Conversations in the Arts: The Founders Lectures

Dear Supporter of the Arts,

I hope you will join us for Columbia College Chicago's 2008-09 season of Conversations in the Arts, a program series that offers in-depth dialogue with some of the world's most notable cultural figures in a select and intimate setting.

This year Columbia introduces a new series of lectures as part of its Conversations in the Arts program. The Founders Lectures will be a year-long examination of the college's commitment to values articulated in its Mission Statement: access and opportunity in higher education, creativity and education, the creative economy, and diversity as an essential element of learning in a global marketplace.

The individuals who join us for Conversations in the Arts exemplify the humanistic qualities and values we bring to education at Columbia College Chicago. Over the past four seasons, legendary figures Lauren Bacall, Ben Vereen, Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Andrews, James Earl Jones, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Lunden, Richard Roundtree, Salman Rushdie, Jane Alexander, Edward James Olmos, Diahann Carroll, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni have delighted our audiences with personal, and often inspiring, stories.

In our fifth season, other remarkable talents in the arts, media, and education will be joining us. Jonathan Kozol, an educator and activist whose books Death at an Early Age and Savage Inequalities focused attention on the crisis in the public schools, is scheduled to appear on Monday, October 20, as part of Columbia's Creative Nonfiction Week. 

On Tuesday, December 2, British educational theorist Sir Ken Robinson will speak about the relationship between creativity and education. His latest book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, explores the costs of ignoring creativity in Western culture, particularly in our educational system.

Our third speaker of the year will be actress, playwright, and educator Anna Deavere Smith, on January 27. Smith, who had a recurring role on the hit television series The West Wing, is a MacArthur genius award recipient, and a nominee for the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She will address the importance of diversity in creative expression.

Urban studies theorist Richard Florida will conclude the Founders Series program on Thursday, April 30. Florida is best known for developing the controversial concept of the "creative class" and its importance in urban regeneration.

As a leading innovator in arts, media, and communications education and practice -- and a major player in Chicago's vibrant cultural scene -- Columbia College Chicago is the ideal presenter for this kind of encounter. We enrich lives through access and opportunity in higher education, training a highly diverse student body to author the culture of their times. These graduates in turn enhance the vitality of American life, bringing a multiplicity of voices and visions to their films, dance works, paintings, writings -- all their creative endeavors.

Columbia College Chicago welcomes you to visit with some of the most influential cultural figures of our time. Visit this website soon for updated information.


Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D.
President, Columbia College Chicago