The Newsletter of the Maine Humanities Council | Fall 2009

• Home
• Letter from the Executive Director
• As Maine Grows ...
• Looking
  for Zora
• Cuban Exception-
  alism
• Power & Architecture in Rome
• Is it a
  Rose day?
• Humanities
  in the VA
• Selected Grants
• Community Seminars
• Winter Weekend

A LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Maine Humanities Council engages the people of Maine in the power and pleasure of ideas, encouraging a deeper understanding of ourselves and others, fostering wisdom in an age of information, and providing context in a time of change. The Council uses the humanities to provide cultural enrichment for all Mainers and as a tool for social change, bringing people together in conversation that crosses social, economic and cultural barriers.

“Uninterrupted Adventure; Often Desperate and Wild;
Always Voluntary”

Writing in 1862, in Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life, Portland native John Neal (who clearly had a way with words) used this lively phrase to describe his experiences in Maine’s largest city. And while some might quibble with the merits of desperation and wildness, the notion of uninterrupted, voluntary adventure is quite appealing.

I like to think that the Council is itself in the adventure business. We serve as “intellectual outfitters,” whether the trips we organize are on the trails and byways of books, in person on the streets of places like Rome, or simply in the sense of community that seems to spring up each time people gather to “do the humanities” in public spaces around our state. We provide access to adventure for people of all backgrounds.

In this issue of The Power and Pleasure of Ideas, we’re sharing both recollections of adventures past, and news of excitement yet to come, here at the Council. This fall, we will host public symposia on topics as diverse as the history and culture of Latin America, and the work of Zora Neale Hurston. We’re also offering As Maine Grows..., our new traveling Theater of Ideas piece. That’s just a glimpse, but there is truly something for everyone.

These adventures are rarely desperate, but they are sometimes wild. We hope you will join one of them soon!

Erik C. Jorgensen
Executive Director