HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-03-23-CLC-ATM-rptCary Lecture Series Committee
Report to Town Meeting
March 25, 2015
Madame Moderator,
As every year, it is a pleasure to report to Town Meeting on the Cary Lecture
Series. As you may recall, the series is wholly supported by the Isaac Harris Cary Fund,
set up by the Cary sisters in 1921. Each year we are able to offer four free lectures to the
citizens of Lexington. The Committee thanks the fund trustees for their continued
support of our efforts.
Because of the renovations to Cary Hall, including Battin Auditorium, we met at
Clarke Middle School this year. Miraculously, we didn't have to cancel or postpone any
of our events, because none were scheduled for January or February —a bit of inadvertent
wisdom on our part!
All four of our speakers were engaging and lively. The 2014 -2015 season began
on October 25th with Dr. Michael Rich of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard
School of Public Health, whose talk was co- sponsored by the Lexington League of
Women Voters and was entitled "Raising Your Digital Native: Parenting in a World of
Screens ". A number of concerned parents came to hear him and were glad they did, I
think.
We continued with the eminent cellist Yehuda Hanani on November 8. He spoke
on the interrelationship of music and painting, and also treated us to a Bach partita.
On December 6, the Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition co- sponsored a
lecture by Susan Solomon, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science at
MIT and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She called her talk
"A Tale for our Times: The Reasons for Climate Gridlock ". Despite the seriousness of
her subject, she remained optimistic about the prospects for meeting the challenges
ahead.
Our final speaker, on March 7, 2015, was Gregory Maguire, whose title was "No
Rest for the Wicked: The Author of Wicked on Reading, Writing and Broadway ". The
lecture was co- sponsored by Cary Library, which did a fantastic job helping us with
publicity and volunteers. Many children and families attended this session. The talk was a
raving success and included four magnificent decorated cakes that were served to the
audience after the talk, courtesy of the creative and generous staff at Wilson Farm. I think
that there may be more cake in our future, now that we know what we were missing!
At this point we have two speakers firmly scheduled for 2015 -2016: Harvard
professor Steven Pinker, and the Globe art critic Sebastian Smee. Others are in process.
As you may have noticed from my description, we are trying to increase our
partnerships with other entities in town, because we have an embarrassment of riches in
Lexington and want to cooperate, rather than compete, with other groups that sponsor
lectures. We continue to reflect on our Saturday night slot. Indeed, Steven Pinker will be
coming on a weeknight because of his own schedule, and we'll observe closely.
We are also thinking about the structure of the Committee. We will lose one of
our four members, Susan Emanuel, who is resigning during this coming year, and we are
trying out a new idea: including one or two associate members who can help with the
work, better represent our changing community, and perhaps step into the vacant position
if the Moderator approves.
Meanwhile Bob Halperin continues as our chairman, and Van Seasholes and I as
committee members. We still work to improve our website, carylectureseries.org, and our
electronic means of communication. We would like to thank the tireless staff and
volunteers at Lex Media for broadcasting lectures, bringing our educational and
entertaining programs to a wider audience; the resourceful custodial staff at Clarke, who
had to be pretty nimble this year in some situations; the town technician, Chris Gaffron;
Laurie Lucibello at the Department of Public Facilities; Bob Sacco, who has provided
wonderful posters for us and helped us redirect people from Baffin Hall to Clarke; and
again, our co- sponsors, especially Meagan Parker at Cary Library, and our surprise cake
providers, Wilson Farm.
We always welcome suggestions from the community for future speakers. Please
look out for our yellow tickets in the fall (they can also be printed from the website) and
be sure to stay tuned.
Thank you.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Cary Lecture Committee,
Rita Goldberg
Pct. 2