CCA is pleased to offer a wide variety of lifelong learning opportunities with Renesan.
Renesan
Renesan – Appeasing the Dictators: Chamberlain, Churchill and British Diplomacy in the 1930s
This Renesan Course is 2 Sessions. February 3rd & 10th, 10am @ CCA – Appeasing the Dictators: Chamberlain, Churchill and British Diplomacy in the 1930s – Instructor: Mark Davis – “As Europe careened toward war in the late thirties, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain optimistically believed that peace and harmony could be obtained by appeasing Hitler and Mussolini. Far from a policy borne out of despair, this presentation shows how appeasement was the product of positive thinking and became Britain’s dominant foreign policy in the twenties and thirties.”
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Renesan – The Roots and Rise of 1960s Soul Music
This Renesan Course is 1 Session. February 12th, 3pm @ CCA – The Roots and Rise of 1960s Soul Music – Instructor: Dick Rosemont – Dick Rosemont explores what became labeled soul music, rising out of rhythm and blues of the ’50s—from Sam Cooke, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and beyond. The presentation is enhanced by numerous photos and music examples.
Renesan
Renesan – From Fame to Flashdance: Movie Musicals of the 1980s
This Renesan Course is 1 Session. February 18th, 6pm @ CCA. – From Fame to Flashdance: Movie Musicals of the 1980s – Instructor: Aaron Leventman – 1980 marked the return of conservatism in the U.S. As a response, films like Footloose and Dirty Dancing represented the individual struggling for artistic expression against a repressive society. Victor/Victoria and Fame took on issues of gender identity, sexual orientation, race and class in a niche culture against the world at large. MTV influenced the aesthetic of these films so this formally old-fashioned genre could appeal to a younger audience and in doing so, redefined the genre itself.
Renesan
Renesan – James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
This Renesan Course is 4 Sessions. March 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th, 1pm @ CCA. – James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – Instructor: Ed Walkiewicz – Joyce’s semi-autobiographical Portrait is considered one of the greatest examples in English of a Künstlerroman, a fictional narrative tracing an artist’s growth. In a manner sometimes ironic, sometimes sympathetic, his experimental novel chronicles the development of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, in turn-of-the-century Ireland. As Stephen develops, he becomes increasingly aware of the forces and structures that shape him and limit his freedom. Our discussions will focus on Joyce’s innovative narrative technique and his treatment of gender roles, sexuality, Catholicism, and Irish politics and culture.
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Renesan – Ukraine, Putin, the Russian Federation
This Renesan Course is 1 Session. March 5th, 1pm @ CCA. – Ukraine, Putin, the Russian Federation – Instructor: Donald Gluck – Donald Gluck reviews Ukraine’s history from 9th century Kyivan Rus, through the 1649 to 1764 Cossack Hetmanate, to today’s republic, emphasizing the Orange and Maidan Revolutions, and Russian Federation aggression. The last includes the covert war of 2014 and the massive invasion beginning in 2022. He details the authoritarian trajectory of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation and explores Putin’s irridentist longing for lost land; revanchist passion over despoiled honor; and the realpolitik of capturing bountiful Ukraine.
Renesan
Renesan – Colin Jacobsen on How to Program an Orchestral Concert
This Renesan Course is 1 Session. March 10th, 3pm @ CCA. – Colin Jacobsen on How to Program an Orchestral Concert – Colin Jacobsen, music director of Santa Fe Pro Musica, is also a skilled concert programmer, noted for his wide-ranging and thought-provoking selections. He’ll use the group’s orchestra concerts on March 14 and 15, as well as other concerts from Pro Musica’s recent past and future, as examples. The March repertory includes a world premiere plus Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Kurt Weill’s Youkali, a work by Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and the big-band classic “Big Noise from Winnetka.”
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Renesan – The Great Deception: FDR’s Last Campaign, 1944
This Renesan Course is 2 Sessions. March 19th and 26th, 10am @ CCA. – The Great Deception: FDR’s Last Campaign, 1944 – Instructor: Allen Stone – In March 1944 President Franklin Roosevelt was in the final year of his unprecedented third term as US President. At the time, his general physician noted that “Roosevelt represents a textbook case of untreated hypertension progressing to [likely] organ failure and death from stroke.” It’s unclear how much FDR knew of his diagnosis (but he definitely knew he needed treatment) or the timeline of worsening. Family members and close staff knew he was failing but not all the details. Still, FDR ran for a fourth term. Already hiding his paralysis from the public, he, his family and staff went to great lengths to distract and disguise his worsening heart condition. And he won. He died 100 days after being sworn in.
Renesan
Machiavelli: How Machiavellian Was He?
RENESAN – Machiavelli: How Machiavellian Was He? This Renesan Course is 1 Session. April 7 @ 1pm, In The Prince, Machiavelli can both discern the nature of princes and understand the nature of the people. Using this double vision, he simultaneously warns the Medici of the dangers to their rule while informing the people as to the weakness of their regime. Contrary to most opinions that Machiavelli wrote The Prince in order to gain employment with the Medici, or to provide amoral, if not immoral, reality-based advice to princes, his actual purpose was to warn the Medici not to become tyrants and to instruct the people as to just what tyranny looked like, with, most probably, the goal of undermining the Medici.
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Renesan – Star Axis: The Land Art Project in New Mexico Created by Charles Ross
This Renesan Course is 1 Session. April 14th, 10:30am @ CCA. – Star Axis: The Land Art Project in New Mexico Created by Charles Ross – Instructor: Jamie Clements – The light artist Charles Ross conceived of Star Axis in 1971 and started construction on this land art project in eastern New Mexico in 1976. All of Star Axis’s shapes and angles are determined by earth-to-star alignments. They are built into the sculpture so that we can experience them in human scale. Star Axis offers an intimate experience of how the earth’s environment extends into the space of the stars. Charles Ross will complete the project in 2026.
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