Friday Value-Added Courses

• Potpourri of the Arts (9:30-11:00)
• Brown Bag Seminar Series (11:30-1:00)

Friday sessions are free of charge to all current Osher members: Premium, Semester and Basic. Sessions marked as HYBRID will allow participants to choose whether they attend via Zoom or in person.

Potpourri of the Arts

Fridays; 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Each semester, Osher invites the movers and shakers of mid-Missouri’s arts scene to discuss, display, perform and showcase their work. Join us for this grab bag of arts topics.

June 7: Friday Morning Book Talk with Authors Julie Chappell and Hank Jones
HYBRID

Julie Chappell, former professor of medieval and early modern English literature, has published six books of scholarship and several books of poetry, including Faultlines: One Woman’s Shifting Boundaries, and collected short stories, including Mad Habits of a Life, nominated for the Paterson Poetry Prize. She represents the state of Oklahoma in Poets Building Bridges, a worldwide Zoom event.

Hank Jones, an avid hiker, is a poet and the author of Too Late for Manly Hands. He is a faculty member at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas.

June 14: All Things Firefly Music Festival 2024
ONLINE ONLY

The Missouri Symphony’s (MOSY’s) executive director Trent Rash and music director Wilbur Lin will guide participants through this year’s Firefly Music Festival. An examination of the pieces, composers, historical context, and more, will be considered to help those attending the concerts be active listeners and participants in each concert this summer.

Instructors: Trent Rash serves as the executive director of The Missouri Symphony. Trent previously was an assistant professor of music and musical theatre at Stephens College. He serves on the boards
of the Quorus and Landlocked Opera and as a cochair of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce small business committee. Trent enjoys collecting bow ties and fun socks, singing karaoke, reading and running.

Wilbur Lin is the music director of the MOSY. Known for his creative programming and inviting stage
presence, Wilbur’s career has taken him to orchestra halls and opera theaters across the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Taiwan.

June 21: The Puzzle of Abstract Painting
HYBRID

Abstract painting is now more than a century old, yet observers are often bewildered by nonobjective art. What do these paintings signify? What do they mean, if anything? Artist John Fennell paints both
landscapes and abstract images and will explain his approach to abstract painting, why after years of
painting landscapes he has incorporated abstraction in his work, the relationship of abstraction to music and how to look for and find meaning in an art form that changed the course of the history of art.

Instructor: John Fennell has been a painter for 40 years. He attended Northern Illinois University, the American Academy of Art and earned a master’s degree in art from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has exhibited in many midwestern cities, and his work is in many private collections. An emeritus professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, he taught magazine writing, publishing and design. As a journalist, he assisted Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist Mike Royko, was editor of an
international design journal and editor-in-chief of an award-winning city magazine.

June 28: Flemish, Spanish and French Paintings from the Baroque Era
ONLINE ONLY

The Baroque era of Western art is generally considered to comprise the 17th century. This session will feature paintings from 17th-century Flemish artists (Rubens, van Dyck, Jordaens and Sweerts), Spanish artists (Velázquez, Zurbarán, de Ribera and Murillo), and French artists (Poussin, Lorrain, de La Tour, Le Nain and Moillon). In addition to discussing individual styles and contributions, we will note the different ways artists visually represented similar subjects and themes and depicted contemporary life and beliefs.

Brown Bag “Lunch and Learn” Seminar Series

Fridays; 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Brown Bag seminars are open to all Osher Premium and Basic members throughout the academic year. Semester members may attend for the semester in which they enroll. Feel free to nosh on your lunchtime treats (with or without your camera on!) during this “lunch and learn.”

June 7: CoMo Roller Derby: A Crash Course
HYBRID

In this session, Columbia, Missouri’s very own roller derby team players will present a crash course in roller derby, including the history of the sport, its resurgence, the current iteration of the game, the role of roller derby in communities and how you can become involved as a player, official, volunteer,
spectator or community partner.

Instructors: Aly Wright (she/her), current chair of CoMo Roller Derby’s Coaching Committee, and Kat
Wright (she/they), current chair of COMO Roller Derby’s (CMRD’s) Beginners Committee. Other players may be present for demonstration purposes.

June 14: Sundown Towns: Exclusion, Racism and White Supremacy
HYBRID

A “sundown town” is a place where there was a written or unwritten “rule” that people of a certain group––generally African Americans––were not allowed to be within the city limits after sunset. Intimidation and violence as well as word of mouth enforced these rules. Many Missouri towns, including Eldon, Ferguson, Linn, Savannah, Blue Springs, Branson and Concordia, were sundown towns. Based on Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen (author of Lies My Teacher Told Me), this talk will discuss their history and sociology as well as their effects on the people who were excluded and the White inhabitants. How to remedy this problem will also be discussed.

Instructor: Professor emeritus of cultural diversity Nancy F. Browning taught “Cultural Diversity in
Modern America” to thousands of students at Lincoln University. In her retirement, she teaches and attends Osher classes and facilitates the Social Justice Book Club. Nancy edits scientific grants and papers
for an international clientele and writes children’s books. She enjoys reading, walking, singing, quilting and other needlework as well as spending time with friends, family and her cat Mili.

June 21: Understanding Missouri Elections in 90 Minutes or Less
HYBRID

Can we trust election results? How do I know my ballot was counted? What makes absentee voting different than voting on Election Day? Explore the answers to these questions and more as we learn about how elections are run in Missouri. This course focuses on the logistics of how county offices prepare for and administer each election. Beginning with the foundation of the election––voter registration––we’ll explore how election administrators support Missouri voters as they participate in our democracy.

Instructor: Brianna Lennon serves as the county clerk for Boone County, Mo. She previously worked in the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office as deputy director of elections and elections counsel and holds a law degree and master’s in Public Policy from the University of Missouri. Brianna is also a Certified Elections/Registration Administrator (CERA) through the National Association of Election Officials.

June 28: Ginger Rogers: Dress for Success Exhibit – Visit to the State Historical Society of Missouri
IN PERSON ONLY

Join us for a guided tour of the Ginger Rogers: Dress for Success exhibit at the State Historical Society of Missouri (605 Elm Street, Columbia, MO 65201). Nicole Johnson, curator of the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection and instructor in MU’s Department of Textile and Apparel Management (TAM), and Mackenzie Miller, doctoral candidate at TAM and recipient of the Piper Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship, will walk us through this costume collection of Academy-Award winning performer and Missouri native Ginger Rogers. The exhibit includes contemporary apparel designed by MU undergraduate students inspired by the collection. Limited seating will be available in the exhibit rooms during the program