FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 7, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Wilson College will hold its annual Blessing of the Animals at noon on Wednesday, April 13, on the green in front of Thomson Hall. The blessing, which is conducted by the college chaplain’s office, is open to the public. All friendly pets in cages or on leads or leashes are welcome. Those attending are asked to clean up after their pets.
In the event of rain, the ceremony will move to Thomson Hall’s Alumnae Chapel.
MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Morgan, Wilson College Chaplain Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3307 Email: chaplain@wilson.edu
__________________________________
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 29 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation. Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college had a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 6, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — The Wilson College Veterinary Medical Technology Club will host dog washes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17, in the college veterinary building near the Park Avenue campus entrance off U.S. 11 (Philadelphia Avenue). The dog washes are open to the public.
The cost is $10 for small dogs, $15 for medium dogs, $20 for large dogs and $25 for extra-large or double-coated dogs. The fee includes a bath, nail trim, ear cleaning and drying — all of which will be performed by VMT Club members. Owners must present a paper copy of their dog’s rabies vaccination.
For more information, contact Wilson VMT Club President Jordan Massey at jordan.massey@wilson.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Cathy Mentzer, Manager of Media Relations Phone: 717-262-2604 Email: cathy.mentzer@wilson.edu
Chambersburg, Pa. — The Wilson College Drama Club, known as the Kittochtinny Players, will perform French playwright Marc Camoletti’s comedic farce, Boeing-Boeing, at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9, in Laird Hall. The shows are open to the public. No admission fee is required but donations will be accepted at the door.
The play centers on bachelor Bernard, who couldn't be happier living in Paris with three gorgeous flight attendants — all engaged to him and all unbeknownst to each other. But Bernard’s perfect life gets bumpy when his friend, Roberta, comes to stay and a new and speedier Boeing jet throws off all of his best-laid plans.
The performance, which is directed by Wilson junior Breana Park, contains moderate sexual themes and is not suggested for children. The production is sponsored by the Wilson College chaplain’s office.
Artist and educator Alejandro Durán brings his stunning photography and installation project – Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape – to the John Stewart Memorial Library’s new Sue Davison Cooley Art Gallery at Wilson College in March. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will open with a reception and artist’s talk on the first floor of Lenfest Learning Commons at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 22.
Washed Up eloquently depicts the worldwide impact of plastic pollution through Durán’s photographs of Sian Ka’an, a tropical nature reserve in Mexico, where the natural world intersects with trash carried there from around the globe by ocean currents.
Durán, who lives and works in Brooklyn, was born in Mexico and has been returning there for most of his life. In 2010 while visiting Sian Ka’an – a UNESCO World Heritage site with more than 20 pre-Columbian archaeological sites, a vast array of flora and fauna and the world’s second-largest coastal barrier reef – Durán noticed the plastic waste that was washing up on the beach. “It was shocking,” said Durán.
He has identified refuse from 50 nations on six continents that has washed ashore at Sian Ka’an.To raise awareness of the issue, Durán began artfully arranging the debris into the natural landscape, creating color-based, site-specific sculptures, which he then photographs.
“Conflating the hand of man and nature, at times I distribute the objects the way the waves would; at other times, the plastic takes on the shape of algae, roots, rivers, or fruit, reflecting the infiltration of plastics into the natural environment,” Durán says on his website, www.alejandroduran.com.
His photo series “depicts a new form of colonization by consumerism, where even undeveloped land is not safe from the far-reaching impact of our disposable culture,” says Durán. “Although inspired by the works of Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson, Washed Up speaks to the environmental concerns of our time and its vast quantity of discarded materials. The alchemy of Washed Up lies not only in converting a trashed landscape, but in the project’s potential to raise awareness and change our relationship to consumption and waste.”
At Wilson, Durán plans to display two large-scale photographs and show a short documentary film. “The last element is a small installation using actual garbage that had washed up in Mexico that I brought back to the United States,” Durán said recently. “I’m going to most likely create something specifically for the space.”
Washed Up has been exhibited at the Galería Octavio Paz at the Mexican consulate in New York, Hunter’s East Harlem Art Gallery and Montréal’s Art Public. Ville de MontréalthetheeThe series was also chosen to exhibit for The Fence 2015, an annual, summer-long photographic exhibition on display in Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta and Houston.
The exhibit at Wilson will run through May 27. The Cooley Gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays.
Durán is a multimedia artist working in photography, installation, and video. His work examines the fraught intersections of man and nature, particularly the tension between the natural world and an increasingly overdeveloped one. He has received numerous awards, including: En Foco’s New Works and Center’s Project Launch Juror’s Prize. He was Hunter College’s Artist-in-Residence for 2014-15. Durán’s work has been featured in Land Art, Art & Ecology Now and Unexpected Art. Articles about him have been featured in Wired, Huffington Post and ABC News, among others.
As an educator, Durán has taught youth and adult classes in photography and video since 2002 and has worked as a museum educator at the Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography. He is a founding board member for the New York City Charter School of the Arts and is a video producer whose clients include MoMA, the Museum of Arts & Design and Columbia University.
Durán’s appearance at Wilson College originated with Associate Professor of Spanish Wendell Smith, who had learned about the Washed Up project from a textbook he uses in his Spanish classes. Smith, who was part of a planning committee for a lecture series this year on climate change, contacted the artist about bringing his work to Wilson. “Because I’m a member of the global studies department, I thought we needed somebody with a perspective that this is a global problem that will require global solutions,” Smith said.
A second art exhibit is also opening at Wilson on March 22. The Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition will open with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Bogigian Gallery in Lortz Hall.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | April 1, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Wilson College will host an information session about its master’s degree program in the humanities at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, in Norland Hall. The session will cover how to apply and provide an overview of the program, including new courses and concentrations now available; financial aid; career opportunities; graduate assistantships and more. Registration may be completed at www.wilson.edu/MAHum. For more information, visit the website or contact Master of Humanities Program Director Michael Cornelius at michael.cornelius@wilson.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael Cornelius, Chair, Department of English and Communications Phone: 717-262-2712 Email: michael.cornelius@wilson.edu
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 29 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation.
Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college has a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
— END —
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 31, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles will address the senior class at the 146th annual Wilson College commencement ceremony, which begins at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 15.
Bundles — a former ABC News producer, chair of the National Archives Foundation and great-great-granddaughter and biographer of African-American icon Madam C.J. Walker — currently is at work on her fourth book, The Joy Goddess of Harlem: The Life and Times of A’Lelia Walker, a biography of her great-grandmother. Her previous books about her great-great-grandmother, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker, Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur and Madam Walker Theater Center: An Indianapolis Treasure have received a number of awards, including the New York Times Notable Book award and the Letitia Woods Brown Book Prize.
Bundles had a 30-year career as an executive and producer in network television news, most recently as director of talent development for ABC News in Washington, D.C. and New York. She was deputy bureau chief of ABC News in Washington from 1996 to 1999, after 20 years as a network television producer with ABC and NBC News. From 1989 until 1996 she was a producer with ABC’s “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.”
Bundles is a vice chair of the Columbia University board of trustees. She also serves as president and chair of the board of the National Archives Foundation, the nonprofit partner that provides funds and support for the exhibitions, programs and educational materials of the National Archives. She is also a sought-after speaker on entrepreneurship, philanthropy, financial literacy, women’s history and African-American history.
Among Bundles’ journalism awards are a du Pont Gold Baton and an Emmy. She has been inducted into the Black Memorabilia Hall of Fame and the North Central High School Hall of Fame in Indianapolis. She is a recipient of a 2002 Harvard Alumni Association Award for outstanding service through alumni activities, a 2004 Radcliffe Distinguished Service Award and a 2007 Columbia University Alumni Medalist.
In 2003, she created the “100 Books, 100 Women” campaign to expand the library at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York. She also spearheaded the national campaign that led to the 1998 U. S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage stamp of Madam Walker.
Bundles graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and Radcliffe College, and received a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an honorary doctorate from Indiana University. She is a member of the Alpha Iota Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.aleliabundles.com.
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 29 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation. Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college has a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 7, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — Artist and educator Alejandro Durán brings his stunning photography and installation project – Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape – to the John Stewart Memorial Library’s new Sue Davison Cooley Art Gallery at Wilson College in March. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will open with a reception and artist’s talk on the first floor of Lenfest Learning Commons at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 22.
MEDIA CONTACT: Wendell Smith, Associate Professor of Spanish Phone: 717 254-0599 Email: wendell.smith@wilson.edu
Founded in 1869, Wilson College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering bachelor’s degrees in 31 majors and seven master’s degrees. Wilson is committed to providing an affordable education that offers value to its students beyond graduation.
Located in Chambersburg, Pa., the college had a fall 2015 enrollment of 923, which includes students from 22 states and 16 countries. Visit www.wilson.edu for more information.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | March 22, 2016
Chambersburg, Pa. — The 2015-16 Orr Forum on Religion at Wilson College, which has been examining the multitude of apocalyptic themes in today’s world, will feature two lectures by Matthew A. Sutton, author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism, on Tuesday, March 29.
Sutton’s book has been acclaimed as the first comprehensive history of modern American evangelicalism to appear in a generation. His lecture at 6:30 p.m. will discuss his book, with the focus on American fundamentalists and evangelicals across the 20th century who took to the pulpit and airwaves to explain how Biblical apocalyptic prophecy made sense of a world ravaged by global wars, genocide and the threat of nuclear extinction.
In his “Preparing for Doomsday” lecture at 11 a.m., Sutton will analyze the work of cult leader David Koresh, end-of-times broadcaster Harold Camping and televangelist Billy Graham. While most Americans may want to separate the violent prophecies of Koresh, the date-setting urgency of Camping and the mainstream evangelicalism of Graham, the work of these prophets of apocalypse has far more in common than most realize, according to Sutton.
Both lectures are free and open to the public, and will be held in Wilson’s new Lenfest Learning Commons, located in the John Stewart Memorial Library.
Sutton is the Edward R. Meyer distinguished professor of history at Washington State University. He is currently working on a new book tentatively entitled FDR’s Army of Faith: Religion and Espionage in World War II. He is also the author of Jerry Falwell and the Rise of the Religious Right: A Brief History with Documents, and Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. He has published articles in venues ranging from the Journal of American History to the New York Times and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Fulbright Commission and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation. The Orr Forum brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and artists to engage in a theme through a series of performances and lectures. In “The Return of the Apocalyptic,’’ this year’s Orr Forum has discussed apocalyptic visions, both religious and secular—from the popular culture of “The Walking Dead” to 21st-century jihadist movements. “It seems that that apocalyptic has returned, if it ever went away, and that for all the anxiety about the future, the apocalyptic is a force here and now,” said forum organizer David True, chair of Wilson’s Department of Philosophy and Religion.
For more information, visit: http://www.wilson.edu/common-hour.
MEDIA CONTACT: David True, Associate Professor of Religion Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3396 Email: david.true@wilson.edu
Chambersburg, Pa. — The Wilson College 2015-16 World Travel Dinner and Film Series continues on Wednesday, March 16, with armchair vacation to Egypt, featuring dinner at 6 p.m. in Laird Hall followed by the film, “Secrets of Egypt” at 7 p.m. in Thomson Hall’s Alumnae Chapel.
Dinner, prepared by of SAGE Dining Services, will include: kushari (a vegetable and noodle dish), sayadeya (baked white fish), kabab wa kofta (grilled meats), falafel with warm pita, spinach with garlic, Egyptian palace bread and ghorayeba (Egyptian butter cookies).
Following dinner, “Secrets of Egypt,” narrated by filmmaker Marlin Darrah, will be shown.
Dinner tickets are $20 per person and film tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for children ages 10 to 18. To reserve tickets, call 717-262-2003.
MEDIA CONTACT: Joel Pagliaro, Director of Conferences and Special Events, Sage Dining Services Phone: 717-262-2003 Email: conferences@wilson.edu
Chambersburg, Pa. — Wilson College will hold a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, to mark the opening of the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition. The exhibit, presented by Wilson’s Department of Fine Arts and Dance, will continue through April 20 in the Bogigian Gallery, which is located on the second floor of Lortz Hall.
The show provides a venue for Wilson students to share their work with the community. The exhibition will feature drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics, photographs and mixed-media artwork with a wide array of subject matter and content.
This year’s juror is Alex Miller, a local artist and art teacher at Greencastle-Antrim Senior High School.
The exhibit is modeled after the famous salons of 19th century Paris, when the French government organized official exhibits that were juried by respected artists and academics. After some 3,000 artists were rejected from the salon in 1863, protests erupted over so many rejections, which forced Napoleon III to order an exhibit of the refused works.
In the spirit of the nonconforming artists who were refused from the state-sponsored event, Wilson’s student art exhibition will also include a Salon des Refusés (Salon of Refusals). Works rejected from the exhibit will be displayed in the second- and third-floor studios of Lortz Hall, and viewers are invited to decide for themselves now, as they were in Paris, if the art is substandard or not.
Another art exhibition is opening at Wilson on March 22. Noted artist Alejandro Durán brings his acclaimed photography and installation project – Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape – to the new Sue Davison Cooley Art Gallery in the John Stewart Memorial Library. It will open with a reception and artist’s talk at 4 p.m. on the first floor of the Lenfest Learning Commons.
The Bogigian Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free. For additional information or an appointment, contact Professor of Fine Arts Philip Lindsey at 717-264-4141, Ext. 3305, or philip.lindsey@wilson.edu.
MEDIA CONTACT: Philip Lindsey, Professor of Fine Arts Phone: 717-264-4141, Ext. 3305 Email: philip.lindsey@wilson.edu
