From the Director

Sister Gertrude Anne, CSC tells about a storm that occurred during the construction of the O’Laughlin Auditorium. At one point, while the frame was in place, the skeleton of the building consisted of large orange girder beams. Sister Gertrude describes the scene during a spectacular thunderstorm where she watched lightning electrify the beams. While she was a bit frightened, she marveled at the sight.

The Moreau Center has been the home for the arts at Saint Mary’s since 1956. Many gifted performers, artists, musicians and dancers have developed their craft and carried their talents beyond Saint Mary’s, to share their gift with others. The collective power of their creativity may have been the premonition that Sister Gertrude was blessed with in 1955.

The faculty, staff and students of the Moreau Center hope that you can find inspiration in the events we have planned for this 2008-2009 season. Watch carefully, you may see the spark of something great.

Sincerely,

Richard Baxter
Director of Special Events

P.S. Please be sure to sign up for our monthly E-newsletter.

Upcoming Events

Art Gallery Exhibition
August 29-September 26, Moreau Art Galleries

Hammes Gallery, new paintings by Gianna Commito
Little Theatre Gallery, new paintings by Gianna Commito
Sister Rosaire Gallery, new paintings by Gianna Commito
Opening reception: September 4, 5-7 p.m.

Admission is free.

Christian Culture Lecture Series: Maria Rosa Menocal
September 18, 7:30 p.m. - Little Theatre

Just what history does a poem tell us that political history cannot, or will not?  The long and complex history of relations among the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian communities of the Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages has been understood in dramatically different ways: for some it is a history of crusade-like reconquest and religious warfare, for others it is exemplary of a culture of tolerance and coexistence. The difference in perspective often depends on the kind of evidence we value, and while the records of institutions –religious and political –tell one story, the aesthetic forms –architecture, poetry, music –tell us a different tale. Tracing the powerful nostalgic impulse of Andalusian letters from the great Islamic poets of the eleventh century to the evocative songs of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, from Cervantes’ bittersweet Don Quixote to the politically-charged poems of the contemporary Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, this talk will dwell on the often elusive but central role played by poetry in our understanding of history.

María Rosa Menocal is the Director of the Whitney Humanities Center and Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University, where she has taught in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese since 1985.  Her many books on Spanish literature and culture include "The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Christians, and Jews Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain" (2002), which has since been translated into eleven languages.  In the spring of 2007 an international conference in Toronto commemorated the twentieth anniversary of her volume "The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage" (1987) and its impact on the field of medieval studies.  Her most recent book is a broad-ranging and richly illustrated collaborative project, written with art historian Jerrilynn Dodds and Arabist Abigail Krasner Balbale, on Castilian as the shared culture of the three monotheistic traditions in all art forms.

The Christian Culture Lecture presents a preeminent figure in the humanities to explore some aspect of the Christian dimension of Western culture. The lectures were first established at Saint Mary’s College by Professor Bruno Schlesinger in 1957. In 2006, the series was revived as an annual event in honor of Bruno Schlesinger. The lecture series is made possible by the generosity of a 1961 graduate of the program, Dr. Susan Fitzgerald Rice, and her husband, Dr. Donald B. Rice.

Admission is free.