more traditional humanities programs
about the arts – all under the banner of Creativity!,
the Institute theme for the year.
In keeping with theses
changes, the Institute announces the following confirmed programs for the year:
-
Dr. Michael Collins, UT archeology professor and
director of the Gault archeological site in west Bell County,
will speak on the importance of the Clovis artifacts
found there. His talk, "The Gault Site and the Search for the First
Americans," will address the global issue of when, by what route(s), by
whom, and with what cultural trappings the Western Hemisphere was first inhabited by humans.
That
talk will be Sunday, Aug. 10, from 4-6 p.m. in Salado at the Celebration
Center. The talk is open to the
public. A reception with Dr. Collins will follow. (Note the program date has
been changed from Aug 3rd!)
There
will also be field trip to the Gault site later in the year. Advance
registration required. Space is limited. Preference given to Institute
members.
Newspaper columnists and
television commentators Cal Thomas,
conservative, and Bob Beckel,
liberal, co-authors of Common Ground:
How to Stop the Partisan War that is Destroying America will give a
joint presentation.
This program will be a lively look at saving the “middle ground” from
the Red State/Blue State madness by two of the country’s top political
journalists. It will be a creative look at politics in this election year.
This
special lecture is being co-sponsored by the University of Mary
Hardin-Baylor and will be held at the Lord Conference Center in the
Parker Academic Center at UMHB; Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, from 6-8 p.m.
A reception with the speakers will follow. Open to the public.
Renowned Psychologist Dr.
Mihalyi
Csikszentmihalyi, will speak in Salado
on Saturday, Oct. 18,
from 5-7 p.m., on the
concept of creativity and “flow”.
Csikszentmihalyi
is most well known for his best-selling book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He defined and
popularized the concept of "flow"— as in "in the
flow"— as our experience of optimal fulfillment and engagement. Flow,
whether in creative arts, athletic competition, engaging work, or spiritual
practice, is a deep and uniquely human motivation to excel, exceed, and
triumph over limitation.
Acclaimed, best-selling author
Edwin “Bud” Shrake (Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book, Custer’s Brother’s Horse) has
agreed to an appearance in Salado later in the year for a short presentation
and Q & A. Date, time and location to be announced.
Other events are in the works for later in the year in collaboration with the Cultural Activities Center in Temple, Southwestern University in Georgetown, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, The Salado Library, Music in Salado and The Central Texas Astronomical Society. These presentations will deal with creative solutions to the environmental crisis, creative leadership, and creativity in literature, music and the fine arts. Stay tuned!
To register in advance for events, contact Erin at ifh@vvm.com or call the Institute office at 947-5729. Tickets may also be bought at the door on the day of the event.
Wilmer
Memorial Lecture
The topic for the Wilmer Memorial Lecture this June will be Education: The American Civil Religion. Former University
president and educator, Kaye Howe, Ph.D., will give the lecture.
Saturday, June 7, 4-6 p.m.,
Salado Civic Center, Reception following.
Free and Open to the Public
.
Biographical Information
Dr. Howe’s commitment to
education has a long history. She received both her B.A. and her Ph.D., in
Comparative Literature, from Washington University in St. Louis. Following that,
she joined the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she
taught and served as chair of the graduate program in comparative literature
before becoming the university's vice chancellor for academic services in 1981.
She became president of
Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado in 1990 and in 1996 assumed the
presidency of Jones International University, an accredited distance learning
organization, in Boulder. She’s been affiliated with the National Science
Digital Library since 2001.
During her career, Dr. Howe
has devoted sizable energy to community service.
Her involvement has ranged from chairing local arts boards to serving as
president of the I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County. In 2004, the YWCA
of Boulder County honored her as Woman
of the Year, and the following year she was named Pacesetter in
Community Service by the Boulder daily newspaper.
Currently she is a Colorado
Commissioner on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education. She has
served on the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and
the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Howe’s many ties to
Salado include her mother, Ruth, and a longtime association with the Institute
for the Humanities. She presented one of the first lectures during the
Institute’s first season in 1981.
Information From Institute Spring
2007 Programs:
The spring lecture series entitled, "Privacy Lost: At What Cost?"
netted attendees much useful information. Speaker Beth Givens, the director the
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, provided a Privacy Survival Guide as well as a
reading list of privacy publications to participants. The Privacy Survival Guide
can be downloaded at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website:
www.privacyrights.org. A bibliography of Privacy Publications is available here.
Recordings of Speakers
Available
CD's of the lectures by these most recent speakers and others are available for
purchase through the Institute. Audio tapes or CD's are available for almost all
of the speakers who have presented to the Institute during the last 26 years.
Audio tapes are $11.00 and CD's are $15.00 each. To order, please contact Erin
at the Institute at ifh@vvm.com or at 254/947-5729.
Teacher and Student Scholarships
Available
A special word to local area
students and teachers: The
institute has a policy of providing scholarships to educators at the Salado,
Temple, Killeen and Belton School
Districts. Two educators from each of these school district are invited to
attend each lecture of the Institute free of charge.
In addition, a limited number of
scholarships are available for students in surrounding colleges and universities
for each lecture. Some scholarships are also available fore high school
students. Please contact Erin
Burress at ifh@vvm.com or call 947-5729 for
information on how to access the scholarships.
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