Sic
vos non vobis mellificatis ape
— So
d o yo u b e es m a k e h o n e y , n o t f o r yo u r se lv e s .
Virgil
2015 Newsletter of the Signet Society of Harvard College 4 6 D u n s t e r S t r e e t , C a m b r i d g e , M a ss a c h u s e t t s 0 2 1 3 8 • 6 1 7 - 5 4 7 - 0 5 2 6 • S i g n e t S o c i e t y . o r g
The Signet’s New Open Application Process
A good portion of Harvard’s current campus discussion focuses on inclusivity and access. A concensus has emerged that all students should be able to apply for membership in Harvard affiliates, instead of waiting to be asked to apply. The Crimson, Lampoon, and Advocate have had open comps for years. The Signet’s habit of “put-ups” struck undergrads as discriminating against students who didn’t happen to know a current member. This fall, all juniors and seniors were eligible to submit a body of artistic or literary work for consideration. (In the spring, all sophomores and juniors may apply.) The subsequent peer review is the same as before, with (ideally) the most accomplished candidates being elected.
For some years, undergrads have been concerned that certain types of artists weren’t represented in our membership, most often the solitary arts whose practitioners often struggle to find a place to show their work, and whose efforts are unknown to their fellow students. Painters, sculptors, filmmakers and photographers were hard to find, while theater people, musicians, and those affiliated with large performance groups were well-represented. Led by undergraduate president Anna Hagen ’15, last year’s membership held several well-attended
member meetings and approved a proposal to implement a new application process. This fall, under the helm of current president Daniel Citron ’16, the process was tried out.
Good news—it worked! We received 90 applications, of whom perhaps 20-25 would not have been involved previously. Among the applicants were illustrators who were not affiliated with a campus magazine, photographers, performance artists and improv comedians. The process was also appreciated by the current membership, who had been uncomfortable with the burden of picking only one or two of their fellow artists to “put up.” Now, they could encourage all their talented friends to apply and participate in a process open to all who are passionate about the arts and literature. The undergraduate officers had set up initial screening committees. Six undergrads reviewed each applicant—three from within the applicant’s field or a related field, and three from unrelated fields. These committees reduced the candidate pool to 40 candidates who were then considered by the entire membership. 17 were ultimately elected. It was more work, but the membership feels that the results are more representative of the most talented students at Harvard.
Welcome Chef Donna, and Welcome Back Artist Jesse! Donna Coppola (left) knows about the artist’s life. A graduate of Phillips Andover, she went to Tufts, got her MFA from Boston’s Museum School, then managed the art cooperative Mobius. Cooking was her true calling, though, and she spent 12 years as the chef for two Los Angeles restaurants. (She also sang vocals and played percussion in an indie band.) Donna loves the Signet kitchen and feeding people. She has made a fast friend in Jesse Nee-Vogelman ’13 (right),
who loves to eat. He hopes to finish his first novel during his term as the Signet’s fifth Artistin-Residence. Since graduating, he has trekked around the world, amidst stints teaching English in Korea. Jesse is delighted to be back at the Hive, seeing the many faculty and staff friends he made as an undergrad. He’s running a writers workshop, leading field trips, and encouraging all our members to “create art and live it.”
What Did You Do Last February? While his classmates were enduring the wintriest both the Lunar New Year and the King’s Birthday by February on record, Signet violinist/violist/com- both drinking heavily and engaging in the national poser George Meyer ’15 packed a cultural triple- sport of archery. Their audience with the King and Queen would have to wait. play into the month. First, he joined his parents at the GramInstead, they were offered a mies in Los Angeles. His father, prime spot in the capital’s Edgar Meyer, won a Grammy main square, where they set for an album created with up their quintet along with a longtime collaborator Chris hastily-obtained electric keyThile, Bass and Mandolin, in the board. Sandwiched between category of Best Contemporary rock bands and British beatInstrumental album. boxers, they played Brahms and Beethoven to a throng of George flew back to Bosencouraging Bhutanese, many ton just in time to pick up of whom were not familiar four other members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra. with the genre but happy to Along with conductor Federenjoy the effort. The drinking and archery went well, too. ico Cortese, they flew to Bhutan, anticipating a performMount Everest is 29,000 feet ance for the King and Queen. high. Luckily, their plane flew (This was a Signet affair—Feat 30,000 feet and returned derico is a Signet associate; them safely to a snow-bound The Meyer family at the Grammies other undergraduate Signet and frigid Cambridge. members included violinists Now, George had one week to Stella Chen ’15 and Emma Frucht ’16, cellist Sasha complete an English thesis about John Keats and Scolnik-Brower ’17, and pianist Phillip Golub ’16.) his vivid descriptions of light. Was he inspired by They arrived in Bhutan for a quick rehearsal on his own memories of the klieg lights of Tinseltown the country’s only piano, only to learn that within and the sunset’s gleam off Everest from above? Said hours the entire nation would begin celebrating George, “Mmm, perhaps! I turned it in on time.”
2015 Senior Thesis Topics Ben Blumstein A book of poems called Abandon. Isaac Dayno “The Last Children of Men”: Women, Family, and the World in Shaker Visionary Images 1839-1859 Moeko Fujii Orienting Virginia Woolf: Japonisme in Orlando, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves Anna Hagen A collection of short stories titled Give Me Burning Kevin Hong Still Life: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Romantic Camera Awais Hussain Towards an Ensemble Interpretation of Causation (joint physics and philosophy thesis) Mattie Kahn “A Magazine of High Character”: Failure, Foresight, and the Literary Project of Edgar Allan Poe Matt Krane A book of poems called Inferno: [it is morning] Julian Leonard VES thesis titled Current Sculptures Ethan Loewi A collection of short stories entitled Clickbait Eric Macomber Philosophy thesis titled Time, tense, and common sense: toward a tenseless account of time’s passage
Brenna McDuffie A narrative profile of two female college students in India titled The Violence of Normal Times Charlotte McKechnie North and South: A Journey of Political Action and Personal Re-Imagining in Scotland and Australia, 1792-1801 George Meyer “Like Fair Veins in Sable Marble Flow”: John Keats’s Change of Light Ethan Pierce VES thesis titled here, without: art, otherness and Israel-Palestine Sam Richman The Big Dream: Moral Fantasy in Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles Sarah Rosenthal Art and Politics in Murky Water: The Twofold Ecology in Hans Haacke’s Rhine-Water Purification Plant Amy Sparrow Food Safety Development and Legal Reform in Contemporary China Ezra Stoller Our Old Treasures: Institutional Senior Care in Modern Beijing Jeannie Sui Wonders Repainting the Past: Imaging Maya Sculpture in Polychrome Nora Wilkinson Dangerous Visions: Idolatry as Metaphor in Late Nineteenth-Century American Realism
How You Helped Us Through Winter Did you contribute to our building renovations over the past five years? If so, a couple hundred undergrads, associates, staff, and our commercial tenants extend our profound thanks for keeping us open and dry through one of the toughest winters New England has endured. Over $400,000 in repairs and restorations worked. 108 inches of snow buried Cambridge from late January to March, incapacitating the MBTA and causing Harvard to close more times than in the previous hundred years. The Signet? We stayed open the whole time and served every meal. About a quart of water penetrated the building—a pretty good test of our new gutters, shored up foundations, new heating systems, roof repairs, and extensive weatherizing.We thank those of you who gave so generously. Our back alley, halfway through the five weeks of storms. It eventually became impassable, and our vendors made their deliveries through the front doors.
Caribbean View For decades, the Signet kitchen has had a “dead window,” blocked by a large bulletin board in our commercial tenant’s foyer at 48 Dunster Street. Signet Secretary Mark Hruby ’78 saw a place for art and painted this scene of a Caribbean bay, complete with hibiscus blooms and seagulls. “In February, when the icicles are forming and sleet is pounding against the right-hand window, you can take a tropical vacation just by looking out the window on the left.” Create art and live it, indeed!
Lunches We serve lunches at 1 p.m. each Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday during the school year. If you plan to join us or would like to bring a guest, please sign up at SignetLuncheon.org . If you live locally, we’d be happy to add you to our weekly emailing of upcoming tasty menus. We’ve simplified the system for payment by graduates, associates, and your guests—meals are $20 a head. We’ve brought back the very popular “5 tickets for $75” deal if you’re regularly around.
House Rentals The Signet House is occasionally available for you or your group to host receptions or private dinners. Call 617-547-0526 or email us at sigsoc@fas.harvard.edu to discuss your plans.
S A V E T H E D A T E ! S AT U R D A Y A P R I L 2 3 2 0 1 6 SIGNET ANNUAL DINNER K I R K L A N D H O U S E
Executive Committee Prof. Thomas Forrest Kelly, President Patrick O’Donnell ’67, Vice-President Nancy Sinsabaugh ’76, Vice-President Winthrop G. Minot ’71, Treasurer John H. Finley IV ’92, Clerk Matthew C. Lee ’91, At Large Finance Committee Winthrop G. Minot ’71, Chair Christopher Laconi Thomas F. Moore ’98 Geoffrey H. Movius ’62 House Committee Patrick O’Donnell ’67, Chair Daniel Citron ’16 Prof. Amanda Claybaugh Stephen Coit ’71 Mark S. Hruby ’78 Christopher Laconi Prof. John Stilgoe Capital A Associates Rucker Alex ’99 Susan Stevenson Borowitz ’81 Mimi Brown ’97 Prof. Amanda Claybaugh Stephen Coit ’71 Prof. Diana Eck Prof. James Engell John H. Finley IV ’92 Stephen Gauster ’92 John W. Gillespie, Jr. ’76 Margaret H. Gleason ’94 Joel Henning ’61 Prof. Thomas Forrest Kelly Daniel Kim ’97 Walter B. Klyce, III ’10 Christopher Laconi Matthew C. Lee ’91 Winthrop G. Minot ’71 Thomas F. Moore ’98 Geoffrey H. Movius ’62 Philip Munger ’95 Patrick O’Donnell ’67 Bryan Eric Simmons ’83 Nancy Sinsabaugh ’76 Prof. John Stilgoe James M. Storey ’53 Simon Williams ’09 Artist-in-Residence Jesse Nee-Vogelman ’13