Celebrating Chautauqua

Written By: Lorna Alexander | Issue: 2016/10 - October

October is here and we are watching the mountains turn to a splendid gold as if nature is saying to us, “I have saved the best for last,” even though we know all our seasons are fabulous here in the mountains.  

We can make the same analogy here at Center for Life Enrichment, as we are coming to the close of our successful 2016 season. 

The Center presented over 130 classes this year and we will wind up the year in mid-October celebrating our special alliance with Chautauqua Institution.  Chautauqua Institution, located in Western New York State, can best be described as CLE on steroids.  We are honored to present an entire week, the first week in October, of lectures by popular Chautauqua speakers. 

Chautauqua is a summer community on Chautauqua Lake that encompasses the arts, education, religion, and recreation; a place removed from the day-to-day world, where some of the leading thinkers of our time come to speak to the concerns and issues of today, a place where music, dance, opera, theater, and the visual arts create the “Chautauqua Mix” that draws over 100,000 people each summer.

Founded in 1874 as a training camp for Sunday school teachers, Chautauqua is perhaps best known for its lecture series when the Amphitheatre stage becomes the platform for distinguished speakers across a broad range of disciplines.  Susan B. Anthony argued for women’s suffrage in 1892, and Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his “I Hate War” speech in 1936.  Margaret Mead, Amelia Earhart, Thurgood Marshall, Freeman Dyson, Jane Goodall, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Kurt Vonnegut have all spoken here.

Center for Life Enrichment will present a series of lectures by popular Chautauqua speakers during the first week in October to be held at the CLE Lecture Hall located at the Peggy Crosby Center in Highlands:

• America:  Shaped by War

• History of Espionage

• Science, Technology & Social Tipping Points

• History of Faux Finishes

• Codes: Caesar to the 21st Century

• Moving to More Joyful Expression

• Surprise Attacks (Pearl Harbor, 9/11)

• What is Chautauqua: Panel Discussion

•  Hollywood and Washington: Politics
in Films

We will finish off the season the second week of October with two lectures – “A Sense of Place” with Gary Wein as he explores the ecological history of the Southern Appalachians; and “Happening Medical Science Fiction” featuring John D. Jackson, Associate Professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine.  This lecture will explore ways scientists are working to create insulin-producing cells in the lab, engineer blood vessels for heart bypass surgery, and apply regenerative medicine technologies to battlefield injuries.  

Thank you to all who participated in our 2016 season, whether Presenter, Member/Non-member attendee, or CLE Board member.  

For more information on our courses or membership benefits, please call the Center for Life Enrichment at (828) 526-8811 or by visiting www.clehighlands.com.  We are located at 348 S. Fifth Street in the Peggy Crosby Center in Highlands.