The Arts

Lorain County Community College’s 50th Anniversary: Profile of Professor Robert Dudash

Professor Robert Dudash sees the world through a wide lens, his view having been shaped by both his family and liberal arts background.

As a Hungarian immigrant, his father labored in the Pittsburgh steel mines, solidifying the family’s belief that education was the way to a better life.  “My parents’ hard work provided the opportunity for me to attend Oberlin College, where I was exposed to theater, literature, and film,” said Dudash.

Read more @ Through a Wide Lens

On the Planet of the Blind

By the time he was seven, Stephen Kuusisto knew he wanted to be a writer. He was drawn to the rhythm of sounds: the rhythm of words in Robert Frost’s poetry, the rhythm of music in the arias of the great tenor Enrico Caruso. “My job [then] was to keep track of sounds,” said Kuusisto, a native of New Hampshire who is now an assistant professor of creative writing at Ohio State.

Kuusisto also remembers bike-riding and bird-watching, activities most people take for granted. Kuusisto, however, has been legally blind since birth. In a time when physical disabilities carried a social stigma, he followed his parents’ lead by denying his condition.

Read More @ Planet of the Blind

High Heeled and Hardboiled

The box office success of The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 should have led to a run of formula films featuring smart, determined female characters fashioned after Jodie Foster’s fledgling FBI agent, Clarice Starling. But that didn’t happen, leading Linda Mizejewski to wonder why.

In researching the question, Mizejewski turned her love of women’s detective novels and films into her own piece of investigative work, Hardboiled and High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture, published in 2004.

Read More @ High Heeled and Hardboiled

Chihuly’s Imagination Takes On New Life Forms

There’s a sign in the Franklin Park Conservatory’s show house that reads
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin” –  Shakespeare

Perhaps the same can be said of a touch of glass art.

As Bruce Harkey, executive director of the Franklin Park Conservatory, said at a recent luncheon hosted by the Columbus Metropolitan Club, there’s something magical and ancient about glass blowing.  Hosted by Ann Fisher of WOSU, Harkey was joined by Columbus Museum of Art executive director, Nannette Maciejunes for a lively conversation on the Chihuly impact on Columbus.

Read more @ larryhamillphotography.wordpress.com

Ohio State Carves Out Rich State History

In June 2007, we began photographing the reconstruction work on The Ohio State University’s Ohio Union building. The six bas-relief sculptures, which have been covered during construction, were recently unveiled for a brief period to allow for preservation work.

While they have since been recovered and will remain so until the official reopening of the Ohio Union in March 2010, we thought you might be interested in the history behind these eight-foot-tall limestone panels, which grace the facility’s 12th Avenue façade.

Read more @ larryhamillphotography.wordpress.com