Would you like to learn about some of the visionary artists of Canada, our neighbor to the North? This program will be focusing on the Group of Seven, famed for their dramatic and striking landscapes inspired by the Canadian wilderness. You may not have heard of artists like Franklin Carmichael or J.E.H. MacDonald or Lawren Harris who worked mainly in the early 20th century. However, their colorful depictions of the forests and mountains of their native country led to the establishment of a national art.

Civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall won an early victory against school segregation right here in Montgomery County — gaining equal pay for the county’s African American teachers in 1937. This little-known legal case is often seen as the first step in Marshall’s successful drive to have separate schools for white and black children declared unconstitutional, as the Supreme Court did 17 years later in a landmark decision. This illustrated talk details this remarkable local story and its national significance. Spoiler alert: the victory came at a tremendous cost to the teacher bringing the case.

Civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall won an early victory against school segregation right here in Montgomery County — gaining equal pay for the county’s African American teachers in 1937. This little-known legal case is often seen as the first step in Marshall’s successful drive to have separate schools for white and black children declared unconstitutional, as the Supreme Court did 17 years later in a landmark decision. This illustrated talk details this remarkable local story and its national significance. Spoiler alert: the victory came at a tremendous cost to the teacher bringing the case.

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso. But how did his long career and celebrity begin? Pablo Picasso is Spain's most famous artist, yet he spent much of his career in self-imposed exile in France. As a young man at the turn of the century, Picasso was inspired by the work of Montmartre painters Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas. He painted similar subjects: the habitués of the brothels and cafes of Montmartre and Montparnasse. We'll examine how Picasso came into his own during his early years in Paris.

Many people could benefit from technology advancements, including the physically impaired, those limited by economics and geography, and those who just want to enhance their quality of life. This class will examine how technology is attempting to help persons with disabilities or impairments by creating devices and systems to aid or improve basic human functions, to facilitate or automate transportation, and to provide essential services. We'll look at various forms Assistive Technology can take and we'll discuss the legal and ethical considerations involved.

Mary Cassatt is noted as the only American woman within the French Impressionist circle in Paris. From a wealthy Pennsylvania family, she nevertheless carved out a professional career for herself as an artist, defying social conventions of the time. This lecture will put Cassatt in the framework among the Impressionists and their group exhibitions. It will examine the social and domestic subjects she portrayed and the various media she used in her work. This talk is designed to complement the exhibition "Mary Cassatt at Work" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, May 18–September 8, 2024.

Many people could benefit from technology advancements, including the physically impaired, those limited by economics and geography, and those who just want to enhance their quality of life. This class will examine how technology is attempting to help persons with disabilities or impairments by creating devices and systems to aid or improve basic human functions, to facilitate or automate transportation, and to provide essential services. We'll look at various forms Assistive Technology can take and we'll discuss the legal and ethical considerations involved.

(Please note: We are reading the novel itself; we are not reading the 2020 graphic novel, with the same title.) It took the author over two decades to finish his anti-war novel, inspired by his being an American POW imprisoned in a Dresden slaughterhouse during the Allies’ 1945 aerial bombardment. The work combines elements of autobiography, historical fiction, satire, science fiction, and war service record. It’s both 1 of 10 books named in the very first Supreme Court case about public school libraries banning books (1982) and ranked at 18 in the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels in English (1998). It wasn’t just banned: after the school board in Drake North Dakota had the school custodian burn all 32 classroom copies in the school’s own furnace in 1973, there was a national outcry. Please read the book so you can participate in our structured, facilitated, Zoom discussion. (Note: Please join the meeting at 3 pm if you would like some assistance using the features of Zoom. Otherwise, join us at 3:15 pm for the start of our discussion.)