Message from the President

Keeping Up-to-Date with Bard’s Guidelines

Dear <<First Name>>,

Throughout this summer, I’ve written about the unreserved efforts of all who serve LLI to make our return to the Bard campus possible. They’ve met every challenge with their characteristic aplomb and infinite good cheer. We’re still optimistic that we can be together as we’ve so carefully planned, but we know that the virus is unpredictable. Right now, we must maintain our very strict compliance with Bard’s directives, staying flexible and prepared to make rapid changes, if necessary, to our on-campus member requirements and our fall schedule.

Today, I ask every member to commit to following Bard’s requirements, including vaccine verification and the current masking guidelines. Please carefully read every LLI instruction. When you come to campus to attend LLI classes or events for the first time this fall, be prepared to show your CDC Vaccination Card or NYS Excelsior Pass before entering buildings. Please remember to thank the members who direct us and verify each member’s status. Always wear your new LLI nametag with its verification sticker when attending LLI functions. These actions demonstrate our respect for all members of the Bard family and signal our full understanding of LLI’s critical role in helping to protect the larger community. Bard has entrusted us to do our part!

Please look for and read your LLI emails and follow the most current updates. Pay attention! Whether on campus or on Zoom, we’re all in this together, and we’ve already seen that it is very much worth the effort.

In late August, our newest members from the classes of 2020 and 2021 led the way as they enjoyed Bard campus tours. Our intrepid guides from the Membership Development Committee delighted in sharing the familiar sights and the pathways most used by all of us when we’re on campus. Tomorrow, September 8, we’ll welcome more of this year’s new members at their orientation in Weis Auditorium, where so many of us were first introduced to the excitement of LLI membership.

Remember to register for fall courses through your personal ProClass account before classes begin on September 16. I view the registrations, so I already know how very responsive you are to the excellent variety of course offerings. Whether we gather on Zoom, in Bard’s classrooms, or out in nature, we’ll be together again. What a pleasure it will be!

We are immensely grateful to Bard’s COVID-19 Response Team for their exemplary diligence in implementing effective strategies for the safety of the entire Bard community, including LLI. Those not yet returning to campus also appreciate that our active compliance helps ensure everyone’s present and future safety. 

Under the Response Team’s oversight, our Council will continue to follow the most prudent measures for all in-person LLI activities. With our utmost safety ever in mind, please know that we are doing whatever possible to make our newest fall semester as exciting, innovative, and celebratory as the very first.

In one way or another, I’ll be seeing you! 

Yours,

Documentation for Going Back to Campus

by Kim Sears

All right, all of you who remember LLI before COVID. Are you ready to PARK?

Dig out that LLI lanyard and parking hangtag, which you will need in just a few weeks!  If you are missing either, please take action immediately.

Has your orange parking hangtag disappeared or dissolved? Please email Stacey Adams at saadams@bard.edu. Let her know you need a replacement. Stacey is located in the Security office adjacent to Olin Hall, and you can pick up your new tag there. If you have your old tag from 2019 or before, but the car, license plate, or phone number is new, please email Stacey with current information.

If your lanyard has gone missing, contact Robert Inglish, chair of the Member Services Committee, at ringlish@lli.bard.edu. Your new lanyard and new style name tag will be waiting for you at the welcome tables on the first day of class. You’ll need both to receive your vaccination verification sticker before you can start this new year on campus.

And if you are a new member who has not registered your car yet, please refer to your new member newsletter and do that as soon as possible. 

Who Do You Call? Stacey Adams

by Felice Gelman

Where is my parking hangtag? Hey, our classroom is locked. I got a parking ticket — what for? Who you gonna call? Try Stacey Adams. She is the Office Resource Coordinator for Bard College’s Security team. She works with LLI’s Member Services team volunteers to register LLI members' cars, issues hangtags for our vehicles, and coordinates other security needs. Membership Services Chair Robert Inglish says she is “wonderfully responsive.” Kim Sears adds, “Stacey has been nothing short of miraculous.” 

The Arboretum Called Bard

by Gary Miller

When was the last time you visited a garden measuring 930 acres? When was the last time you were enveloped by hundreds of varieties of flowers, bushes, grasses and other flora? It was, of course, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck and Bard’s extraordinary arboretum was off-limits. The good news is we can now return, and meander through the campus to see what gifts nature provides. 

Every day about 2,000 students stroll across campus, on their way to and from classes, sport games, and events. Sometimes their eyes are fixed on the path beneath their feet, but often those same eyes wander, gazing at the mesmerizing visual composition of nature around them. At that point, many take a deep breath and find themselves in a deep, almost meditative, state. 

Bard LLI to Receive Award from CCE

by Jill Lundquist

In August, LLI was delighted to receive an invitation from Bard’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) to accept an award “for the 20-year commitment to learning across the ages at Bard.” The award will be presented at their upcoming 10th Anniversary event on September 24th. LLI president, Nanci Kryzak, and LLI’s liaison to CCE, Jill Lundquist, will accept this award on behalf of all LLI members, past and present. We are deeply honored and humbled to receive this award from CCE, an organization that brings the benefits of the liberal arts to institutions and programs throughout the world.

Our Lifetime Learning Institute is considered an academic program of Bard’s CCE. The Center realizes Bard’s vision — to act as a private institution in the public interest. CCE initiates programs, fosters sustained partnerships, and supports and connects the students, faculty, and staff of Bard’s local, national, and international networks as they work to make a difference in the civic life of their communities. To learn more about CCE’s outstanding programs around the country and the world, click here.

Showcasing LLI Artists

by Chuck Mishaan

The Annual Bard LLI Art Show has a long history and, despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, we hope to continue the tradition. The 2020 Bard LLI Art Show is online in an all-digital format. 

You can view the Art Show here. 

Submitting Your Work
The 2021 Art Show will continue to be all-digital. We invite interested LLI members to submit images of their artwork for the show.  You can submit your photographs or photos of your other artworks by clicking on this link:  https://www.cognitoforms.com/BardLLI1/_2021BardLLIArtShowApplication

Submissions are limited to two per artist, and the images can be uploaded directly within the Art Show Application in jpeg, tiff, bmp, or png format, with a maximum image size of 25 mb. Artists are invited to describe their work, submit a descriptive biography or other commentaries about their submissions, and, if desired, offer the works for sale.

Viewing the 2021 Show
We hope to add the 2021 Art Show selections to the 2020 Art Show on the lli.bard.edu website on October 15th and keep the exhibit available online indefinitely. 

We look forward to the wonderful display of talent that has characterized our past exhibitions. We know that the Bard LLI membership comprises many skilled artisans and devoted artists, and we welcome the opportunity to give them a platform for display and us a chance to enjoy their work.

Council Notes for August 2021

by Deborah Lanser

The following topics were discussed at the August meeting:

For the first two Fridays of in-person classes in September, tables will be set up in the Rotunda of Olin, where Council members will sit and verify the vaccination status of members who are attending in-person classes. 

While Bard does not currently require people who have been fully vaccinated to wear masks, their policy may change because of increased risk from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. LLI will remain in close communication with the Bard Covid Response Team to ensure we are fully compliant with any policy changes. 

Bonnie Goad, Associate Director of Bard’s CCE, invited Nanci Kryzak and Jill Lundquist to attend CCE’s 10th anniversary celebration, where they will accept an award honoring LLI for our 20-year commitment to learning.

Because the first class of the semester fell on Yom Kippur, presenters were given the option of starting one week later and extending their class by a week.

Any member interested in observing a Council meeting should email Linda Stanley at lstanley@lli.bard.edu.

by Felice Gelman

The Bard calendar is off to a slow start for September, so check here as new events are posted. 

On Monday, September 20, from noon to 1:00 p.m., the Bard Center for Human Rights and the Arts (part of the Open Society University Network) will sponsor a talk by the Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco. Her interdisciplinary art has focused on colonialism, power, race, gender, and history. Her most recent book is Dangerous Moves: Performance and Politics in Cuba. 

On Friday, October 1, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., Philip Lasser, a composer, pianist, and musical theorist from Juilliard, will give a guest lecture titled The Organic and Symbolic Structure of Bach’s D Minor Partita for Solo Violin. It will be at the Bitó Conservatory. 

On Tuesday, October 5, from noon to 1:00 p.m., Bard Conservatory students perform short works during an hour-long program. The concert will be live-streamed.  For more information, call 845-758-7196, email conservatoryconcerts@bard.edu, or visit https://bard.edu/conservatory.

Each Thursday through October 28, from 1:00 to 5 p.m., the Bard College’s weekly Farm Stand is open featuring fresh produce, mushrooms, fresh honey, and maple syrup when seasonally available. Pre-orders can be placed here. For more information, call 518-653-6118, e-mail farm@bard.edu, or visit https://blogs.bard.edu/bardfarmstore/.

Ongoing Events at Bard College

Information on Fisher Center performances, both live and virtual, may be found here.

With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 will be at the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Hessel Museum of Art through November 28. The exhibit, the first full-scale scholarly North American survey of the groundbreaking yet understudied Pattern and Decoration art movement, is open from 1 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Reservations are required. For more information, call 845-758-7598, e-mail ccs@bard.edu, or visit the website here.

Closer to Life: CCS Bard celebrates its 30th anniversary with an exhibition of over forty artists of drawings and works on paper from the Marieluise Hessel Collection. The museum is open from noon to 6:00 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. Reservations are required. For more information, call 845-758-7598, e-mail ccs@bard.edu, or visit the website here.

Important Dates for LLI Members

September 8: New member orientation in-person on Bard campus

September 10: New member orientation on Zoom 

September 14: Curriculum Committee Zoom meeting at 10 a.m. If you would like to attend, please email Bill Tuel at btuel@lli.bard.edu

September 16 - November 5: Fall semester

September 20: Council meeting on Zoom at 9:30 a.m. If you would like to attend, please email Linda Stanley at lstanley@lli.bard.edu

September 24: This is the last day to add a course

October 12: Curriculum Committee Zoom meeting at 10 a.m. If you would like to attend, please email Bill Tuel at btuel@lli.bard.edu

October 18: Council meeting on Zoom at 9:30 a.m. If you would like to attend, please email Linda Stanley at lstanley@lli.bard.edu

November 5: Last day of fall semester