Local and National Experts Join High Profile Speakers to Present at Hancock Symposium
In addition to the high profile plenary speakers such as Sir Bob Geldof at the 2014 Hancock Symposium September 16-17 at Westminster College, numerous national and local experts will offer breakout sessions on a wide range of topics that concern the arts.
“Following the main speakers in the morning and afternoon of the Symposium, attendees will have a choice of six breakout sessions which they can attend,” says Natasia Sexton, Chair of the Communications and Fine Arts Department and Faculty Chair of the 2014 Hancock Symposium. “The topics are all so interesting that people will have a difficult time deciding which session to attend.”
All sessions are free and open to the public.
Paula Elias, Director of the Citizen Jane Film Institute at Stephens College in Columbia, MO will discuss how women are represented behind and in front of the camera and why it matters on Tuesday, September 16, at 10:30 a.m.in Room 329 of the Coulter Science Center (CSC).
At that same time in Room 304 of the Center, Dr. Christy Tharenos, an Associate Professor from Wilmington, NC and family medicine at Georgetown University, will talk about the arts role in the healing process and healthcare delivery.
During the afternoon sessions that day starting at 2:15 p.m. in Room 304 of the CSC, Amanda Rainey, Program Coordinator at Mizzou Hillel, from Columbia, MO, will demonstrate the power of music in shaping community and encouraging individual growth as she does as Director of the CoMo Girls Rock! Camp in Columbia.
At the same time, Ramona Baker, an arts management consultant from Indianapolis, IN, will discuss aspects of arts management such as public policy, organizational and board development and public funding of the arts in CSC Room 139.
Among the breakout sessions at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning, September 17, Dr.Anneke Bart, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Computer Science Department at Saint Louis University will examine the mathematics of architecture with special reference to travels and historical architecture and buildings in Europe in CSC Room 304.
Attendees will also have a choice at that same time to take a look at the role theatre plays as a channel for social justice and raising consciousness in a non-threatening context in a session in CSC Room 329 conducted by Annamaria Pileggi, actor, director and Professor of the Practice of Drama at Washington University.
“Because the entire Westminster community attends the two days of Symposium sessions and are interested in different academic disciplines, we always try to take the global topic being discussed and examine it in the context of as many different disciplines as we can,” says Professor Sexton. “Our arts topic this year is being discussed in terms of such different disciplines as medicine, business, political science, history, education, psychology and mathematics.”
The 2014 Hancock Symposium is exploring the arts as a catalyst for cultural, social and political changes, September 16-17. The title for this year’s Hancock Symposium is “So, You Say You Want a Revolution? The Arts and Culture in Action.”
For more information on the Hancock Symposium.
