SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 63
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
‘Stranger Than Paradise’ explores art through history RISD Museum brings together 14 pieces exploring relationship between man, nature By CINDY ZENG SENIOR STAFF WRITER
GUS REED / HERALD
President Christina Paxson P’19 and the Interim Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Assistant Provost for Global Engagement Shontay Delalue addressed the community in an effort to promote peace and inclusion.
Community gathering focuses on unity Event seeks to create empathetic environment following series of national tragedies By JACKSON WELLS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life hosted a community gathering Monday afternoon on the Main Green to buttress the essentiality and necessity of compassion, inclusion and justice during the school year. Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of
the University, said that the event was partly in response to the difficulties the world is currently facing, such as devastating natural disasters, expressions of bigotry in Charlottesville, the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the war in Syria. “It’s very important to the chaplains that we acknowledge the substance and the depth of the content that students are bringing to their studies, as well as the challenges in the world that need our attention,” Cooper Nelson told The Herald. While this is a spiritual matter, it is also a matter of ethics, morality and community, she added.
In her opening statement, Cooper Nelson put particular emphasis on the necessity of empathy. She alluded to the significance Sept. 11 has in the United States and the power it holds in bringing people together. But the event was not a memorial for an earlier time, she said. “Our hearts seek to keep time with one another, to find a quality of mindfulness, even prayer, to risk real empathy, to be aligned with the concerns and the needs of this time,” Cooper Nelson said. After Cooper Nelson spoke, faculty, staff members, students and administrators read different works that revolved » See GATHERING, page 3
Upon initial regard, the contemporary art exhibition, “Stranger than Paradise,” appears as a baffling mixture of contemporary and ancient art. With works from the Rhode Island School of Design alums, professors and more, this collection of 14 items from the RISD Museum’s permanent holdings opened last July and explores the relationship between humans and nature over time. Assembled by Dominic Molon, the Richard Brown Baker curator of contemporary art at the RISD Museum, the show features an eclectic selection of pieces that range from a Greek wine jug dating back to 610 BCE to works by recent RISD graduates like Sophia Narrett. The collection “developed from, as often collection presentations do, objects that I’d been wanting to have on view in the galleries for some time,” Molon said. When a space opened up for the exhibition, he and John Smith, director of the museum, discussed a presentation that had themes of nature. “He suggested kind of looking back into history and combining more contemporary works with works from different historical
periods,” Molon added. Within the exhibit, one of the most noticeable objects is a work by Michael Smith, a sculptor who lives in Providence. It features a “pigeon form encased in a resin within the structure that is taken from a door found here in Providence, but cut very deeply to resemble a landscape or a seascape,” Molon said. It is simultaneously surreal and disquieting, and presents a much more “abstracted idea of humankind and nature,” Molon added. In contrast, a painting by Wilhelm Frederik van Royen entitled “The Young Hunter” dates back to 1706 and features an image of a young man surrounded by the bounty of his hunt. The contrast between the pieces in the collection that are traditionally pastoral and familiar against pieces like Smith’s creates a tension between the works akin to the tension between humankind and nature. This is a central theme that the exhibition seeks to explore. “Something that was very important for me when I got here, is to be very proactive about getting the work of recent RISD alumni into the collection. … I think we’ve missed the boat in the past on artists who do come out of RISD who make a huge impact in the art world and don’t have a very major work of theirs up in the collection,” Molon said. Sophia Narrett, with her stitchbased sculpture, and Tomory Dodge, with his painting of a deconstructed » See RISD, page 2
Susan Moffitt named new director of Taubman Center Moffitt aims to focus on cost of living, value of democracy, price of security in United States By EDUARD MUÑOZ-SUÑÉ SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Susan Moffitt, associate professor of international and public affairs and political science, began her threeyear role as director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy July 1. The search for a new director of the Taubman Center started well in advance of the term end of the previous director, James Morone, professor of public policy, political science and urban studies. Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin and Edward Steinfeld, director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs,
INSIDE
conducted the internal search and ultimately made the final hiring decision. Roles like that of the Taubman director are “great positions because someone can really leave a mark,” Steinfeld said. Directors have the opportunity to maintain “vibrant research programs” and leave a “personal imprint as a leader.” As a director, Moffitt said she will focus on three themes: the cost of living, the value of democracy and the price of security. In the summer of 2015, the Taubman Center became a part of the Watson Institute. The merger gave the Taubman Center important exposure to international issues and scholarship, Moffitt said. She hopes to continue “the process of bringing together the global focus of Watson with the study of American politics and policy” at the Taubman Center,
she said. “We can better understand American politics and policy through a global lens,” Moffitt added. Steinfeld praised Moffitt as “a scholar of bureaucracy” with “interests in gender and public policy,” as well as public provisions and equity. Moffitt has already proven her ability to take on large-scale projects. According to a University press release, Moffitt is currently in the second year of a three-year, $4.9 million project that examines the effects of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a set of K-12 academic standards that aims to combat education inequality in the United States. Steinfeld said he is confident in Moffitt’s abilities to further develop the Taubman Center’s scholarly reach. “I am sure she will push things further down the evolutionary path,” he added.
COURTESY OF SUSAN MOFFITT
Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science Susan Moffitt replaced James Morone, who finished his tenure July 1.
WEATHER
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
NEWS Sunday brawl outside of Whiskey Republic led to five men stabbed, one hit by car, possible closing
ARTS & CULTURE “Patti Cake$” follows New Jersey rapper, tastefully portrays downtrodden neighborhood
COMMENTARY Krishnamurthy ’19: Sugarcoating national tragedies lessens their political, emotional impact
COMMENTARY Vilsan ’19: The rapidly growing tech world doesn’t mean need for humanities students is lost
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