(Save $6 when you also sign up for class #352)  Contracts are the backbone of many relationships, whether personal or professional. Learn about the elements that make a contract binding, the art of negotiation, and what happens when things go awry. We will explore real-world examples that illustrate the importance of understanding contract law and how this understanding could protect you in a wide variety of circumstances. (See related class #352)

This program is based on a recent exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art called "Making Her Mark, A History of Women Artists from 1400-1800". Discover some of the leading woman artists of their time, who have been overlooked until recently from the Italian Renaissance to the Dutch Golden Age to the Rococo period.

Gustav Klimt symbolizes the height of Viennese art at the beginning of the 20th century---an unusually creative and innovative period in painting, music, and literature. At the core of his works are the iconic The Kiss and his “golden” portraits of the Viennese super-rich such as the $135 million dollar masterpiece of Adele Bloch-Bauer. This program will provide a retrospective of his often dramatic (and sometimes scandalous) life and career, focusing particularly on the collections of the Belvedere Palace in Vienna (home of The Kiss and numerous other Klimt works) and Neue Galerie in New York where Adele Bloch-Bauer’s famous portrait hangs today.

Overweight and obesity are risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiometabolic disease. This discussion will focus on the recognition, prevention, and management of obesity in the context of diabetes mellitus.

Does your home safety equipment need a checkup? You probably get a regular checkup for your health from a healthcare provider. Your home deserves the same care and attention. You might be able to check (and perhaps correct) some things in your home, but what do you really know about your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms? MCFRS Fire Safety Educator Jim Resnick will provide a great home safety "refresher" and will also explain about the free MCFRS Home Safety Check Program.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). In this discussion group, we will watch a pre-selected TED talk together and then engage in dialogue about it. By sharing our individual points of view about the ideas expressed in the talk, we’ll gain insights about different perspectives, philosophies, and perceptions.  The topics will be personal and philosophical, not political.  The environment will be safe, open, welcoming, and informal.  Refreshments will be served!   Sign up for one, two, three or all four meeting dates (see class #364, 395, 434). Limit: 20  

In New York early in the 20th century, a group of the quickest wits regularly met to laugh at each other and roll their eyes at the rest of the world. Including figures as diverse as Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woolcott, Harold Ross, and Harpo Marx, the Algonquin Roundtable saw absurdity in the social structure and came together to point it out in the cleverest of terms.

Red Wiggler is a sustainable Care Farm where people with and without developmental disabilities come together to work, learn, and grow healthy food. Volunteers join us for a variety of farming tasks. Depending on the time of year and time of day, we might be weeding, harvesting, planting, or doing other field maintenance. Volunteers will work side-by-side with our Grower staff members with intellectual/developmental disabilities, typically in small teams of 5-6.  This is a fairly physical job. Participants provide their own transportation and will meet at Ovid Hazen Well Park, 23400 Ridge Road, Germantown, MD 20876. Wear sturdy, weather-appropriate clothing; layers recommended.  Closed-toe shoes are required.  Bring a hat, sunscreen and a water bottle. Feel free to bring a bag lunch to enjoy after your hard work.  There are lovely picnic tables in the shade of a big oak tree. If the weather is drizzly, the event will take place.  In case of steady rain, the event will be rescheduled. Your fee for this program goes to Red Wiggler Farm to defray their administrative costs for this event.

Been to the Inner Harbor, National Aquarium, and Camden Yards? But have you seen the inside of the clockworks of the iconic Bromo Seltzer Tower? Jazz great Eubie Blake’s piano? A Tiffany mosaic of The Last Supper made with 65,000 pieces of glass? A pearl and garnet tiara worn by Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (Baltimore native who married Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother)? Travel Specialist Barbara Paulson offers alternatives to the “Big Box” museums, churches, and sites of Baltimore.  (See related classes #357, 387, and 436.)

This class is a talk with slides presenting Adam Brookes’s work of narrative non-fiction FRAGILE CARGO: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China’s Forbidden City. FRAGILE CARGO tells the true story – for the first time in English – of the brave curators and art historians who saved the imperial art collections of China from devastation and plunder during Japan's invasion of China. To do so, the curators crated up a quarter of a million objects and books and for sixteen years transported them through war-torn China in search of safety