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For Immediate Release (May 18, 2010)
Civility Tour coming to Utah
The Utah Humanities Council (UHC) is pleased to announce that Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), will speak on Thursday, May 27, at 6:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Library Auditorium, 210 East 400 South. Chairman Leach will speak as part of UHC’s 22nd Annual Human Ties Awards, in conjunction with his nationwide "Civility Tour." The event is free and open to the public.
A private reception with Leach will be held in the City Centre/Chamber of Commerce Building at 7:30 p.m. after the awards. The reception is $35 per person. Checks may be mailed to 202 W 300 N, Salt Lake City UT 84103 or you may register online at www.utahhumanities.org.
Chairman Leach, who was sworn in as NEH chair on August 12, 2009, spent three decades as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa. He launched a 50-state tour in November 2009, “not to express judgment on any issues of the day, but simply to try to make clear that coarseness in public manners can jeopardize social cohesion.”
With name-calling, grandstanding, and stifling of dissent by both civilians and members of Congress becoming commonplace, civil discourse is certainly a timely topic.
“Bridging cultural divides and developing a sense for a common humanity are moral and social imperatives," Mr. Leach said in launching the tour. "Civilization requires civility. Words matter . . . little is more important for the world's leading democracy in this change-intensive century than establishing an ethos of thoughtfulness and decency of expression in the public square."
“The Utah Humanities Council has spent the past 35 years promoting civic engagement—the idea that it is incumbent on each of us to read, discuss, and reflect on important issues of the day,” said UHC Executive Director Cynthia Buckingham. “The humanities enhance our understanding of different traditions, values, and ideas and help us to imagine other ways of living and thinking. We are delighted to welcome Jim Leach to Utah to reinforce our message.”
During his Salt Lake City visit, Leach will also deliver the commencement address at Westminster College, on Saturday, May 29, and will receive an honorary degree.
About Chairman Leach
Representing southeastern Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives, Leach chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus.
After leaving Congress in 2007, Leach joined the faculty at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, where he was the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs until his confirmation as NEH chairman. In September 2007, Leach took a year's leave of absence from Princeton to serve as interim director of the Institute of Politics and lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He graduated from Princeton University, received a Master of Arts degree in Soviet politics from the School of Advanced International Studies at The John Hopkins University, and did additional graduate studies at the London School of Economics.
About the Human Ties Awards
UHC’s annual awards began in 1998 in order to recognize individuals whose work exemplifies UHC’s mission of helping Utahns explore the past, participate actively in the present, and shape the future. In most cases, nominations have come from the board of directors, alumni, and staff. UHC also receives occasional nominations from the public and has been conscious of highlighting various disciplines, institutions, and locations.
Annual awards:
- The Governor’s Award in the Humanities is UHC’s highest honor, presented to a distinguished scholar whose career has enhanced understanding of the humanities among the general public.
- Founder’s Awards honor individuals who have been instrumental to UHC’s success over the past 35 years.
- Humanities Partnership Awards acknowledge long-term collaborative and cooperative relationships with entities that share UHC’s vision.
- Human Ties Awards recognize individuals and organizations who work behind the scenes of highly successful public humanities projects and programs that have received UHC support in the past year.
- Governor’s Award in the Humanities: Fred Adams, Founder of the Utah Shakespearean Festival
The Utah Shakespearean Festival presents life-affirming classic and contemporary plays in repertory, with Shakespeare as our cornerstone. The plays are enhanced by interactive festival experiences which entertain, enrich, and educate. Going into its forty-ninth season, it is one of the oldest and largest Shakespearean festivals in North America. The Utah Shakespearean Festival has also been the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and the Best of State Award in arts and entertainment.
Festival Founder Fred C. Adams, having just come to Cedar City after trying out the New York theatre scene for a few years, was new to the College of Southern Utah (now Southern Utah University) in 1959. However, seeing 150,000 annual summer tourists to the area, he knew he had a great potential audience for a theatre festival. Excited by the idea, he packed up his notes and ideas and visited Ashland, Oregon, the site of the granddaddy of all Shakespeare festivals, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. While there, he closely observed operations and was befriended by Angus Bowmer, the OSF founder, whom Adams interviewed extensively. On the long ride back to Cedar City, the Utah Shakespearean Festival was born.
Adams has received the following awards: Utah Theatre Association's Lifetime Service Award (2000), the Institute of Outdoor Drama's Mark R. Sumner Award (1998), and the First Annual Governor's Award in the Arts (1989). He served as executive director of the festival from its founding until 2005, when he retired, though he continues to advise and assist the program.
- Founder’s Award: Delmont Oswald, UHC’s Founding Director
A member of the founding board during its planning stage during 1974, Delmont Oswald taught history at BYU while working on his Ph.D. He was named the first director of the Utah Endowment for the Humanities in 1975 and served in that position until his untimely death in 1997. Under his leadership, the organization grew from a modest affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities to a multi-faceted nonprofit serving the entire state. A prodigious reader, Delmont became known as “Mr. Humanities” during his tenure.
- Partnership Award: Laurel Casjens, Utah Office of Museum Services
The Office of Museum Services (OMS) is a state agency whose mission is to advance the value of museums within Utah and to enable the broadest physical, intellectual and emotional access to collections and programs. The Office assists Utah museums in improving their ability to:
- care for and manage collections
- develop quality educational resources
- provide access to collections for research
- identify and successfully compete for financial resources
Laurel Casjens has worked in Utah museums since 1983, including stints as a Photographer and Curator of Collections at the Utah Museum of Natural History and Curator of Education at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures. In 2006 she joined the staff of the Utah Office of Museum Services, where she has had the enviable position of helping the small museums of Utah improve their collections care, exhibits, interpretive labeling, and every other part of museum practice by presenting workshops and individual consultation.
She holds a BA in Geology (Macalester College) and PhD in Archaeology (Harvard University), but always knew she wanted to work in museums. Her greatest joy has been freely helping the hardworking staff and volunteers of Utah’s museums preserve our heritage and tell our stories.
- Human Ties Award: Utah History Fair, Nicholas Demas
The Utah History Fair, Utah's affiliate to the National History Day program, turns kids in grades 4-12 into historians. It gets them involved in primary historical research and provides a series of competitions where they can present their findings. Students learn that history is fun, and they are recognized for their academic achievements. Utah’s delegates to the National History Day competition regularly bring home top awards.
- Human Ties Award: Smithfield Oral Histories, William Thornley
At the 150th anniversary of Smithfield in 2009, William Thornley spearheaded a project to share some of the town’s heritage through dozens of oral histories through an Oral History Grant from UHC, the Division of State History, and Utah State University. Four boxes of 84 cassette tapes consisting of interviews and proceedings of meetings in Smithfield between 1977 and 1984 were examined and evaluated. The oral histories were digitally copied, burned to CD’s for preservation, and then transcribed.
William Thornley received a BS degree in Dairy Food Manufacture and a MS degree in microbiology from Utah State University. After a military assignment in Korea he was engaged in research with the US Chemical Corps. In 1989 he was chosen by the State of Utah to travel to the Soviet Union in an effort to develop business relations with Russian groups. As a result of five trips to the Soviet Union he helped establish seed farms in Russia to provide high quality seed supplies to farmers then gaining an opportunity to grow their own crops as they were gaining independence from the large communal farms.
Mr. Thornley is CEO of Heritage Glass, Inc. which provides stained glass aggregate to Terrazzo and decorative concrete users worldwide. He was recently named CEO of the Clark and Gladys Thornley Foundation, a not for profit organization formed to assist the public in recording oral histories and making them available for use by the public.
William and Velda live in North Logan, Utah and enjoy community and church service, in addition to grandchildren and travels as the opportunities become available.
Human Ties Award: Confluence in Moab, Laurie Collins and Andy Nettell
Confluence, A Celebration of Reading and Writing in Moab began in 2008 as a collaboration between the Grand County Public Library, the Canyonlands Field Institute, the Moab Arts and Recreation Center (City of Moab), Moab Poets and Writers, and Back of Beyond Books. In 2008 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire and hosted 25 writers for an intensive 3-day writing workshop with faculty members Craig Childs, Amy Irvine and Jack Loeffler. "Eating the West" fed our literary souls in 2009 as we looked at sustainable agriculture and explored the connections between people, place and food. Intensive writing coupled with intensive eating, movies, tequila tastings and more rounded out 2009. This year, Confluence will focus on water and the west and feature a duel track of scheduling highlighting the art of writing and illustrating children's books, while providing an academic look at watershed issues in Utah and beyond.
A founding member of Confluence is Andy Nettell, owner of Back of Beyond Books and Arches Book Company in Moab, UT. When not reading, Andy helps promote the arts in southeast Utah and has begun a rare and collectible book business within Back of Beyond Books.
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The reception on May 27 is complimentary for news media representatives. RSVP to Nici Maruri at the Utah Humanities Council, 801.359.9670 ext. 103.
The Utah Humanities Council is a nonprofit organization that provides lifelong learning across the state through programs that explore diverse traditions, values, and ideas. UHC is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Fund, the State of Utah, and gifts from individuals, foundations, and corporations. Each year, the Council underwrites hundreds of educational and cultural programs throughout Utah. For more information, visit www.utahhumanities.org or www.facebook.com/utahhumanitiescouncil.
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