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Message from the President

Dear <<First Name>>,

Looking Forward to Class

At LLI, we are quite fortunate to have a safe space to engage in conversations, socialize, and share lifelong learning with friends new, old, and not yet met. Members have something special to look forward to with four semesters annually. This spring, we will once again enjoy a wide variety of courses—two dozen—and plenty of off-Friday offerings.

In this issue, I want to commend our presenters and producers for all the hard work they do to bring interesting, thoughtful content to our members. Regardless of one’s field, or passion, our presenters do a remarkable job. Then there are the producers. Some work with the same presenter(s) on a regular basis and they, with others, also keep an ear to the ground for new courses and presenters to teach them. These folks have a talent when it comes to finding new presenters, assisting in all aspects of production: getting their courses  approved and ready for the classroom, and making them feel comfortable at LLI. You can tell by the vast number of presenters who come back year after year that their experience is positive and they want to do even more work, free of charge.

All this brainstorming, planning, and fine-tuning that producers do happens behind the scenes under the wide umbrella of the Curriculum Committee. If you have not had an opportunity to attend one of their meetings, check it out. Email Anne Brueckner at abrueckner@lli.bard.edu.

A final few words about quality and generosity: Our membership is largely retired professionals and those who volunteer reflect that background. At LLI, we have presenters, producers, class and session managers, and members of our teams and committees who were highly regarded in their respective fields—editors, artists, lawyers, accountants, bankers, physicians, scientists, educators, administrators, managers, and more. They all generously contribute their time and expertise to LLI without compensation. Note: If we paid for services, our membership fee would be a lot more expensive and would change the unique character of LLI. So, let’s enjoy this shared experience. That is something to consider.

See you in class. 
Best,
Robert Beaury

president@lli.bard.edu

We Can Build It, but Will They Come?

by Felice Gelman

In the 25 years since the founding of LLI, hundreds of people have participated in classes, presented classes, and joined in the management of the endeavor. When you consider that just four women gave birth to this organization, those numbers in themselves are a remarkable accomplishment. LLI got off to a quick start, attracting dozens of participants to its first classes. There was clearly a need, but widespread publicity quickly raised people’s awareness of the opportunity. The publicity and promotion were managed by Carol Lee, one of the four founders. 

Carol Lee’s very varied career—ranging from producing President Jimmy Carter’s birthday party, to promoting artists and photographers, to the ad industry, to writing for industry publications, The New York Times and our local newspapers—prepared her well to be the outward face of LLI at its birth. Like the other founders, she came to the area in the 1990s looking for an intellectual challenge and kindred spirits. The Red Hook Library book group introduced her to the women who came together to create LLI.

Spring's Learning Adventures

by Deborah Lanser

Get ready to start planning your spring class schedule when the catalog comes out on Wednesday, February 19. Once again, the Curriculum Committee has ensured we will be spoiled for choice. Are you interested in gardening, writing your memoir, learning to play bridge, speaking better, or appreciating wine? How about American history? Protecting your personal data from hackers? Politics and the arts or the media? What about music, dance, or the visual arts? Then there’s exercise to improve physical and mental well-being. Or you can consider the criminal justice system. You can even learn about poisons. Zoom classes will be held on consecutive Thursdays starting on March 6, and in-person classes start on March 7. 

Remember, the registration process is a bit different this year. On Thursday, February 27, you can register for one class only, while on Friday, February 28, you can sign up for as many additional classes as you want. For more information, read Carmela Gersbeck’s article, “Spring Registration Update,” that appears next in this issue. Meanwhile, here’s a foretaste of what will be on offer. And good luck choosing which ones to take!

Spring Registration Update

by Carmela Gersbeck

Pre-Registration Is Here

For the past few years, we have heard complaints from members who are online when registration opens, but are not successful in getting into some of their first-choice classes because they fill up very quickly. Members who are very tech-savvy are able to register for all of their classes quickly, and it closes other members out. To alleviate this issue, when spring registration opens on February 27, we are trying something new: for one day only, members will be able to register for only one class, which we are hoping will enable more people to get their first- or second-choice class. On February 28, members can register for as many other classes they wish to take.

Training on Navigating ProClass

Carmela Gersbeck will be holding a training session on Zoom and will go over best practices for using ProClass to register for classes. This training will take place before registration opens and will include how to update your data in ProClass, how to use the Wish List, how to successfully register for your first- choice class, and how to drop a class. Training will take about one hour and we encourage any members who have had issues registering on ProClass to join. Be on the lookout for an email with details for joining the class the week of February 19th.

LLI's Upcoming Election

by Mary McClellan

The Nomination Team met in January to discuss the Council positions that will be open effective July 1, 2025. I wish to thank all Council members who have agreed to run for a second term, as well as Grace McKay who has accepted the nomination for Second Vice President and Collin Lovas who has graciously agreed to assume the role of First Vice President. Voting will take place from March 9th to March 16th. Watch for important information in the March newsletter about the candidates and for the e-ballot. 

Help Needed on the Visuals Team

by Carmela Gersbeck

Did you know that photos for our newsletter come from a variety of sources and that our photo editors select them to go with each article? The photo editor reads the article and tries to find a photo or graphic that will go with each section of the article.

Our Visuals Team can use some help. It’s a fun, creative, important job, and we on the Communications Team would welcome with open arms a member who’d like to explore joining. If you’re interested in photography, graphics, art, or most other visual communications, this might be right up your alley. We hope it will give you a sense of satisfaction and a chance to exercise your creative muscles. Interested? Please email us at visuals@lli.bard.edu.

The Fairy Tale Experience

by Patty Kane Horrigan

Patty Kane Horrigan has been presenting courses on fairy tales at Bard LLI since 2015 and will be with us again this spring. Currently, she writes essays on fairy tales for Substack, which you can find at PattyKaneHorrigan.substack.com

Each time I start a new fairy tale class, I find myself looking out at a room of open and eager faces. Almost everyone who comes is hoping to find some of the magic they once had in those stories. They bring me their trust, and I whisper to myself, “Please don’t let me ruin their childhood.” Our earliest memories have great power. They have a lasting effect on who we are and how we face life. We attach meaning to whatever we experience, and that meaning is at the heart of their strength and potency.

Bard Hessel Features A Don't Miss Exhibit

by Felice Gelman

The Bard CCS Hessel Museum is celebrating Black History Month with an exhibit of two recently acquired works in a show titled The Message Is the Medium. You can stop in to see them at the Hessel Museum Entry Gallery until February 23. Terry Adkins’ Progressive Nature Studies (2013) and Ja’Tovia Gary’s Négresse Impériale (2017) are shown together to highlight the oft-overlooked role of Blackness in the history of making art. Although the exhibit is only two pieces, their beautiful execution and the questions they raise will reward your visit. 

Ja’Tovia Gary is a Brooklyn-based artist and filmmaker best known for her documentary film The Giverny Document (2019). The short film Giverny I (Négresse Impériale) is included in The Giverny Document. Combining video clips of the artist in the pastoral setting of Monet’s gardens at Giverny with footage from film by the girlfriend of Philando Castile moments after he was fatally shot by police and the fleeting headlines, the artist explores what it means to live life as a Black woman. The peace of Giverny is ripped by violence and discontinuity that Monet surely never faced. The artist herself appears and then abruptly disappears from the garden, raising questions of belonging. The exhibit curators say, “Gary’s film makes class position and the tragedy of racialized violence in the U.S. difficult to separate from the luxury of the European artist’s lifestyle and the historic role of painting as an idealized and often ignorant world perspective.”

Terry Roger Adkins was professor of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an interdisciplinary artist—using sculpture, performance, video, and photography—often inspired by musicians and musical instruments. He is well known for works drawing from the biographies of African Americans—Matthew Henson, W.E.B. Dubois, and, in Progressive Nature Studies, George Washington Carver. All his works are characterized by extensive historical research. Adkins, who grew up in the segregated South, observed that Black contributions to history were squeezed into a stereotypical corner that overlooked their real significance. When you see his work in this exhibit, your first question might be, “Is it an artist’s re-imagining (like Giverny I) or are we learning something entirely new about history?” Look closely. Adkins died relatively young in 2014, but you can see more about his works, his ideas, and his methods in this YouTube video of a talk given at the Smithsonian in 2013. 

Funny Bones: Bard LLI 25th Anniversary Top Ten

by Alan Katz

As part of Bard LLI’s 25th Anniversary celebration, David Letterman has graciously prepared this Top Ten List of momentous events of the year 2000, the year of Bard LLI’s creation. In order of importance:

Fall, 2000. Out of the ruins of Y2K, the millennium year changes from 1999 to 2000, which caused widespread havoc and destruction in computer programs throughout the world and violence and chaos in the streets, Bard LLI is formed, calming the financial markets and creating comfort to countless millions (but ending years of fruitful consulting fees for IT techies). 

October 15: On HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David debuts after Larry is unable to obtain Bard LLI membership through the lottery system.

July 8: The fourth book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is published. Although both are now retired, Professors Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore continue to present classes at Bard LLI.

February 12: Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz passes away at the age of 77. The next day, the original Peanuts cartoon comic strip makes its final appearance in newspapers. Linus and Lucy move to Red Hook and join the staff of the Hessel Museum.

December 12. Vice President Al Gore concedes defeat to George W. Bush in his bid for the presidency, ending weeks of legal battles over the recounting of votes in Florida, and accepts a position as Dean in Bard’s Office of Sustainability. Gracefully concede? So 20th century.

November 1. The Spice Girls release their third and final album, Forever, and go on an indefinite hiatus in Tivoli after obtaining a nuclear weapon and threatening its use unless David Beckham marries one of them.

May 2: It is announced by President Bill Clinton that the United States military would no longer restrict accurate GPS access thus replacing maps with the endless torture of being ridden around in circles by the Google Maps lady (for anyone reading this who is below the average age of a Bard LLI member, a map is a written representation of … oh, never mind).

June 29: Claiming defamation of character in a $10 million civil suit, Eminem’s mother goes to court. This is after she takes exception to the line from her son’s single My Name Is, which states “My mother smokes more dope than I do.” Momma Eminem chaired the Entertainment Committee at Bard LLI until she passed away earlier this year.

February 17: The Windows 2000 computer software is released. Software engineers have specially designed the software to take 25 years for adults over 40 years of age to master. Bard LLI members are just now hitting our sweet spot.

November 2: The first crew reaches the International Space Station but, upon learning that someday they would require Elon Musk to return to Earth, the crew decides to remain in space and take Bard LLI courses by Zoom.

Council Notes for January 2025

by Susan Simon

At the meeting of January 21, 2025, Council discussed the following:

• Preparations for the nominations for LLI 2025-26 Council election.
• Continued discussion and planning for LLI 25th Anniversary Gala (July 23, 2025)

Highlight of the Bard Calendar

by Felice Gelman

February 21, 4:00 p.m. in The László Z. Bitó Building of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Raymond Erickson, a world-travelled musician and LLI presenter since 2009, will give a free lecture-demonstration on Improvisation for Classical Musicians.

Upcoming Meetings and Important Dates
for Members

by Carmela Gersbeck

Tuesday, February 11: Curriculum Committee meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Zoom. Anyone interested in joining a meeting should email Anne Brueckner at abrueckner@lli.bard.edu. 

Wednesday, February 12: Membership Development Committee meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in joining a Membership Development meeting should email Robert Inglish at ringlish@lli.bard.edu.

Tuesday, February 18: Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom (moved to Tuesday because of Presidents’ Day holiday). Any member interested in observing a Council meeting should email Mary McClellan at mmcclellan@lli.bard.edu.

Wednesday, February 19: Spring catalog is released.

Thursday, February 27 - Saturday, March 15: Pre-registration begins on Thursday, February 27. Members will have the opportunity to register for one class only. Full registration for spring semester continues on February 28, and members can add and drop courses until Saturday, March 15. 

Monday, March 3: The Communications Team meets at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Communications meeting should email Deborah Lanser at dlanser@lli.bard.edu.

Thursday, March 6: The DEI/Social Justice Team meets at 4:00 p.m. Any member interested in observing a DEI/Social Justice meeting should email Laura Brown at lbrown@lli.bard.edu.

Thursday, Friday, March 6, 7: Spring semester starts with Zoom classes on Thursday, March 6, and in-person classes on Friday, March 7. 

Wednesday, March 12: Membership Development Committee meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in joining a Membership Development meeting should email Robert Inglish at ringlish@lli.bard.edu.

Monday, March 17: Council meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Council meeting should email Mary McClellan at mmcclellan@lli.bard.edu.

Monday, March 31: The Communications Team meets at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. Any member interested in observing a Communications meeting should email Deborah Lanser at dlanser@lli.bard.edu.

The opinions and views expressed in the LLI Newsletter are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of LLI or its members. In addition, any link to a website or content belonging to or originating from third parties are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability or completeness by LLI, nor does LLI accept any responsibility for such content.