OLLI Announces Fall Programs

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) is pleased to announce its Fall 2022 Programs. There will be exciting programs on history, art, music, science, and the upcoming elections. Sponsored by the University of Vermont, OLLI is run by local volunteer members and is geared mainly towards seniors who are 50 years of age and over who enjoy learning for the fun of it. Anyone who would be interested in this type of program, regardless of their age, is welcome.

Programs are held Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and typically last an hour-and-a-half. The meeting location is the Nolin Murray Center on Pleasant Street, next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Springfield, Vt.

There is a Membership Series Special Fee for the complete semester. Non-members are welcome and encouraged to attend individual programs for a single program fee.

Pre-registration is highly recommended. We can no longer take any payments at the door, onsite. Registration can easily be done online by going to www.learn.uvm.edu/olli/springfield. You may also register over the phone by calling 1-802-656-5817.

The following programs will be available through Fall 2022:

Sept. 20 – Luigi Lucioni: Modern Light – Katie Wood Kirchhoff, Curator, Shelburne Museum. Dubbed Vermont’s “Painter Laureate” by Life magazine in 1937, Luigi Lucioni was a twentieth-century realist painter and printmaker best known for his scenes of Vermont. Join Shelburne Museum curator Katie Wood Kirchhoff for a conversation about the artist, his work, and a new publication and exhibition on display at Shelburne Museum.

Oct. 4 – Mary Lou Williams: Composer, Pianist, Pioneer – Erik Nielsen, Composer, Music Historian. Mary Lou Williams was one of the foremost jazz musicians of the 20th century. Not only was she a great arranger, composer, and pianist, and highly respected among her peers in a jazz world dominated by men, but she created choral and large ensemble works. We’ll learn how her influence continues today through some of the contemporary Black women composers who are her heirs.

Oct. 18 – Another Election? Already? – Jon Margolis, Author, Free-Lance Journalist. Yes, it does seem as though political campaigns never cease, or at least blend into one another. Some folks are still fighting over 2020 as the 2022 election approaches, with 2024 seeming to loom right around the corner. Can this hodgepodge mean anything, in Vermont or around the country? Let’s try to find out.

Nov. 1 – Yankee Spy! New Hampshire’s Jonathan Hale in the Civil War – Alan Rumrill, Director, Cheshire County Historical Society, Keene, N.H. Cheshire County native Jonathan Davis Hale left N.H. to seek his fortune in the mid-1800s. He gained wealth in his adopted state of Tennessee, only to lose it all when the Civil War began, because of his support for the Union. Consequently, he served as a spy for the Union throughout the war. His amazing life story is a tale of wealth, happiness, patriotism, danger, loss, and, finally, heartbreak and poverty.

Nov. 15 – Traditional Hand Tool Crafts, Wood Types and Local Forest History – Wade Smith, Mill Hollow Craft School, Keene, N.H. To many people today, traditional hand tools are objects screwed to the wall of a museum. But these tools were at the technologically-advanced end of thousands of years of development. We’ll discuss the types of wood used for products, with a little history about the types of forest in our region. We’ll observe demonstrations of the use of some of these original tools, and attendees will even have the chance to try the tools that they may remember their grandparents using.

Nov. 29 – The Beauty and Poetry of the Heavens: The Ancient Teachings of Aratus – Mark Breen, Planetarium Director and Senior Meteorologist, Fairbanks Museum. Astronomy has inspired and informed almost every type of expression you can imagine, from visual arts, to music, and the written word, to say nothing of the range of sciences and mathematics. Each creates a way to appreciate the universe from an infinite number of viewpoints. An early, example of this is found in Phaenomena, by the Greek poet Aratus. Breen will use illustrations and excerpts from the ancient text to guide you through the heavens in the very same way Aratus did over two millennia ago.