Ethics Week 2015 Online Brochure

ETHICS AND THE ARTS

WEEK FOUR THE HALL OF PHILOSOPHY 9:30 - 10:30 MONDAY - FRIDAY

AN EXPLORATION OF ETHICAL QUESTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FIVE ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS: THEATER, ARCHITECTURE, VISUAL ARTS, MUSIC, AND THE LITERARY ARTS.

Sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution’s Department of Religion Produced by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Chautauqua

Monday Theater

Andrew Borba How Should We Act ?

“How should we act?” is a question of tremendous importance in our daily lives and perhaps doubly so when mounting a play. Aristotle believed that how we act determines our character and the Theater’s duty is to present characters to influence the actions of the audience. But who makes the decision as to what stories are told, for what audience, how and with whom? Mr. Borba will investigate the Theater’s intimate power, influence, and changing role in our morally demanding world.

Mr. Borba is in his 7th season as Associate Artistic Director and his 11th summer at the Chautauqua Theater Company.

In the summer of 2014 Andrew conceived and created the multidisciplinar y Inter-Arts work “Go West! The Mythology of American Expansion,” and will direct Ellis Island, in collaboration with the CSO in the 2015 Season. For CTC he has also directed: The Comedy of Errors, The Philadelphia Story, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Swimming Thru Abu Dhabi, and Carve by Molly Smith Metzler. As an actor at CTC he has performed in Our Town, Arcadia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, The Just, All My Sons, Frankenstein and Dracula. Outside of CTC, Andrew has performed in theaters around the country including South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, The Globe Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (4 seasons), Theater @ Boston Court, Dallas Theater Center, The Long Wharf, and many others. He has had recurring and guest appearances on over 30 television series and numerous films including F. Gary Gray’s upcoming Straight Outta Compton, Good Humor, Taken 3, and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Andrew currently teaches Shakespeare and advanced Acting at USC, is a cum laude graduate of Brown University and received his M.F.A. from New York University. Against all probability he lives in Los Angeles.

Tuesday Architecture

William Roy Laubscher “The Ethics of Architecture” Architecture is a marriage of Art and Science. The science of technology has expanded the architect’s ability to press the visual limits of the aesthetic sculptures that we inhabit. But, there exists an ethical tension between the architect’s passion to create a wonderful work of art for art’s sake and the ethical responsibility to respond to the emotional, financial, cultural and programmatic needs of those that inhabit the architect’s creations. Mr. Laubscher has over 50 years of experience in the design and construction industry. Presently Mr. Laubscher is involved in designing and managing residential and commercial projects in and around The Chautauqua Institution. Mr. Laubscher enjoys oil painting, pen & ink drawing, woodworking and gardening. He has been married to his wife Carole for fifty years and they have three children and eight grandchildren. He was President of a major Midwest architectural and engineering firm and after merging with URS Corporation in 1984 became involved with the overall management of the worldwide Corporation. He became involved with acquisitions and integration throughout the United States and abroad, particularly in the Pacific Basin - Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has served as Project Principal for such diversified major projects as billion dollar K-12 programs and College/University Educational Facilities, office buildings, health care and financial institutions. He designed diverse projects around the world such as the New Generation Teaching Hospital in Algiers and a palace for Royalty in Brunei.

Wednesday Visual Arts

Audrey Kay Dowling Black, White or Gray: Ethical Considerations for Visual Artists Audrey Ka y Dowling was born in Jamestown, NY in 1952. She received her BS degree in Art Education from SUNY New Paltz and her MS in Education degree from SUNY Fredonia. She lives with her husband, Donald, in Westfield, NY and they have two grown sons, Joseph and Forrest.

Audrey and Donald currently operate their business, Po r t a g e H i l l A r t Galler y which is located on Highway 394. In addition to teaching art in public schools she has taught privately for the last 25 years.

During this time she became very active in the New York State Gifted Education Organization (AGATE) of which she is the current Past President.

She also served as the regional representative to the State Education Department for Gifted Education and presented to the NYS Board of Regents on this topic. Audrey has maintained a very active art career throughout her life and has been involved in the formation and served on the boards of many local arts organizations. Her award winning work has been accepted into many juried shows, including several national ones. She was recently featured in a one-woman show held in May at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown.

Thursday Music

David Levy “Ethical Issues In Music” A critical view of classical pronouncements on music’s ethical properties.

David B. Levy, Professor of Music, Director of Flow House, Vienna, and Associate Dean for Faculty Governance, has been at Wake Forest since 1976. He has ser ved as faculty member in the Department of Music, departmental chair, and President of the Faculty Senate. He teaches courses in music histor y and pursues research on 19th Centur y Music with a special focus on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. He has published widely in his field both nationally and internationally and is the author of a monograph, Beethoven: the Ninth Symphony (Yale UP, 2003). As Associate Dean for Faculty Governance, David has oversight of the standing faculty committees, ser ves as secretar y for the Committee on Academic Affairs, and presides over Honors and Ethics hearings.

Friday Literary Arts

Steve Tigner ETHICS ON AN EPIC SCALE The literar y arts in western culture begin with epic poetry, and the great epic poets remain paradigm practitioners of the arts. Homer, with whom the western literar y tradition begins, composed in Greek, and his Iliad established patterns and standards for Vi r g i l , D a n t e a n d Milton, who were to follow him, writing in Latin, vernacular Italian and English.

All would adapt specific verse forms for their epic tasks, begin their epics in medias res (as Horace put it), and all would make striking use of epic similes. And the great L a t i n , It a l i a n a n d English epics would also follow Homer in addressing monumental matters of imperial or cosmic concern. All would confront hubris and greed, conquest and defeat, loyalty and betrayal, love and lust, life and death -- living on the edge. In addition to worldly adventures, all included underworld adventures as well.

Steve Tigner began his career teaching high school physics and chemistry in Newark NY, retired as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy from the University of Toledo in 1990, then taught “Cultural Foundations for Educators” for 17 years at Boston University before finally retiring in 2007. He now lives happily with his wife Gwen as a year-round Chautauquan. For the past several years he has led a popular Winter Classics Series at the Turner Community Center for Chautauqua’s winter community.

In order to define any human activity, it is necessary to understand its sense and importance; to do that one must examine the activity itself, and its causes and effects, not merely in relation to the pleasure we get out of it. People who consider the meaning of art to be pleasure cannot realize its true meaning. In fact, people will come to understand the meaning of art only when they cease to consider that the aim of art is pleasure.

In his essay on art, Tolstoy (1828 -1910) asks the question, “What is Art?”.

Courtesy of Society for Art of Imagination.

“It is in works of art that nations have deposited the richest ideas they possess, and often art serves as a key of interpretation to the wisdom and understanding of peoples. Philosophy and religion also do this, but art appeals to the senses and is nearer to Nature and to our sensitive and emotional life.”

G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) on the Philosophy of Fine Art. Courtesy of Society for Art of Imagination