Registration deadline is December 11th for all events. To register for these programs, just complete a registration form and submit it with your non-refundable payment. As a courtesy to those involved in planning and presenting these programs, we ask that you make sure that you will be able to attend an event before signing up for it. Please let the contact person know if you cannot attend. Thanks!
Please note that buses need to be confirmed and tickets bought weeks before these events. That is why meeting the deadline is important and calling after the deadline to register will probably not get you a ticket to an event. Please call or e-mail the contact person on your program for information, not the LIR office. Thanks!
What’s New at UMass?
A tour of cutting edge buildings
The UMass campus seems to have been mushrooming in recent years. Join us on a tour of the Integrated Science Building, Life Science Laboratories and the Integrative Learning Center to see how state-of-the-art architecture accommodates state-of-the-art approaches to interdisciplinary research, team-based learning and other University programs. Registrants will receive a map and fact sheet ahead of time, prepared by our tour leader, Jeff Quackenbush, UMass’ Lead Capital Project Manager.
Date: Tuesday, January 5
Time: 10 am – noon
Place: Integrated Science Building Atrium
Cost: $2
Contact person: Nancy Denig
Edens on Earth
A history and theory of gardens
John Martin will follow up on his recent garden design lecture to Applewood residents with a comparative overview of European, Middle Eastern and Oriental gardens. John’s lavish collection of slides will be sure to delight us in the throes of “bleak midwinter”.
Date: Wednesday, January 6
Time: 10:30 – 11:30 am
Place: Applewood first floor meeting room
Cost: $2
Contact person: Nancy Denig
Memorial Program
Join your fellow LIR members in remembering those whom we have lost during the past year. We appreciate the many talents of these folks who have helped make our organization so interesting and informative. Refreshments will be served.
Date: Thursday, January 7 (snow date, Friday, January 8)
Time: 10 am – noon
Place: Amherst College Alumnae House
Cost: Free
Contact person: Sheila Klem
Yiddish Book Center
A group tour
The Yiddish Book Center is the national repository for Yiddish books. It offers many programs and performances, and has become an important cultural institution under the direction of its founder, Aaron Lansky. If in town at the time of our visit, Mr. Lansky will welcome our group and introduce the tour.
Date: Wednesday, January 13
Time: 10:30 am – noon
Place: Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College, Amherst
Cost: $6 (special group rate; ordinarily $8)
Contact person: Arnold Friedmann
Arcadia Players
Viols, a concert featuring violas
Arcadia Players are one of the region’s most acclaimed groups that specialize in Baroque music. “Arcadia Viols” will be performed under the direction of Ian Watson. The program will include John Dowland’s Lachrimae, Will Ayron’s Fantasy on Flow My Tears, as well as some 17th century English songs.
Date: Sunday, January 17
Time: 4 pm
Place: Wesley Methodist Church, Hadley
Cost: $25 (special group rate; ordinarily $40)
Contact person: Arnold Friedmann
Amherst Community Theater
Mary Poppins matinee
Mary Poppins will be flying into Bowker Auditorium at 2:00 for a matinee performance of a musical for all ages. Parking is available in the UMass Garage opposite Bowker. You may purchase tickets for members, children and grandchildren. Carpools can be privately arranged from the registrations.
Date: Sunday, January 24
Time: 2 pm
Place: UMass Bowker Auditorium
Cost: $16
Contact person: Ellen Peck
Legislators’ Forum
Free and Open to the Public
State legislators representing our area – Stan Rosenburg, Peter Kokot, Ellen Story and John Scibeck – will each summarize what he/she is working on and answer audience questions. Don’t miss this event, moderated again by Carol Jolly; it is both a good way to learn how we are being represented at Beacon Hill, and to introduce your friends to LIR. Parking is in the back of the Library. Signing up will give us a sense of how many will attend.
Date: Friday, February 5
Time: 1 – 3 pm
Place: Coolidge Room, Forbes Library, Northampton
Cost: Free
Moderator: Carol Jolly
Contact person: Ellen Peck
David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History & Underground Railroad Studies
A group tour
Florence, MA has emerged as one of the most important Northeast locations for the interpretation of African Americans’ cause for freedom. Early freed black abolitionists, Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles, had been drawn there by a radical Utopian commune called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, and stayed to continue their work of helping many to escape slavery or to move away from slave-owning regions of the country.
Date: Wednesday, February 10
Time: 10 am – noon
Place: David Ruggles Center, 225 Nonotuck Street, Florence
Cost: $5
Contact person: Marybeth Bridegam
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