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Visionaries, Innovators
and Overachievers:
50 Years of Achieving the Extraordinary

UC San Diego is 50 years old! The Division of Arts and Humanities is celebrating the half-century milestone along with the rest of campus and the community.

[Dance]

Experiments in Creativity

The San Diego U-T ran a special section on the university in honor of its anniversary. The arts at UC San Diego, the paper reported, have flourished alongside the sciences and are also remarkable for being groundbreaking and innovative: “Experiments in Creativity.” The section also included coverage of some historical high points in the arts and featured Dean Seth Lerer, Steve Schick of Music and Theatre and Dance Department founder Arthur Wagner with their thoughts about the future.

A Story of Its Own Time

The 50th Anniversary “UCSD by Design” project celebrates the university’s art and architecture, which reflect the modern and contemporary eras in which they evolved. The centerpiece of “UCSD by Design” is a five-part public lecture and discussion series, and about 200 people turned out for the first event. If you missed the opening act – architectural historian Kurt W. Forster on “Sea, Sky, and Science: The UCSD Campus between the Real and the Ideal” – you can catch the entire talk in a UCSD-TV video.

[Geisel Library]

For more about the history and future of UCSD’s built environment, you can also listen to a KPBS-FM segment on the subject or view a magazine-style program online on UCSD-TV. Both programs feature campus architect Boone Hellman and design writer Dirk Sutro, author of the new campus guidebook. The book is organized into 10 walking tours of the campus, but buying a copy now also entitles you to a free special 50th Anniversary bus tour.

[Bear Statue]

Stuart Collection for the Small Screen

The university’s unique public art is now even more accessible. Each of the Stuart Collection’s 17 sculptures is discussed in a free, HD video podcast for your computer or portable device.

[photo: Dileep Rao]

Rao’s Welcome

“Avatar” and “Inception” star Dileep Rao, who fell in love with acting in his UC San Diego classes, welcomed new students to campus. He urged them to take a chance and pursue their dreams, as he did.

[Pattern]

Playing with Pattern

Kim MacConnel of Visual Arts has a career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, now through Jan 23, 2011. The San Diego U-T and the Los Angeles Times laud the UCSD alumnus and professor emeritus for the inventiveness and freshness of his work. You can also hear MacConnel discuss his work on KPBS.

Grand Orchid for Music ‘Jewel Box’

Described as a “jewel box” and a “timeless” creation in concrete, the Conrad Prebys Concert Hall received the top honor, the Grand Orchid, at the annual Orchids & Onions presentation for the best and worst in local architecture and landscapes.

The 2010 Distinguished Teaching Awards have been announced and the majority of recipients are from the Division of Arts and Humanities - with four of six departments represented.

[photo: Rand Steiger]

Music professor Rand Steiger has begun his two-year tenure as composer-in-residence at Calit2, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

Philosopher of science Craig Callendar takes on a debate about time and the multiverse on Philosophy TV.

Additional support from classical music enthusiast Sam Ersan makes possible a one-of-a-kind chamber music series. The next Camera Lucida concert is on Dec. 6.

[Citizen Rauh]

Historian Michael Parrish has written a book about one of the most important people you have probably never heard of, lawyer Joseph Rauh, and blogged about it on The Washington Post web site.

Amazon.com has awarded the non-profit Clarion Foundation a $25,000 matching grant to support the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop at UC San Diego.

Babak Rahimi of the Literature Department conducts a thought experiment in Foreign Policy: “How to Debate Ahmadinejad: Five Tips for Winning an Argument with the Iranian President.”

[Joe Turner's Come and Gone]

Through Dec. 4: Acclaimed director Kyle Donnelly directs the department’s signature Quinn Martin production of the year: one of August Wilson’s shatteringly beautiful Pittsburgh Cycle plays “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

The concert offerings from the Department of Music continue with “201F” on Dec. 2, featuring students from Lincoln High School, directed by Charles Curtis’s UCSD students, in a mix of spoken word, rap, dance, instrumental and interdisciplinary works. On Dec. 9, the CPMC Concert Hall turns to “Five Premieres.”