Oregon Humanities

Women and War

The pairing of women and war brings so many other words, other ideas, to my mind. Like most who share my age, class, and nationality, my knowledge of war comes mainly through language. Newspaper or magazine articles, novels, history books, lectures. It just is not a duo I have seen in real life, but it captures my attention nonetheless. I feel a responsibility to at least bear some brief witness to world’s more brutal realities. Shortly after it was published in 2008, I read... Read more

23 November 2009 | Posted by Eliza Canty-Jones in Events Community New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

The Optimism of Philanthropy in Tough Times

The word philanthropy first surfaced 2,500 years ago in the Greek play Prometheus Bound, the Greek word being a combination of caring for humans and promoting human potential. It has come to mean a private initiative for the common good. As such, it is rooted in community.

Philanthropy is also closely tied to democracy so that Alexander Hamilton, in the first paragraph of the first Federalist Paper, promoted the new Constitution as a document benefiting all mankind. He said it... Read more

18 November 2009 | Posted by John Frohnmayer in Advocacy Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

After the Lunch Rush

Has a job ever changed your life completely by accident? I started tending bar on the day shift at a locally owned Italian restaurant in Fort Collins, Colorado, famous for its $4.95 all-you-can-eat homemade spaghetti and bread. Our lunch rush typically petered out by one o’clock. By one-thirty, on a good day, the bar was empty. My writer friend Erik, a recovering alcoholic, would drive down, and we’d watch the Cubs on WGN. On a really good day—no, there were no really good... Read more

13 November 2009 | Posted by Dave Weich in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (3 so far)

Irreverence in the Whitechapel

I saw them leaving the gallery with oranges. She was holding hers, smiling and picking at the produce sticker. He was tossing his in the air, laughing out loud. They seemed to be absolutely enthralled by their produce. “Huh,” I thought to myself and continued to make my way across the small grassy park to the entrance of the gallery.

The Whitechapel Gallery in east London is a very modern space with white walls, wood floors, and lots of right angles: more or less your... Read more

10 November 2009 | Posted by Annie Dubinsky in Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (1 so far)

Rethinking the Possibilities

My organization, Ecotrust, recently conducted a survey. We asked thousands of people, “Has the world entered a new era?” More than 80 percent of respondents said yes. When we asked people to describe the era, two related themes emerged: connectedness and interdependence.

The way people perceive the world is changing. Once, the world seemed to be divided into clear sectors: For-profit, nonprofit, local, national, global, sustainable, and so on. Now, all of those sectors... Read more

05 November 2009 | Posted by Seth Walker in Events New Ideas Special Projects | Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)

Eyes Opened Wide

In late summer of 1979 Dale Eldred created a series of interconnected sculptures of refractive light panels sited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, across expansive lawns and along the median of Volker Boulevard. The refractive tape created prisms that changed with every movement of the viewer, the sun, the moon, and the earth’s rotation. I was a new freshman at the Kansas City Art Institute, and the playfulness and gentle thoughtfulness of the sculpture quickened my heart... Read more

02 November 2009 | Posted by Carole Shellhart in Community Inside O. Hm. New Ideas | Permalink | Comments? (2 so far)