2016 Esther B. O'Keeffe Speaker Series

2016 esther b. o’keeffe speaker series at the Society of the Four Arts

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Dear Friend of the Four Arts: We are very pleased to bring you this brochure for the 2016 Esther B. O’Keeffe Speaker Series at The Society of the Four Arts. We have endeavored to secure an engaging and substantive set of speakers, covering a variety of topics from the current political scene, to foreign policy, to the arts and literature, as well as to the challenges confronting private higher education, the museum world, and the book industry.

We anticipate provocative and knowledgeable talks that will stimulate your thinking about an array of important subjects.

In selecting and recruiting speakers, I was assisted by our Speakers Committee, chaired by Ambassador Edward E. Elson. We met early in the season and agreed to a general set of criteria for speakers that guided my search for the 13 individuals presented in the following pages. I am grateful for the help provided by the committee and several other members as the recruiting process went forward.

We welcome your thoughts on this important program, and look forward to a terrific season ahead.

Sincerely,

David W. Breneman President

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SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE THE JOHN R. DONNELL MEMORIAL LECTURE Charlie Cook, “The 2016 Election Outlook” Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 3 p.m.

A. E. Dick Howard, “Magna Carta: 800 Years after Runnymede” Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Akbar Ahmed, “Islam and the West Since 9/11” Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Catharine Hill, “Economic Challenges facing Private Higher Education” Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Kathleen Parker, “Politics, Culture, and Contemporary Issues” Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Louis Menand, “Pollock and Politics: What Are We Looking At?” Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Marlene Strauss, “The Clark Brothers of Cooperstown” Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 3 p.m.

THE ESTHER ELSON MEMORIAL LECTURE Thomas Campbell, “Art, Audience, Excellence: Thoughts on the Future of The Metropolitan Museum of Art” Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Louis René Beres, “Israel’s Nuclear Strategy and U.S. Security” Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 3 p.m.

THE WALTER S. GUBELMANN MEMORIAL LECTURE Michael Hayden, “A Troubled World” Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Lisa Genova, “Still Alice” Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Jonathan Galassi, “The Good Old Days: An Editor Looks Back” Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Margaret Hoover, “The Republican Party and the Millennial Generation” Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 3 p.m.

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about the esther b. o’keeffe speaker series The Esther B. O’Keeffe Speaker Series features notable speakers from the fields of politics, culture and the media. Lectures take place January through March on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. Book signings, when offered, are held in the Four Arts King Library and are open to the public at no charge.

history of the speaker series The Society of the Four Arts was founded in 1936 with a mission of providing the best cultural programs to the Palm Beach community. Part of the diverse programming included guest speakers, and through the years these programs evolved into the prestigious speaker series.

In 1995 a generous gift was pre­sented to The Society of the Four Arts by Dr. and Mrs. Arthur O’Keeffe. In recognition, the build­ing in which the gallery and auditorium are located was named the Esther B. O’Keeffe Gallery Building in honor of Dr. O’Keeffe’s first wife, Esther.

The O’Keeffe family’s generosity continued in 1999 when they made a sizeable endowment to support and create “The Esther B. O’Keeffe Speaker Series.” Thanks to their generous interest and support, The Four Arts is able to host world-class speakers who are experts in their fields.

Pictured are Dr. and Mrs. Arthur O’Keeffe. Dr. O’Keeffe was an accomplished surgeon and philanthropist, and The Esther B. O’Keeffe Charitable Foundation supports health and medical research causes, along with arts and cultural programs.

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the memorial lectures We are grateful to the following families for their vision and leadership. To learn more about endowing a lecture, please contact the Development Office at (561) 659-8506.

THE JOHN R. DONNELL MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 3 p.m.

The John R. Donnell Memorial Lecture was established in 2001 by long-time Four Arts trustee Maureen Donnell, in memory of her late husband, John. Mr. Donnell was a great supporter of the arts, as well as a member of The Four Arts board of trustees. He was a graduate and trustee of Case Western Reserve University and a graduate of Harvard Business School.

He was president of international relations and a senior vice president at The Marathon Oil Company. Mr. Donnell served 25 years as president and chairman of the First National Bank of Findlay, Ohio. He was a board member of the Boy Scouts of America and The World Boy Scout Foundation. He served as a trustee on multiple boards and received many awards for services to his community and for his philanthropy.

THE ESTHER ELSON MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Ambassador Edward Elson is vice chairman of the Four Arts and Mrs. Elson is chairman of the art acquisitions committee; both have a long history of service and generosity to the Four Arts. Ambassador and Mrs. Elson created the memorial lecture in 2005 to honor Ambassador Elson’s mother, Esther, who was a gifted and exhibited artist, and a long-time member of the Four Arts. Each year a speaker is selected from the arts, and past speakers have included such luminaries as choreographer Twyla Tharp, violinist Itzahk Perlman and vocalist Renee Fleming.

THE WALTER S. GUBELMANN MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Walter S. Gubelmann was president of the board of trustees of The Society of the Four Arts for 25 years. Two memorials mark his contributions. Firstly, funds were raised to establish the Walter S. Gubelmann Memorial Lecture each year, in honor of the former president’s many years as chairman of the lecture committee. Two years after his death in 1988, the “Silver King” by sculptor D.H.S. Wehle was installed in the fountain at the entrance to the O’Keeffe Gallery Building. The sculpture, which was donated by Mr. and Mrs. F. Warrington Gillet, Jr., represents a tarpon and commemorates Mr. Gubelmann’s devotion to marine sports.

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THE JOHN R. DONNELL MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Charlie Cook, “The 2016 Election Outlook” Founder, publisher and editor of the Cook Political Report, The New York Times has called Charlie Cook “…one of the best political handicappers in the nation.” The Cook Report, independent and non-partisan, has been published since 1984, analyzing elections and campaigns for president, house of representatives, senate, governors, and state legislatures. With his encyclopedic knowledge, memorable stories, quick wit and meaningful insights, his work focuses on the broad implications of the latest election results. What better speaker could we present for this 2016 election season?

Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 3 p.m.

A. E. Dick Howard, “Magna Carta: 800 Years after Runnymede” Widely recognized as an expert in the field of constitutional law and a noted authority on Magna Carta, Howard is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Law. An advisor to the Library of Congress on its exhibit, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor,” Howard also lectured on Magna Carta in London under the auspices of the American Embassy, and Oxford’s Bodleian Library and Salisbury Cathedral. In Howard’s words, “The 800th anniversary is not so much about celebrating Magna Carta’s origins as it is about explaining how and why the Charter survived and what its legacy is for our time.”

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Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Akbar Ahmed, “Islam and the West Since 9/11”

An anthropologist by training, Ahmed holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. Previously he was the first distinguished chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and served as the high commissioner from Pakistan to the U.K. and Ireland. He has also served as nonresident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, and has taught at Princeton, Harvard and the University of Cambridge. A prolific author, his books include “The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam,” “Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization,” and “Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam.” His talk is subtitled: “ISIS, Home-grown Terrorists and the War on Terror.”

Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Catharine Hill, “Economic Challenges facing Private Higher Education” The 10th president of Vassar College, Hill is an experienced administrator and a noted economist whose work focuses on higher education affordability and access. A graduate of Williams College, Hill has further degrees from Oxford University and her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. Prior to accepting the presidency of Vassar in 2006 she served for seven years as provost of Williams College. Under her leadership, Vassar has reinstated need-blind admissions and replaced loans with grants for lowincome families, and as a result Vassar was awarded the inaugural $1 million prize from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation in April 2014.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Kathleen Parker, “Politics, Culture, and Contemporary Issues” Kathleen Parker is a columnist for The Washington Post, writing twice-weekly on politics and culture.

She is the most widely syndicated columnist in the country, with columns appearing in more than 500 papers, which translates into approximately 80 million print readers. She is a political analyst for MSNBC and a regular guest on Meet the Press. In a retrospective study of political pundits’ predictions, Parker scored highest for accuracy. She is also a consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking and a regular guest on Sunday news shows. Her book, “Save the Males: Why Men Matter, and Why Women Should Care,” was published in 2008 by Random House.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Louis Menand, “Pollock and Politics: What Are We Looking At?” The Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University, Menand is widely considered to be the foremost modern scholar of American studies.

His most famous work, “The Metaphysical Club” (2001) is a detailed history of American intellectual and philosophical life in the 19th and 20th centuries. It received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for history and the 2002 Francis Parkman Prize. Menand then went on to publish “American Studies” (2002), an amalgam of essays and articles on people who have greatly contributed to American culture. Menand is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. His professional commitment to both academia and journalism is a rare combination.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Marlene Strauss, “The Clark Brothers of Cooperstown” Familiar to Four Arts patrons as the Society’s “resident art historian,” Marlene Strauss is a renowned interpreter of art and artists for audiences at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and at such venues as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. She will tell the story of Sterling and Stephen Clark, heirs to the Singer sewing machine fortune, who amassed two of the most important art collections of the 20th century, greatly developing America’s taste for impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modern paintings.

The siblings quarrelled over the disposition of their inheritance, and their relationship was severed forever.

Each of them, however, would go on to build great individual collections.

THE ESTHER ELSON MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Thomas Campbell, “Art, Audience, Excellence: Thoughts on the Future of The Metropolitan Museum of Art” Since becoming the ninth director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009, Thomas Campbell has pursued an agenda that focuses on scholarship and accessibility. These priorities maintain the museum’s excellence in its exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and permanent collections, while encouraging new thinking about the visitor experience. Prior to his appointment, Campbell was a curator in the Metropolitan’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts for 14 years, where he organized two major exhibitions on Renaissance and Baroque tapestry.

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Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Louis René Beres, “Israel’s Nuclear Strategy and U.S. Security” Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Law at Purdue University, Beres was born in Zürich, Switzerland and earned a B.A. from Queens College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has written ten books and several hundred scholarly articles and monographs, and lectures widely on terrorism, strategy, and international law.

His newest book is titled “Israel’s Nuclear Strategy: Surviving Amid Chaos.” As an expert on nuclear war and nuclear terrorism, he is closely involved with Israeli security issues at the highest levels. He was chair of “Project Daniel,” a group advising Israel’s Prime Minister on existential nuclear questions.

THE WALTER S. GUBELMANN MEMORIAL LECTURE Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Michael Hayden, “A Troubled World” A retired U.S. Air Force four-star general, Michael Hayden is a former director of the National Security Agency (1999-2005), principal deputy director of National Intelligence (2005-06), and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2006-2009). He currently serves as a principal with the Chertoff Group, focusing on technological intelligence and counterintelligence involving communications and data networks, on global political and terrorist risk analysis, and on the structure and strategy of the American intelligence community.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Lisa Genova, “Still Alice”

A neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from Harvard, Genova has created a career as a novelist who helps readers understand the inner life of those who live with severe neurological illness through literature. Her award-winning first novel, “Still Alice,” explores early-onset Alzheimer’s and led to a major motion picture and Oscar-winning performance by Julianne Moore. Her other novels include “Love Anthony,” which focuses on autism, “Left Neglected,” which explores traumatic brain injury, and “Inside the O’Briens,” which centers on Huntington’s disease. In her own words, Genova says, “The novels I write are about people living with neurological diseases and conditions that are feared, ignored, or misunderstood, portrayed within a story that is accessible to the general public.”

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Jonathan Galassi, “The Good Old Days: An Editor Looks Back”

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Photo by Elena Seibert

The president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Galassi has had a long career in the book world, first with Houghton Mifflin, then with Random House, and finally with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which he joined in 1985. A poet and translator of poetry, he recently debuted as a novelist with the publication of “Muse: A Novel,” a loving send-up of the world of writers, editors, and publishers. The preface explains that the novel is “…about the good old days, when men were men and women were women and books were books, with glued or even sewn bindings, cloth or paper covers, with beautiful or not–so-beautiful jackets and a musty, dusty wonderful smell...”

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Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 3 p.m.

Margaret Hoover, “The Republican Party and the Millennial Generation” Hoover is a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republican. She is modernizing the party with fresh ideas and an open mind for change, including freedom to marry, fiscal conservatism and a robust foreign policy. Previously a Fox News Contributor, a veteran of the George W. Bush White House, two presidential campaigns, and a former staffer on Capitol Hill, she is also the best-selling author of “American Individualism: How A New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party.”

Plus, Hoover is the great-granddaughter of former president Herbert Hoover, a subject she beams with pride to share with her audiences.

The Esther B. O’Keeffe Speaker Series takes place in the Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium.

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helpful reminders

• Please present your Four Arts membership card for complimentary admission to the lecture.

• Please remember, a membership card admits you and a spouse or guest; additional guest tickets may be purchased for $35.

• The seats reserved for Benefactor and Chairman’s Forum members, located at

the front of the auditorium, will be opened to general seating 10 minutes before the lecture begins.

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the society of 2 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach, FL 33480 www.fourarts.org • (561) 655-7227

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