The Taft community mourns the loss of John Cushing Esty, Jr., who assumed the mantle of Taft's third headmaster in 1963. Esty died on October 22nd in Concord, Massachusetts, from complications related to stroke. He was 87.
Esty, notes Headmaster Willy MacMullen '78, "...with his boldness and his restless intellect, took a school of the 1950s and ushered it into the modern era. A product of several great and traditional schools (Deerfield, Amherst and Yale), John was a non-traditional thinker."
Rick Mastracchio has been to the International Space Station four times, covering close to 16 million miles along the way. But it is the short trip back to his hometown that brings the Waterbury native a sense of joy and recognition. During his most recent visit home, Mastracchio took time to talk to Tafties about life as a NASA astronaut.
Fifth on the all-time space walk hours roster with nine walks totaling 53 hours, Mastracchio has been with NASA for 25 years. His four missions as an astronaut all took him to the International Space Station, once aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, with crews from both Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
"Since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011," Mastracchio explained, "we rely on our space station partners--the Russian Space Agency--to get into low Earth orbit."
An engineer by trade, Mastracchio started his career in the aerospace industry before joining NASA in 1990 as an engineer in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate. His initial duties included the development of space shuttle flight software requirements, the verification of space shuttle flight software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, and the development of ascent and abort crew procedures for the Astronaut Office.
In 1996, Mastracchio was selected as an Astronaut Candidate; he made his first trip into space four years later.
"It took me nine years of sending in applications and three interviews before I was finally selected as an astronaut," Mastacchio told Taft students. "Perseverence pays off."
Watch Mastracchio’s full Morning Meeting presentation here.
Tafties will have a Headmaster Holiday tomorrow, and learned about it from The Rock, himself.
Directed by filmmaker, alumnus, and Taft parent Peter Berg '80, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson expressed concern that Tafties had become too smart, and that power couple (and apparently double-agents) Rusty Davis (Assistant Headmaster, Science) and Linda Saarnijoki (English) are the root of Taft's best intelligence. Using what has become a well-recognized catch phrase in the Berg-produced Headmaster Holiday announcements, The Rock said to "Shut it down!"
Watch the full video from director Peter Berg and The Rock here.
Through their Morning Meeting presentations this fall, Mudbound author Hillary Jordan, social activist DeRay McKesson, and the Rwandan debate team have all helped shape the powerful social justice discourse taking place in the Taft community. The conversation continues this weekend, as Taft mounts an ambitious and timely production of Hairspray.
Hairspray is set in 1962 Baltimore, where teen Tracy Turnblad dreams of dancing on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show. When Tracy wins a role on the show and becomes a local celebrity, she launches a campaign to integrate the show. In that way, Hairspray becomes a commentary on social injustice.
“I decided on Hairspray before leaving on sabbatical last winter,” explains director and Taft theater teacher Helena Fifer. “At that time, Ferguson had happened, but the Freddie Gray incident in Baltimore had not… When we returned to campus this fall, we struggled with the decision as a team—Hairspray deals with important issues in a light-hearted, idealistic way…In the wake of such a tragedy, we wondered whether it would be seen as an insensitive gesture to present these issues through musical comedy. We decided that even a funny, irreverent, upbeat piece of entertainment can shine a meaningful light on serious issues.”
Fifer notes that, while racial injustice is central to the message of the musical, there are other important messages as well.
“It is not just about race,” says Fifer, “it is about body image, inclusiveness, and exclusiveness.”
That theatrical licensing giant Musical Theater International (MTI) reports that Hairspray is currently among the most requested shows in their catalog speaks to the relevance of the conversation, and the importance of its message.
“We’re all fighting for the same thing,” notes Fifer. “Wouldn’t it be great if the world was a fair place?”
Hairspray opens this Thursday, October 29 at 7:30 pm in Bingham Auditorium, with additional shows Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are not required.
Taft students Sonny An ’17, Leon Vortmeyer ’16, Ton Kosolpatanadurong ’16, and Daniel Yi ’18 were among the 200 high school students from four states who traveled to New Haven this month to compete in the 18th annual Yale Physics Olympics. Taft’s entry, team “Nonlocal Interaction,” was one of 50; the teams represented 46 different schools from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.
Members of the Yale physics faculty developed a series of five, 45-minute challenges specifically for the Olympiad. Each challenge was designed to test students’ functional understanding of physics by requiring them to apply varied scientific principles to solve problems. The challenges included measurements (determine the surface tension of water; use measurements on light diffraction to determine the zeros of a Bessel function); construction (build a rotating top that will spin for the longest time); optimization (develop a pendulum that keeps time independent of pendulum amplitude); and calculations (the Fermi quiz requires quick, order of magnitude estimations, e.g, "How many marshmallows must be burned to provide enough energy to power Las Vegas for a year."). Team performances were ranked for each event, and prizes awarded to the three best performing teams. There were also awards for the top three teams with the best performance over all five events.
“We have done very well in the past, winning the competition twice and placing highly in others,” notes Taft physics teacher and Nonlocal Interaction team coach Jim Mooney. “This year we placed third in the Fermi event and scored well in all the other events, placing us fourth overall. It was a lot of fun for everyone. I really appreciate the work that the Yale faculty put into making the event a memorable experience.”
And the competitors agree.
"The Yale Physics Olympics is an incredible opportunity for physics lovers across the state..." says Leon Vortmeyer '16.
Adds Daniel Yi '18: “It was mesmerizing. Inspirational.”
Monks from Tibet’s Drepung Gomang Monastery are in residence at Taft this week. While their work will center on the creation of a peace mandala in the Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery, the group will also speak at Morning Meeting and hold an evening meditation session; they will also visit classrooms during their stay.
According to Tibetan tradition, the creation of a sand mandala--an ornate circular sand painting with ancient roots--effects purification and healing. Members of the Taft community are invited to watch the beautiful design emerge throughout the week, and to experience the dismantling of the mandala at the closing ceremony on Friday, November 6.
Drepung Monastery was founded in 1416 near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Gomang Dratsang or College is the oldest of the four colleges of Drepung. Since its beginning, Gomang College has produced many eminent Buddhist masters and has been recognized as a very important Tibetan and Buddhist learning center. Drepung Gomang Monastic University is one of the most renowned centers (the three great seats: Drepung, Gaden and Sera) for learning, contemplating, and practicing Tibetan Buddhist thoughts and science, notably known as the second Nalanda University in Tibet.
The monks’ visit to Taft is part of a year-long “Sacred Art Tour,” sponsored by the Drepung Gomang Institute, the Monastery’s North American sister organization. Through the tour, the group seeks to share prayers of hope and compassion, while spotlighting both Tibetan Buddhist teachings and practices, as well as the plight and abuses of the Tibetan people and culture. The tour also serves to raise funds to support the refugee monks' community in south India.
The Music for a While performance series continues at Taft Sunday, November 8 at 5 pm with a performance of Joseph Haydn’s “The Creation” (Die Schöpfung). The event, which takes place in Woodward Chapel at 25 The Green, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.
Written between 1797 and 1798, “The Creation” is considered by many to be Haydn’s masterpiece. Sung in English, the oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the world as described in the Biblical book of Genesis and Paradise Lost. It is scored for soprano, tenor, and bass soloists (the soloists representing the archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael), chorus, and a symphonic orchestra, and is structured in three parts.
Conducted at Taft by Bruce Fifer, the performance will feature Taft’s renowned Collegium Musicum, local performers Cantus Excelsus, and the Woodward Chamber Orchestra. They will be joined by acclaimed performers soprano Louise Fauteux, tenor Mark Bleeke, and bass-baritone Peter Becker.
Recognized for her beautiful clarion tone, power and natural musicianship, Fauteux is regarded as one of the most versatile sopranos performing today. She has sung with the New York Philharmonic, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She toured Venice with DiCapo Opera and the Fairfield Chorale as soloist under conductor Johannes Somary, and currently, sings for the Cathedral of Saint Joseph and has been on the faculty of the HARTT School Community Division as a vocal instructor since 2000.
Tenor Mark Bleeke is based in New York City and has some strong international credits. He has performed with Dave Brubeck, the Folger Consort, and the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys.
Bass-baritone Peter Becker has performed throughout the US, Europe, Asia, and South America in repertoire ranging from medieval to contemporary. Theater credits include performances with the Canadian Opera Company, Macerata Festival, Teatro Opera di Roma, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, the 21st Century Consort, and the Broadway show Band in Berlin.
For more information about the event or the full concert series, visit http://www.taftschool.org/arts/concertseries.aspx
“One of the things that makes this place so special is the pride we have in each other’s achievement,” Headmaster Willy MacMullen ’78 said in opening the fall Cum Laude induction ceremony. “Today is the day we celebrate the great scholars on our campus.”
And in doing so, MacMullen sought first to honor one of Taft’s greatest scholars and leaders—a man whose vision and influence significantly shaped the Taft we know today: John C. Esty, Jr. Taft’s third Headmaster, Esty, shepherded the school through co-education; broadened opportunities at Taft across socio-economic borders; and advanced Taft’s once-traditional curriculum to include progressive learning opportunities, including the introduction of the Independent Study Program.
“His legacy,” noted MacMullen, “is profound and permanent… His gifts to education are immeasurable, his commitment to opportunity profound, and his legacy astonishing. ”
Noting that every Taft student inherits Esty’s legacy, borne of his “extraordinary courage, and vision, and intelligence,” MacMullen and Academic Dean Jeremy Clifford invited the full community to celebrate Taft’s current scholars by recognizing those students being inducted into the Cum Laude Society. Those students are:
Ai Thi Minh Bui
Natasha Yasmine Cheung
Lidia Gutu
Isabelle E. Homberg
Xinran Huang
Kayla Marie Kim (missing from photo)
Audrey Chi Hei Lam
Jae Hong Lee
Lanting Lu
Michael Rousseau Molder
Brian Alexander Tomasco
Leon Alexander Vortmeyer
Hannah Kathryn Wilczynski
Alexander Jusuf Yan
Yiwei Zhang
Kayla Kim was also named a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program for her outstanding performance on the PSAT during the 2014-15 academic year. Kayla finished in the top 1.1 percent of test takers.
These were the Ranking Scholars for 2014-2015, with the highest
unweighted averages in their classes.
Class of 2018: 96.45- Emma Stone
Class of 2017: 97.69- Sonny An
Class of 2016: 96.18 -Leon Vortmeyer
The Cum Laude Society is a national organization honoring scholarship and scholastic achievement at the secondary school level, comparable to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi in colleges and scientific schools. Founded in 1906, the Society now has 382 chapters, most of which are in private or independent schools located in the United States. A maximum of 20 percent of the senior class may be elected into membership in the Cum Laude Society. The 14 students inducted at Taft this week represent the top eight percent of their class. Their membership was based on academic performance, as measured during their middle and upper middle years, during which the weighted averages for these students ranged from 95.3 to 101.7.
Seniors may also be inducted into the Cum Laude Society during graduation exercises in June, based on their upper middle and senior year records.
Taft School welcomed Lt. Thomas Bennett, MD, UMO to campus this week in recognition of Veterans' Day. Lt. Bennett is currently based at the US Naval Submarine School in Groton, CT, where he teaches the art of escaping from a submarine. Enjoy Lt. Bennett's full presentation here.
When Holocaust survivor Anita Schorr spoke to the Taft Community in 2014, dance teacher Sarah Surber was both moved by the message, and inspired to continue the conversation.
“It was wonderful to hear her speak,” Surber recalled. “It made me think about how many stories and perspectives there are, and about how creating art around a subject is a very personal and powerful method of storytelling.”
It also made her think of the years she spent as a young dancer living in New York, where she was a member of Carolyn Dorfman’s dance ensemble. Dorfman, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, will continue Schorr’s conversation with the Taft community when she brings her full dance company to campus for a weeklong residency this month. Their visit culminates with a performance in Bingham Auditorium Friday, November 20, at 7 pm.
“They are a wonderful group,” notes Surber. “They are very dynamic and talented, yet they tell stories in a way that is very accessible.”
Dorfman pours her family’s trials and triumphs into her work, choreographing pieces that fill the stage with passion, emotion, and universal connections.
“Some of her work draws from stories her mother and father would tell; many of them are happy stories, like those of her mother sitting in a room knitting with her sisters for hours, or a piece called “My Father’s Solo,” that speaks to a lifetime of resilience,” says Surber.
Based in New Jersey, Carolyn Dorfman Dance is widely acclaimed for their high-energy, technically demanding performances, designed to take audiences on “intellectual and emotional journeys” that “illuminate and celebrate the human experience.” It is interactive art that is designed to move audiences to “think, feel, laugh, cry, and engage.”
The full company—including 10 multi-ethnic performers, their artistic director, lighting designer, and company manager—will work with all of Surber’s classes throughout the week. They will also work with Taft’s dance ensemble to bring “Portrait,” one of Dorfman’s signature pieces first performed in 1996, to the Bingham stage. Five Taft students will be featured in what Surber decribes as a technically challenging piece.
“'Portrait' is very nuanced,” says Surber. “The music is difficult to count. It is a very mature dance.”
The company will also lead an intergenerational Master Class during their stay.
Carolyn Dorfman Dance will perform Friday, November 20 at 7 pm in Bingham Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Quinton Dixie is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Ethnic and Cultural Studies at Indiana University/Purdue University in Fort Wayne, IN. Fort Wayne is where he grew up, and where he first came to understand the role of community.
As a child, Dixie traveled by bus to a school outside of his own neighborhood, where, he said, few of his classmates looked like him. Throughout the day, students learned together, sang together, competed together. But at the end of the day, there was a retreat; there was no true sense of community.
“I am envious of you,” Dixie told Taft students. “…you get to engage in an ongoing experiment in community, that for me lies at the heart of a first-rate educational experience.”
Dixie told the story of Howard Thurman, an influential African American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He spent his life living and working in segregated communities, longing for shared equality in each, and always working to make that so.
“Thurman’s life and career was a quest for community—an effort to find God in others, and to be the light he sought,” said Dixie. “…But how does one go about creating community? Is it even possible?”
Thurman believed that the best way to build community was by not cooperating with evil; by not engaging with “anything that does not affirm human dignity. If it destroys rather than builds up human worth, it is evil.”
“That’s what it means to have community… we chose to be connected, we share all things good and bad….” concludes Dixie. “It seems that this is exactly what you have here at Taft: Not a perfect community, but one committed to the idea of envisioning a better world. And for that, I envy you.”
Who doesn't have fond memories of one of Taft's most celebrated traditions--Hotchkiss Day!
Beginning with the Spirit Week, Red Rally, and the bonfire Friday evening, then culminating in Lakeville with a full complement of games on Saturday, Rhinos honored traditions, made memories, and showed their Big Red pride.
Relive all the highlights through our photo galleries.
View photos of the Red Rally.
View photos of Hotchkiss Day.
Read about the individual games and view scores.
Twice each year hundreds of high school students gather in Cambridge to compete in the storied Harvard-MIT Math Tournament (HMMT). This month more than 700 competitors formed 130 tournament teams. Among them: six Taft students competing as team Red Rhinos.
First held in 1998, HMMT is considered one of the most prestigious high school math competitions in the world; it is written and staffed entirely by Harvard and MIT students. Teams can represent a single school, a geographic region, or an affiliate organization. A limited number of individual competitors are also accepted, and grouped for the team rounds during the competition. In recent years, teams have represented more than 20 states and five continents.
Red Rhinos team coach and math teacher Ted Heavenrich traveled to Cambridge with Tafties Ivory Zhu '17, Yejin Kim '18, Steve Le '19, Sonny An '17, Daniel Yi '18, and Ton Kosolpatanadurong '16 for the November 14 event. The Red Rhinos finished 13th overall, second among teams representing schools; Exeter was both the first school and the overall winner of the tournament for the fourth consecutive year.
“It is very draining for the students,” explained Heavenrich. “We did much better than I expected.”
The tournament spans a full day, and includes problems at the level of the American Mathematics Competitions tests (AMC 10 and AMC 12), as well as problems covering the range of difficulty of the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). In the morning, competitors took a 50-minute individual general knowledge test, then a 50-minute individual themed test. Of the more than 700 individual competitors, Ivory finished 34thon the first test, and Sonny finished 19th on the second.
After a break, the competition resumed with a one-hour team test where all six team members were allowed to collaborate and, Heavenrich explained, “divvy up the problems.”
“We finished 11th out of 130 teams on this portion,” said Heavenrich. “The most exciting part wraps up the contest in the afternoon after lunch. It is 80 minutes, and it is called the GUTS round. The team is in a big lecture hall, and there is live scoring on the screen at the front of the room. Each team has one runner who brings a set of three problems back to the team. You cannot get the next set of three problems until you turn in answers for the previous set. The team needs to balance speed, accuracy, and self-knowledge. The problems get harder, but are worth more, as you progress through the rounds. A weaker team should not be in a hurry, because by the fifth or sixth round (of 12) they will have little chance of getting any of the problems correct. On the other hand, a strong team should push through the early rounds, even at the risk of making a careless error or two, in order to get to the higher point problems which they can still do.”
At the end of the daylong competition, Ivory secured the 28th spot overall in the field of 700; Ton was 59th and Sonny 62nd.
For Sonny, HMMT was his second major academic competition this month. Sonny was named a Regional Finalist in the 2015 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Launched by the Siemens Foundation in 1999, the event is considered the nation’s premier competition in the STEM arena. Nearly 4,000 registered for this year's competition and a total of 3,162 projects were submitted for consideration. 466 students were named Semifinalists and 97 were named Regional Finalists, Sonny among that elite group. The students presented their research in a closed, online forum; entries were judged at the regional level by esteemed scientists at six leading research universities which host the regional competitions: Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Notre Dame and The University of Texas at Austin.
Working under the tutelage of mentor and Hofstra University Mathematics Professor Dan Ismailescu, Sonny teamed up with Kobe Ko from Cushing Academy to present a project based on the Euclidean Ramsey Theorems. Their project focused on the cases of 3,4,5 colorings, and their use in explaining natural phenomena that are constructed in certain patterns, and how they might make things like designing a subway blueprint more efficient. Sonny and Kobe “believe that STEM is intended to understand the world in simple, logical fashion.”
Emily Weaver ’17 stood out among her middle school peers for many reasons. Among them: She loved to write code.
“I started coding at my old school as part of a required course,” explained Emily. “Everyone thought coding was hard and boring. I really thought it was interesting and a lot of fun.”
Emily spent her 8th and 9th grade summers at coding camp. As a mid, she took AP Computer Science at Taft. This year, she started a coding club on campus.
Taft’s “Girls Who Code” club is an affiliate program of the national non-profit organization that shares its name. Founded in 2012, Girls Who Code works to close the gender gap in technology through programs and partnerships designed to “inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities.” Those partnerships connect Girls Who Code with organizations like Adobe, Amazon, Facebook, GE, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter.
In just three years, Girls Who Code has served nearly 4,000 girls in 29 states, using what they describe as “a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship and exposure led by the industry’s top female engineers and entrepreneurs.” The Girls Who Code model is built on two major components: Summer Immersion programs and Girls Who Code clubs, like the one Emily brought to Taft.
Members of the Girls Who Code clubs start by working through a 40-hour curriculum designed to teach a wide range of skillsets through multi-level content. Volunteer instructors who are trained and supported by Girls Who Code staff implement the curriculum. Science teacher Theresa Albon is the Girls Who Code advisor at Taft, with support from Director of Multicultural Recruitment Tamara Sinclair.
“Coding can be daunting and hard to understand,” explained Albon. “If we can break it down in a highly systematic and specific way it will be less daunting and more interesting. The Girls Who Code curriculum does that by introducing coding in a fun, project-based, low-risk way.”
For one hour each week, roughly 30 young women gather in the Faculty Room to work through the Girls Who Code curriculum. Through web-based and collaborative instruction, the Taft students are learning to write code.
“The curriculum is a series of lessons and tasks that build in complexity,” said Emily. “As we complete our work, we submit it to Girls Who Code. The first coding language we learn is Ruby, which is an object-oriented, general purpose scripting language.”
Emily hopes that club members will ultimately take on more advanced coding projects, and consider careers in computer science.
“My goal is to inspire students to share my excitement, to understand some of the basics of coding, and to see that computer science can be fun,” explained Emily.
Albon agrees.
“This is an opportunity for us to help girls feel connected and interested in STEM fields. There has been great interest so far—much greater than we anticipated—and I expect it remain a growing club at Taft.”
“Race has become the omnipresent question in America today,” History Department Head Greg Hawes ’85 told Taft students during Morning Meeting this week. “Of course race has always been central to understanding America…”
Race, noted Hawes, “is often no more than an evolutionary adaptation to an environment…But from this single biological marker an entire theory of civilization sprung up.”
Hawes walked students through three centuries of American history, marking our long record of racial subjugation along the way. From the indentured servants of the 1600’s working on Virginia’s tobacco farms, through the slavery that followed and the remarkable racism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries—including the barring of Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, the Phillipine seizure in 1898, Teddy Roosevelt’s race-based foreign policy against the Japanese and the Colombians—race has consistently been a part of American policy and culture.
Despite this “cultural programming,” there is hope, Hawes noted.
“The very ideals that motivated slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created a system where change was slow but change was possible. And those changes, once won, would be very hard to undo… Our culture today, both at Taft and more generally, denies the logic of racism. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still exist, but it has difficulty surviving in daylight. We must understand our history—we must understand all the complicated, messy parts of it—but we must not be bound by it. In fact, only by truly understanding a Thomas Jefferson, a Woodrow Wilson, a man like my grandfather—fully and completely understanding them—can we fully understand the path we, ourselves must make. If so, then we are not, in fact, mud bound. If so, then our past is the hill we can stand upon to see the broad horizon…That restless sense of improvement is America’s gift to the world. That sense that everything can be made better. And as Taft students, that is your obligation to the world. Know the rocky terrain you and your ancestors have trod but take that perspective and keep your eyes always fixed on that broad horizon.”
Students, faculty, neighbors, and friends are invited to gather in celebration Tuesday, December 15, 2015, for Taft's 80th annual Service of Lessons and Carols. Two services will be held in Woodward Chapel this year: the first service begins at 6 pm, the second at 8 pm. A reception in the Chapel's undercroft will follow the 8 pm service, and feature refreshments and festive holiday music with Taft's Jazz Band.
Lessons and Carols services are celebrated throughout the world in anticipation of the holiday season. The best-known service features the renowned Choir of King's College, and is broadcast each year on Christmas Eve from King's College, Cambridge, England. The traditional format originated on Christmas Eve, 1880 in Cornwall England. According to the BBC, Edward Benson, then the Bishop of Truro (later the Archbishop of Canterbury), crafted the worship service as a means of keeping “men out of pubs on Christmas Eve.”
Luminarias will light a path from the main campus to Woodward Chapel, where the service will include Nativity readings by faculty, staff, and students, with seasonal music by performance groups that include Collegium Musicum, the Taft Chamber Ensemble, and the Taft Chorus.
All are welcome to share in this joyful celebration of the season.
Taft’s annual Community Service Day is an opportunity to both build new partnerships in the community and strengthen relationships with our existing service partners. In the case of Children’s Community School (CCS) in Waterbury, this year’s Service Day project not only reflected the depth of the ongoing relationship between Taft and CCS, but created a lasting and shared tribute to that partnership.
The “Let it Be a Quilt” project was created by Taft art teacher Loueta Chickadaunce and executed by eight Taft volunteers, who guided CCS students in grades K-5 through the process of creating their own, personalized paper quilt squares. The concept was to create a paper quilt by taking one art square created by each individual student and combining them to make one large piece representing the entire class. Chickadaunce talked to the children about how a quilt is made by many different people that are in a community to benefit another. The Taft students took the artwork back, organized it by grade, and added their artistic touch by designing the borders and unifying design. This Friday, those quilts will be on display in Potter Gallery.
The event takes place on the Taft School campus, 110 Woodbury Road, Watertown from 5-7 pm. The quilt show opening is also a wine tasting and fundraiser for CCS, a private non-profit school educating Waterbury’s underserved children in pre-K through grade 5. Limited state funding only covers meals and the pre-K program; more than $400,000 must be raised from private grants and donations each year. The tasting will be presented by NeJaime’s Fine Wine & Spirits, and feature appetizers from local eateries. There will also be a prize drawing and auction of CCS student artworks. This event is sponsored in part by D’Amico Griffin & Pettinicchi, Savings Bank of Danbury, the Picard family and Nancy Vendetti. The suggested donation for the Potter Gallery event is $25; all proceeds will support the educational efforts of Children’s Community School (CCS). Please call Lynn Curless at CCS at 203-575-0659 ext. 212 to RSVP or go to www.ccswaterbury.org.
Fruits of fall term labors are now available online. Both the Taft Global Journal and Red Inc. are in print, and can be accessed digitally.
Global Journal editors Katie B '16 and James Lee '16 note that the goal of the Journal "is to share perspectives of the Taft community gained through experience and service. Everyone is unique and has a story to tell that makes them who they are; these stories are what make Taft the diverse global community we are so proud to be."
Red Inc. is Taft's art and literature magazine, produced by writing head Kayla Kim '16, art lead Natasha Cheung '16, and editors Audrey Lam '16, Lauren Fadiman '17, and Sumi Kim '17.
The Mark W. Potter ’48 Gallery opens the 2016 exhibition year Friday, January 8 with the works of artist Geoffrey Detrani; a reception celebrating the opening will be held in the Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
A Rockwell Visiting Artist, Detrani will speak at Morning Meeting Thursday, January 7. His works explore the hypothetical intersection of the natural world and the man-made environment. Says Detrani, “I am interested in the tenuous and temporary fit with which the things we have built have accommodated themselves to the fecund and resurgent and violent forces of the natural world around them. My pictures suggest landscapes captured in a state of flux, landscapes on the cusp or in the throes of explosive generation of devolution—they are the geographies of entropy and zero-sum gain.”
Detrani’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibits throughout Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, and is a part of collections housed at The Museum of Modern Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, The Baltimore Contemporary Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, to name a few. A graduate of the State University of New York and Long Island University, Detrani is also a published poet and author.
Detrani’s show runs through February 5. To see more of his work, visit www.GeoffreyDetrani.com. Potter Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm.
This exhibit is made possible by the Andrew R. Heminway ’47 Endowment Fund.
In 2001, Mrs. Beverly Heminway established an endowment fund in memory of her husband, Andy. The income from this fund is used to support an annual art exhibit in the Mark W. Potter Gallery.
After attending Taft in the eighth and ninth grades, Andrew R. Heminway ’47 went on to Brooks School and Yale University (A.B.). Upon graduation from Yale, Andy served in the United States Army and planned to attend the Carnegie Institute of Technology to earn his degree in Print Management. Before matriculating into Carnegie Tech, he attended the Yale School of Art and studied with Josef Albers for one year. He valued that year beyond words and always remained a man in love with color and light. He married, attended and graduated from Carnegie Tech (B. S.), made a successful career in business, and raised a family in Middlebury. Upon retirement, Andy returned to his painting and his studies in the humanities. He earned a master's degree in English from Trinity College and began to paint in earnest. The Heminways sent two children to Taft, Mrs. Molly Moseley '77, and Mr. Merritt Heminway, '79. Andy died in November 1997.
Rockwell Visiting Artists
Established in 1997 by Sherburne B. Rockwell Jr., Class of 1941, and H. P. Davis Rockwell, Class of 1944, the Rockwell Visiting Artist Fund supports a program of visiting artists to speak with students and faculty, work with art classes, and exhibit their work in Potter Gallery. Professional artists involved in painting, drawing, photography, pottery, sculpture, fabric design, printmaking and other visual arts are included in the program.
Guitarist Michael Daves and mandolinist Jacob Jolliff will join forces in Walker Hall Friday, January 8 at 7 pm for an evening of bluegrass music. The event is free and open to the public.
Heralded as “a leading light of the New York bluegrass scene” by the New York Times, Daves has garnered attention for both his solo performances and his collaborations with artists like Steve Martin, Tony Trischka, and Rosanne Cash. His most recent project, Sleep With One Eye Open, is the debut album from Daves and Chris Thile--"a rip-roaring partnership," says the New York Times. "Bluegrass, in their hands, gets roughed up in the best possible way, with skill and fervor, and a touch of abandon." Sleep With One Eye Open received a 2011 Grammy Nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.
Jacob Jolliff’s father, renowned Oregon banjo player Bill Jolliff, began teaching Jacob to play the mandolin when he was just seven years old. By the time he was 11, the two were gigging heavily together, and their band was a mainstay at bluegrass festivals around the Northwest. At 16, after hundreds of gigs and four full-length recorded projects, Jacob began performing with other musicians. He played consistently in a swing group with violin prodigy Alex Hargreaves and worked in several folk and pop duos. In 2008, Jake joined the New England based new acoustic group, Joy Kills Sorrow. They released three albums and toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Jacob has also performed with Ronnie McCoury, Chris Thile, Darol Anger, Sam Bush, Bryan Bowers, Tony Trischka, and the Irish super-group, Solas. He has also played sessions for countless recording projects and been featured on multiple national radio and television programs.
Walker Hall is located at 50 DeForest Street, Watertown, CT. For more information on this event, or any of our Music for a While performances, visit www.taftschool.org/concerts.