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WORCESTER, Mass. – The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross will present Garth Evans, Materials Being from Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 – Saturday, Feb. 5, 2005.

The exhibition consists of 14 abstract and figural sculptures that have not been previously shown in museums or galleries. Created in the 1990s, all of the sculptures are large-scale, reaching up to five feet in height and six feet in length. Also included will be a group of 20 drawings and five recent ceramic portrait sculptures.

An illustrated catalog with essays by Garth Evans; Leila Philip, Holy Cross English Professor; and David Cohen, art critic and gallery director at the New York Studio School, will accompany the exhibition. In addition, a series of public events in conjunction with the exhibit will be held at the Cantor Art Gallery:

* Gallery Talk by Garth Evans: Tuesday, Nov. 16, 4 – 5 p.m.
* Opening Reception: Tuesday, Nov. 16, from 5 – 6 p.m.

About the artist:

British-trained sculptor Garth Evans is Head of Sculpture at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. His work is included in numerous public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, N.Y.; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.; The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.; The Tate Gallery, London; The British Museum, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn.

Evans studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London University, in the late 1950s. As an art student, he modeled and drew the human figure — later abandoning the figure in favor of non-objective abstract art, a trend that was sweeping American and European art schools at the time. After earning his degree, Evans began exhibiting his sculpture, drawings and large-scale, floor-hugging installations throughout London, gaining considerable notice by galleries and critics in both London and New York. As a result, his work was shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in England and the United States, including two group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in the late 1960s.

In 1979, Evans moved to the United States where he accepted a teaching position at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Mass. His time at Mount Holyoke provided the foundation for much of the work being exhibited in Materials Being. Currently living and working in Woodstock, Conn., Evans has remained a New England resident ever since.

Around 1981 — while retaining the spontaneity and ambiguity of abstract form — Evans’ original interest in figural expression materialized again in his work. It was during this period, while in residency at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., that he created a series of over forty collages made from ink drawings and torn paper. These collages, later named the Yaddo Drawings, were evocative of natural forms, granite boulders, Massachusetts landscapes, or biomorphic or cellular life forms.

In the early 1990s, Evans’ sculpture began to shift away from the geometric plywood constructions for which he was known at the time, toward more organic objects that were prefigured by the 1980s “Yaddo” collages. The 14 floor-hugging sculptures in Garth Evans, Materials Being are the entire body of this series.

About the sculpture process:

In a manner reminiscent of the geodesic structures invented by Buckminster Fuller, Evans’ sculptures are constructed by joining small (two to three inches) cardboard triangles — cut from boxes — one at a time to hundreds of other triangles to create shell-like curvilinear hollow forms. The resulting sculpture looks almost as if it might have been grown, or weathered, into being rather than executed from a predetermined or a preplanned model. The entire surface of the sculpture is then painted with a thick viscous fiberglass coating. In some areas the coating obscures the material of the cardboard support under it, and in other areas it remains a honey-colored clear varnish that enhances the random graphic elements found on the surface of the cardboard, such as serial numbers, product names, and bar codes.

Gallery information:

The hours for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery are Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Located in O’Kane Hall, 1st Floor, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610. Admission to the gallery is free. Public parking is located on Linden Lane, gate 2, off College Street.

The gallery will be closed to the public from Nov. 24 – 27, for Thanksgiving; from Dec. 17 – Jan. 8, for Christmas; and Jan. 15, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Please call for an appointment to view the exhibition during closed periods.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The football program at the College of the Holy Cross is one of eight Division I schools receiving a grade of “A” from the Black Coaches Association (www.bcasports.org) on its minority hiring practices.

BCA evaluated a total of 28 schools that conducted a search for a head football coach in the past year. The association evaluation looked at, among other aspects, the percentage of minorities involved in the hiring process; the number of minority candidates who received interviews; and whether the process followed the institution’s affirmative action hiring policy.

Commenting on the report, Holy Cross Athletic Director Richard Regan said: “One has to commend the leadership of the Black Coaches Association. It is staggering to consider how under-represented African-Americans are as head football coaches. I didn’t realize the full extent of it until I saw their report.”

Of the 28 schools who conducted searches for head football coaches, only one (Mississippi State) hired an African-American coach. Holy Cross named Tom Gilmore, formerly the assistant coach at Lehigh, head football coach of the Crusaders in December 2003, following a one-month search.

The Report Card is a new initiative of the BCA, which intends to announce grades each of the next two years, then plans to expand the report card to include the hiring practices of athletic department administrators.

“The Report Card is a very innovative idea and I believe it will be an effective one as well,” said Regan. “If the process is followed, it can only increase head coaching opportunities for African-Americans. To fail in such a process was, for us, unthinkable.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross Archives department presents The Fatherless Children of France: “Their Book,” a collection of autographs, manuscripts, photographs, and artwork from some of the greatest names in literature, art, the military and politics during the World War I era. On display in the second floor of the Dinand Library through June 2005, the exhibit is free and open to the public during normal Library hours: Sunday – Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 1 a.m.; Friday – Saturday, 8:30 a.m. – 11 p.m.

Among the hundreds of one-of-a-kind items included in the exhibit:

* autographed manuscript poems from Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, Edith Wharton and William Butler Yeats
* autographed sentiments from George Bernard Shaw and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
* an original, signed crayon and wash drawing by French artist Victor Hugo
* signed manuscripts and photographs from world leaders, including United States President Woodrow Wilson, King Albert of Belgium, and Queen Marie of Roumania

History of the collection:

In 1917, Mrs. David Johnson, speaker for the Boston Committee of The Fatherless Children of France, a society created to help French children orphaned after World War I, began collecting signed drawings, etchings, manuscripts and photographs from some of the most famous World War I figures. She intended to sell the items in one volume at auction to raise money for the orphans of France. However, due to the size and nature of some contributions, this was not possible.

The items were then slated to be sold individually, which provoked dissent from many contributors, and from Mrs. Johnson herself. In the interest of not splitting up the book, Mrs. Johnson arranged to buy the entire collection. (With the $10 million sale, aid was provided to 300,000 French children orphaned by the war.)

In 1953, she donated the contents of the book to the Holy Cross Dinand Library, in memory of her husband, who had attended the Holy Cross Prepatory School (which was affiliated with the College until around 1909) from 1891 – 1893.

The collection has been on display just a handful of times since it was assembled. In 1921, it was displayed at the Library of Congress, the American Art Gallery in New York, the Boston Public Library and the Widener Library at Harvard University. It wasn’t displayed again until February 1955 when the College loaned it to the Worcester Art Museum.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross theatre department will present Mimpi, an original dance drama, from Thursday, Nov. 4 – Saturday, Nov. 6 and from Thursday, Nov. 11 – Saturday, Nov. 13, at 8 p.m. in Fenwick Theatre. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $7 for members of the Holy Cross community. They may be obtained by calling the box office at (508) 793-2496. Fenwick Theatre is handicapped accessible.

This original musical dance drama, a collaboration between writer-director Lynn Kremer, and composer Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, both of the theatre department, weaves together Indonesian fairy tales and poetry. A versatile cast portrays a range of human and animal characters in twin fables — about a covetous husband and a self-sacrificing wife, and an ogress who sets her evil eye on a pair of happy children. Gita Sari, the Holy Cross Gamelan ensemble, is joined by professional musicians playing western instruments to underscore the performance.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Members of the 1969 Holy Cross football team will return to campus on Sunday, Oct. 31 to pose for the recreation of a notable photograph that appeared on the front page of the Telegram & Gazette sports section on October 8, 1969.

The photo depicts seven students hanging out the windows of Hanselman Hall, the dormitory where they were quarantined for hepatitis. The 1969 football season was subsequently cancelled as the entire team tested positive for the disease.

The recreated photo will be used by the College in the next issue of Holy Cross Magazine, which will feature a story on the “missing” football season. Jack O’Connell, Holy Cross Magazine editor, will meet with alums at 10 a.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom on Sunday, Oct. 31. They will proceed to Hanselman Hall for the photo shoot.

The members of the 1969 football, as they appear in the photo are as follows:

Mark Doherty, DMD, ’70 (Lakeville, Mass.)
Ed Ready ’70 (Hyannis, Mass.)
Bob Desaulnier ’70 (Framingham, Mass.)
Sean Higgins ’70 (Chappaqua, N.Y.)
Roger Lacoste, DMD, ’70 (East Freetown, Mass.)
Ken Osier ’72 (Fayetteville, N.Y.)
Bill Moncevicz, DMD, ’70 (Brockton, Mass.)

WORCESTER, Mass. – Devra Davis, leading public health expert and best-selling author of When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution, will give a free, public lecture at the College of the Holy Cross on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom. Following her talk, Davis will sign copies of her award-winning book, which examines the link between environmental toxins and chronic diseases and reveals how corporations have hidden pollution-induced epidemics from the public in their efforts to turn a profit. For more information please contact Professor Catherine A. Roberts at 508-793-2456.

A national leader in the field of epidemiology, Davis reports that 10 times more people die each year from avoidable environmental contamination than perished in the Sept. 11 attacks. Personally affected when several of her family members died from pollution-induced heart problems, Davis set out to reveal the environmental causes of a number of serious health problems facing people today. Described by Library Journal as “an expose on how industrial polluters deceived the public, belittled scientists and academics, and pressured government agencies to stifle regulations,” When Smoke Ran Like Water, a National Book Award finalist, addresses everything from breast cancer and male sterility, to birth defects and asthma.

Davis is professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She also serves as Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School, Honorary Professor at London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Expert Advisor to the World Health Organization. Appointed to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board by President Clinton in 1994, she has worked as senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Founder of the International Breast Cancer Prevention Collaborative Research Group — an organization dedicated to exploring potential causes of breast cancer — she serves as scientific advisor to the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, and as a visiting professor at Rockefeller University’s Strang Cornell Cancer Prevention Center.

Her research on the connections between environmental hazards and human health has been widely acknowledged by health and women’s organizations. In 1998, she was recognized as an “innovator on the environment” by the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for Invention and Innovation. A recipient of the Woman of Distinction Award from the Conservative Judaism’s Women’s League and the Breast Cancer Award from the American Cancer Society, she has also been recognized by the National Cancer Institute, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Noreen T. Holland Foundation, for “leadership in advancing the understanding of potential environmental causes of breast cancer.”

Davis’ lecture is the inaugural event of the new Environmental Studies Concentration, a multidisciplinary program of study that encourages students to examine the causes, mechanisms and effects of environmental problems by investigating the relevant natural processes and the interplay between the environment and social, political and economic institutions.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Holy Cross music department concert featuring the works of Beethoven, originally planned for Thursday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. has been rescheduled. The concert will now take place on Friday, Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall. It will be free and open to the public.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, bishop of Worcester, will give a free, public talk as part of the Lectures in Ministry series at the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library. The bishop will speak about his vocation and the ministerial challenges he sees for the Church in the 21st century. For additional information contact Pat Hinchliffe at 508-793-3869.

Recently installed as the fifth bishop of Worcester, McManus is a Providence, R.I., native. He studied at Our Lady of Providence Seminary, The Catholic University of America and Toronto School of Theology, and earned licentiate and doctoral degrees in theology from The Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

He served in Rhode Island in parish ministry, in hospital and college chaplaincies, as Secretary for Ministerial Formation and Rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary, and, from 1999 – 2004, as Auxiliary Bishop of Providence.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Organist Craig Cramer will perform a concert on Sunday, Nov. 14 at 3 p.m. in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross. As part of the Holy Cross Chapel Artists Series, Cramer will perform works of Buxtehude, Scheidemann, Kirnberger, Boehm, Sweelinck, Dandrieu, Jan Janca and Anton Heiller. The concert is free and open to the public. St. Joseph Chapel is handicapped accessible.

Cramer is professor of organ at the University of Notre Dame. Past First Prize winner of the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition, he has recorded extensively and performed in venues throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He can often been heard on “Pipedreams,” a nationally-syndicated radio show focusing on the pipe organ.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Robert Binstock and William F. Benson, two nationally recognized experts on aging policy and politics, will give a free, public lecture at the College of the Holy Cross on Tuesday, Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Binstock and Benson will discuss the roles that various issues affecting older Americans, like Social Security funding, Medicare, and prescription drugs, will play in the upcoming election. Seating is limited. Call 508-793-3468 for reservations.

Robert Binstock is professor of aging, health and society at Case Western Reserve University. He has served as director of a White House Task Force on Older Americans under President Lyndon B. Johnson, past president of the Gerontological Society of America and former chair of the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association. A political scientist, Binstock is the author of 23 books and more than 200 articles and book chapters that examine the politics of aging and public policies affecting older people.

William Benson is president of The Benson Consulting Group, a Maryland-based consulting practice specializing in aging and health care policy and program concerns. Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging from 1993 — 1998, he managed the administration’s Medicare and Medicaid antifraud and abuse initiative, as well as the Office of Government Affairs and Elder Rights. Earlier in his career, Benson served eight years in various capacities in the U.S. Congress and 10 years in the California Department of Aging.

This event is organized by the Colleges of Worcester Consortium Gerontology Studies Program — which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. A joint initiative involving Holy Cross, Assumption College, Clark University, Worcester State College and UMASS Medical School, the program’s mission is to develop an interest among undergraduate students in the field of aging and to provide these students with a basic understanding of the spectrum of needs, concerns and issues facing the elderly population today and in the years to come.

Support has also been provided by the Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging, and the following Holy Cross offices: the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Children, superheroes, princesses, goblins and ghouls (age 12 and younger) of faculty, staff, and the College Hill and South Worcester communities are invited to participate in chaperoned “trick-or-treating” through the Holy Cross residence halls. The fun begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28 in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom. For additional information call 508-793-2411. (No R.S.V.P. is necessary.) The schedule of events is as follows:

5 p.m. — 5:30 p.m. – Fun and games in the Ballroom

5:30 p.m. — 6 p.m. – Halloween costume contest

6 p.m. — 7:30 p.m. – “Trick-or-Treating” in residence halls

This event is coordinated by S.A.D.E.R. (Student Ambassadors Developing External Relations), and the Office of Student Affairs.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The College of the Holy Cross will offer figure skating lessons for deaf children at the Holy Cross Hart Recreation Center ice rink on Sundays from 9 – 10 a.m. this fall. The six session program begins Saturday, Oct. 24. Skaters of all levels are invited. Instruction, provided by Holy Cross Deaf Studies students and members of the American Sign Language (ASL) Club, will be in ASL. The cost of the program is $30. Financial assistance is available. To register, or for additional information, contact Ingrid Gliottone, head of the Deaf Figure Skating Program, at 508-767-5028 or email irglio06@holycross.edu. Pre-registration is preferred, but skaters may also sign up at the first session on Oct. 24.

The dates for the 2004 DEAFinitely Figure Skating season are as follows:

Sunday, Oct. 24
Sunday, Nov. 7, 14, and 21
Sunday, Dec. 5 and 12

WORCESTER, Mass. – Rev. Nicolas Standaert, S.J., Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium, will give a lecture, titled “Jesuits in Asia,” on Thursday, October 21 at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. Leila Philip, Holy Cross English professor, and Rev. Stephen Chow, S.J., of Harvard University, will serve as respondents. Thomas Gottschang, Holy Cross economics professor, will be the moderator. For additional information on the talk, which is free and open to the public, please contact Pat Hinchliffe at 508-793-3869.

Fr. Standaert is a well-known scholar on 17th-century cultural and intellectual exchange between China and the Western World. He is the author of several books that explore Christianity in China, including the Bibliography of the Jesuit Mission in China (1991), as well as more than 60 articles in national and international journals. Most recently, he edited the Handbook of Christianity in China: Volume One 635 — 1800, in 2001.

Fr. Standaert’s presentation is part two of the “Presidential Colloquia: Jesuit Liberal Arts Education and the Engaging of Cultures,” a year-long series of presentations and discussions. Each event will focus on a particular moment in Jesuit history and its connection to Jesuit educational aims today. In addition to facilitating an exchange of views, the colloquia also aim to further explore the principles of today’s Holy Cross education within its Catholic and Jesuit traditions.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Alexandra Halkin, a representative of the Chiapas Media Project, will give a presentation, titled “Zapatistas, Indigenous Media and Self-Representation,” at Holy Cross on Thursday, October 28 at 7 p.m. in Haberlin Hall, room 103. The presentation will include a screening of a selection of video clips and a discussion on the role of indigenous produced alternative media in the context of the current political situation in Southern Mexico. The event is free and open to the public.

The Chiapas Media Project helps indigenous and campesino communities in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Guerrero gain access to communication technologies so that they can represent themselves with their own words and images. Their work comes in response to the fact that, for centuries, indigenous cultures have been represented by people from the outside. For most indigenous peoples, the use of televisions, video cameras, VCRs and computers to represent themselves is just a dream. The Chiapas Media Project is working to change that.

As a result of conversations with the Zapatistas – an indigenous movement that includes Tzotzil, Chol, Tojolabal, Mum and Tzeltal Mayan Indians – the Chiapas Media Project has been training indigenous communities to produce and distribute their own stories since 1998. The Zapatistas are the most documented indigenous movement in the history of the world with hundreds of videos, films, Web sites, and books created by people from the outside. Through the Chiapas Media Project, the Zapatistas have released nearly 5,000 of their own videos – many of which tell stories quite different than what has been produced about them.

Giving firsthand perspective on the lives and struggles of indigenous peoples in Southern Mexico, the videos cover a wide range of topics, including education, fair trade organic coffee, and non-violent resistance to the military occupation of their communities. They have been shown at museums, film festivals and at college and universities around the world.

This event is sponsored by Latin American and Latino Studies, the Sociology and Anthropology Department and Peace and Conflict Studies at Holy Cross, and the Clark University Government Department.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Twenty-four students from Holy Cross Professor Catherine A. Roberts’ Environmental Math course will be painting pollution warnings on Worcester storm drains on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. with the Department of Public Works and the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation and Wildlife Sanctuary.

Many people do not realize that Worcester storm drains empty into nearby streams, and never enter the treated water system. The students hope to educate residents about these pollution dangers in an effort to stop them from dumping trash and other harmful substances into the storm drains on their streets.

* Students will meet at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation and Wildlife Sanctuary at 414 Massasoit Road in Worcester at 9 a.m.
* From 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., they will be stenciling drains in the Massasoit Road area, including drains on Miscoe Road (off of Massasoit), Dolly Drive, and Vincent Circle.
* In the event of inclement weather, students will stencil drains on Saturday, Oct. 16.

In addition to painting pollution warnings on drains, students will be distributing flyers to the neighborhood homes educating residents on the dangers of dumping into drains.