Columbia University art critic, Carol Becker, to speak at Goshen College March 13

Lecture: “Educating Creative Practitioners for the 21^st Century” by Carol Becker, dean of faculty at Columbia University School of Arts
Date and time: Thursday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Rieth Recital Hall, Goshen College Music Center
Cost: Free and open to the public
Event sponsor: Goshen College Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Committee

GOSHEN, Ind. – Carol Becker, an art critic and dean of faculty at Columbia University in New York’s School of the Arts, will be at Goshen College Thursday, March 13 to speak on “Educating Creative Practitioners for the 21^st Century” at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall, as a Yoder Public Affairs lecturer. The event, free and open to the public, will include a question and answer time, and will be followed by a reception.

In her lecture, Becker will talk about “the way in which art and design have been and will continue to be forces for social change, leading the conversation about the urgencies of the planet and our relationship to these concerns for the future,” she said. Her examples will move between art, architecture, memorials and monuments.

Becker served from 1994 to 2007 as dean of faculty and senior vice-president for academic affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including “The Invisible Drama: Women and The Anxiety of Change”; “The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society, and Social Responsibility”; “Zones of Contention: Essays on Art, Institutions, Gender, and Anxiety”; and most recently, “Surpassing the Spectacle: Global Transformations and the Changing Politics of Art.”

Becker received her doctorate in literature at the University of San Diego, where she was a protégé of Herbert Marcuse. A lecturer in women’s studies since the late 1960s, and a writer on psychoanalytic theory and cultural politics, she has been mulling over the attitudes and strategies of the art world for a long time, particularly the issue of the artist’s responsibility to society.

Becker’s visit to Goshen is sponsored by the Goshen College Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Committee. The Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Series began in 1978 when Frank and Betty Jo Yoder of Goshen created an endowed lectureship to enable faculty, students and community members to hear widely known speakers address current issues.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.