This two-day celebration of Mayan culture will include presentations, an art exhibit, performances and cuisine. Speakers include Anthony Andrews (New College), Michael Fehily (USF), Eleanor Williams (Sarasota-Merida Sister Cities) and Gabrielle Vail (New College). This event is co-sponsored by New College of Florida and Latino Excellence of Sarasota. Click here for a complete schedule of events.  

As part of a series of lectures on Contemporary Artists and Women Artists, New College students Walter Potmesil, Rachel Robison and Irini Zervas will talk about artists Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning and Joan Mitchell, respectively. Sage was a surrealist whose constructed images invite interpretation. Tanning was also a surrealist married to painter and sculptor Max Ernst. This lecture will explore the progression of Tanning's work, culminating in her cloth sculptures of the 1970s. Mitchell's depictions of landscapes - influenced by personal memories of her homes in the Midwest, New York and her garden near Giverny - reflect a preoccupation with the scale, light and dynamism of nature. As a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, her works are fully steeped in the ideologies of her time.

Two New College alumni - Paul Carlson with the Florida Wildlife Research Institute and Stanley Herwitz with NASA - will describe a new cost-effective method to assess fish and wildlife habitats in shallow marine waters. Unmanned aerial vehicles fly transects over seagrass beds at altitudes of 1000'-3000' while divers simultaneously collect data on seagrass growth. The aerial fluorescence measurements are related to the seagrass growth measurements in order to understand carbon dynamics in seagrass. 

The International Studies Program and the History and Political Science faculty are pleased to announce a guest lecture, "Borders of Languages, Borders of Nationalities, and Why They Are Important to Political Behavior,'" by Dr. John Myhill of the University of Haifa (Israel), which will take place on Monday, April 2, at 7:00 PM in Sudakoff Auditorium. This lecture is free and open to the public; all interested persons are invited to attend.  

Shira Dentz, New College's Spring 2012 Writer-in-Residence, will be giving a reading of her poetry on April 4. She is the author of black seeds on a white dish (Shearsman Books), a book of poems that was nominated for the PEN/Osterweil Award 2011, Leaf Weather (Tilt Press) and a forthcoming book, door of thin skins (CavanKerry Press). There will be musical performances by Maribeth Clark (flute), Wendy Bashant (flute) and David Bittleman (cello) preceding Dentz's reading, and light refreshments will be served.