July 2, 1999
Middlebury College Plans Year-Long Bicentennial
Celebration — Public Invited to Attend Events Ranging from
a Concert by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
to a Parade
Beginning in October 1999, Middlebury College will
launch a year-long series of Bicentennial celebration events that
will culminate in November 2000, the actual 200-year anniversary
of the school’s founding.
“We’ve spent the last two years planning what
promises to be one of the most exciting times in the College’s
history,” said Middlebury College President John M. McCardell,
Jr.
“Staff, faculty, students, and representatives
from the town have pulled together to organize a celebration that
symbolizes all aspects of the College’s history and founding.
Middlebury has long been known historically as the town’s College.
The Bicentennial is as much the town’s celebration as it is the
College’s,” added McCardell.
The College’s origins began with a journey in September
1798 by Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College, as he traveled
by horseback from New Haven, Conn., to Middlebury, Vt. Dwight
passed through the town of Middlebury and while there discussed
establishing a new college with town leaders, who were considering
the possibility of amending the charter they received for the
Addison County Grammar School to include post secondary or collegiate
education. They conferred with Dwight to determine the feasibility
of establishing a college at Middlebury to provide a convenient
location for higher education. With Dwight’s counsel and encouragement,
Middlebury College was founded in 1800.
The Bicentennial activities planned for the coming
year encompass a broad spectrum of interests and types of events,
from all aspects of the arts to several symposia that will feature
nationally recognized speakers who will discuss a wide range of
topics. The College will also commemorate its founding with the
publication of a new College history, the dedication of the new
academic building Bicentennial Hall, and a series of events that
involve the town-from a parade to a community reception.
According to Nick Clifford, co-chair of the Bicentennial
Planning Commission and college professor emeritus of history,
“Our 200-year anniversary has provided us with the chance
to look back at Middlebury’s history and forward to the College’s
future. The events that we’ve planned will create opportunities
to debate issues that are important to education and society as
a whole, as well as celebrate the rich cultural offerings that
have become an integral part of life at Middlebury.”
Angelo S. Lynn, publisher of the Addison County Independent
and a member of the Bicentennial Steering Committee, believes
that, “This celebration is an opportunity for local residents
to learn about historical connections they might have to the College
that they didn’t know about before these activities, and to get
better acquainted with the College, which plays such a large role
in this community.”
Kicking off a string of events will be the Clifford
Symposium, titled “What is Life?,” featuring as keynote
speakers paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University
and medical ethicist James F. Childress of the University of Virginia.
It will take place on Oct. 14-15 in conjunction with the dedication
of Bicentennial Hall, a new academic building that will be used
primarily to house the science departments.
Other symposia to be held on campus in honor of the
Bicentennial include “Commitment to the World: Integration
and Disintegration in the 21st Century,” which
will focus on international studies; “Celebrating Athletics
and the Liberal Arts;” and “Biographical Truths: Literary
Fact, Historical Fiction.” Another such gathering, “Perspectives
on World Affairs,” will take place at the New York Public
Library in March 2000.
Commenting on the plans for cultural activities that
celebrate the Bicentennial, Director of the Middlebury College
Center for the Arts Susan Stockton said, “The cultural offerings
this season will feature some of the best from the music, theatre,
dance, and visual arts world. The Bicentennial celebration has
presented us with an opportunity to feature extraordinary international
visiting artists as well as highlight the successful work of our
alumni. Alumni events such as a musical gala, a juried exhibition
of visual artists, and a theatrical season including alumni actors,
a director, and a playwright will acknowledge the wealth of artistic
talents among this segment of the College community.”
One feature of the cultural festivities will be a
performance by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
on April 29, 2000. In a program entitled “For Dancers Only,”
the orchestra’s music will encourage the audience to dance and
swing in a cabaret-style atmosphere.
Theatre productions will range from “Our Town”
to “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Hamlet.”
Taking place off campus at New York City’s Cunningham Studio will
be the New York appearance of the Dance Company of Middlebury,
which will be in residence there during one week in March 2000.
The dance company will premiere an evening-length piece choreographed
by Peter Schmitz of the Middlebury dance program. The piece has
been commissioned by the College especially for the Bicentennial
and will make its advance appearance in Middlebury.
The Bicentennial celebration will conclude with a
series of events during Founders’ Week from Nov. 1-5, 2000. Since
the College was officially chartered on Nov. 1, the activities
will begin on that day-Founder’s Day-with a town and College parade,
ceremonies for local schools, and a community reception in the
evening.
The culminating activities will include a concert-the
first performance of a choral piece commissioned by the College-a
convocation, a symposium, a dinner and a ball, and an ecumenical
chapel service. The festivities will also feature a performance
of “Middlebury the Musical,” a play by David Stameshkin,
a former member of the history department and the author of a
two-volume history of Middlebury College. The musical is an irreverent
and comic version of the College’s founding.
The symposium, “Higher Education, the Market
and the Media,” will be held on Nov. 4, 2000, and will focus
on the role of higher education in a world increasingly shaped
by market forces and new kinds of access to information. Discussions
will address such issues as how colleges meet the needs of students
as consumers or customers, the role of distance learning, and
how receptivity to education has been changed by exposure to television,
movies, and the internet.
In addition to these events, alumni groups are working
on a Bicentennial service project named Page One. The project
is devoted to education in literacy both in Vermont and across
the country.
David Bain of the English department has written
a new illustrated history of Middlebury, “The College on
the Hill,” to be published in October 1999.
President McCardell believes that the Bicentennial
comes at a time when the College is thriving as never before.
“Middlebury enjoys a reputation, nationally and internationally,
for strong programs throughout the liberal arts. The Bicentennial
celebration focuses our attention on the history and values that
have brought us to this point,” said McCardell.
For further information, the Middlebury College web
site has an up-to-date listing of Bicentennial celebration events
at http://www.middlebury.edu/200/gateway.html, or contact Ingrid
Punderson, associate director of alumni and parent programs, at
802-443-2276.