A few of the literally thousands of salt and pepper shaker sets at the Salt and Pepper Shaker Gallery in Traer, IA (pic: Kathleen Shaughnessy) I am writing my post on a very bittersweet day--late this afternoon, I will be…
Blog
The Arts Scene in Iowa City
While Hannah and I are interns for The Englert, a lot of our job this summer has been to map out the arts ecosystem in Iowa City and to learn how to make it more accessible to the entire community…
Interview with Dick Claeys
At ninety-two, Dick Claeys is the oldest active rolle bolle player in Iowa and something of a local legend. In the interview I conducted with him, he spoke about his ninety years of experience playing the game that his father…
Speaking of Music: Converting Program Notes into Podcasts
In addition to writing program notes for parts of Hancher's 2019-2020 season, I am also spending a part of my internship recording those concert comments as a podcast, titled, "Tonight's Program." The title comes from Art Canter, who wrote program…
How staff members at Iowa support humanities education
When we think of the people that populate a college campus, faculty members are often the first people that come to mind. This is especially true at research intensive universities like Iowa. But when it comes to expanding our knowledge…
Writing about the Arts: “Boots on the Ground” in Spillville, IA
What does research look like? Can everything be found in a library or online? What can we gain from experiencing a place that is otherwise fully-documented in books and articles? In 1893, Antonín Dvořák spent a summer in Spillville, Iowa.…
Community and Collaboration
Downtown Block Party 2019 The Strengthen, Grow, Evolve Campaign at The Englert is in full swing. On Saturday, June 22nd, I arrived at the SGE tent for the Downtown Iowa Block Party. Despite the calls for rain all day, the…
Making a space for students at Hancher
Tabling at UI Orientation is a great way to meet with new students and discuss how Hancher can be part of their lives. When students first step onto the University of Iowa campus their first year, it is an explosion…
Let’s Talk (with) Culverts
This is a twelve-inch-wide culvert pipe. I point it out to you only because I needed it pointed out to me, by Chris Ward, the city administrator of the town of Vinton, Iowa. I needed it pointed out to me…
Rolle bolle and community
In reading the introduction to Generous Thinking by Kathleen Fitzpatrick, I was struck by the moment where she differentiates between the notion of community as evoking a “dangerous, mythical notion of organic unity” instead of a “form of solidarity,…
