Painting by Bonnie Sklarski
We asked a number of IU faculty and administrators what their responses would be to the question: “Why are the arts and humanities important?” Alvin Rosenfeld’s was one of our favorites: "The arts and humanities record and interpret human experience in all its richness and variety. They enable us to create, understand and take pleasure in the best that has been thought and said in the world. They also help us grasp and cope with human pain and complexity. Without them, life would be infinitely poorer and far less meaningful -- an accumulation of data that would offer neither rhyme nor reason to comprehend and celebrate being alive.” Read more.
Today's Feature
Practitioners
What’s happening in the arts and humanities at IU? We have an obstetrician who expresses himself in a glass globe and Kenyan bead sculpture; a traditional printmaker who forges into the digital age with an IU New Frontiers grant; a science historian who replicates Sir Isaac Newton’s oven; an art historian describing 19th-century paintings to the visually impaired using musical references. And the IU-Sylvia Plath connection: a new online journal, the poet’s studio at Yaddo.
These are among the people and topics we’ve chosen to profile in this special edition of the IU Home Pages.
The DNA Tower at IUPUI, by Dale Chihuly.
Additional top stories
- ‘Ninja Physics’ and more Oct. 18
- ‘Band Geek Love’
- Runners (and walkers), the Behrman 5K is Saturday
- Narrative as medicine symposium
- New creative writing, African American and African Diaspora dual degree first in the nation
- Grammy grant to preserve R&B interviews
- ‘Stardust’ in Richmond
‘Field of Dreams’
Here’s a performance triumph: The New York Times’ Mickey Rapkin writes that the IU-originated a cappella group Straight No Chaser may be "the year’s most unlikely major-label story." And three days before the release of its Atlantic Record debut, the group will give the homecoming concert at IU Bloomington Oct. 25, after the IU-Northwestern game at Memorial Stadium. (Come early: the infamous cornhole tournament is Oct. 22, and the homecoming golden anniversary parade and pep rally is Oct. 24).
The arts and humanities
IU Home Pages publishes a 32-page newsprint tabloid this week focusing on the arts and humanities. You’ll find its message in this online edition -- with added content that includes artwork, poetry and video links. IU President Michael McRobbie reflects on the subject in this opening column. Note: the president’s first State of the University address will be delivered tomorrow (Oct. 14) at IUPUI and will be broadcast live at locations on all IU campuses.
On being a book
A Q&A with Fort Wayne native Edith Hamilton’s 1942 classic, Mythology, about life in a university library. (Don’t miss the video of the Lilly Library.)
Vibrant communities
SPEA’s Michael Rushton, an economist who specializes in the arts, has found a significant correlation between the number of musicians and artists in a city, the number of college-educated residents and recent economic growth. It’s no surprise that IU graduates from the performing and fine arts are enriching the cultural life of the state by taking part in local musical and theater groups, running galleries and teaching art in the schools.
‘The humanities blues’
LAMP director Jim Madison says thinking deeply about the human condition is far more than an unnecessary luxury.
‘An intellectual tool’
Chances are Indiana University speaks your language. (Spanish has the highest enrollment; the study of Chinese has increased 33 percent in three years.)IU’s art treasures
Heidi Gealt, director of the IU Art Museum, picks her “fave four” from the university’s extensive collection (and see some of her curators’ “faves” on video). You may also tour the Herron School of Art and Design with Dean Valerie Eikmeier. See more treasures.
