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Welcome to ElderwiseIn-person, online, and hybrid classes Winter Term 2025 Registration is Open! > Culture

Culture   

 
  • The Hundred Guilder Print: Rembrandt and Spirituality 

  • HYBRID: In the classroom and online. A Zoom link will be sent to all one day before class.

    This is about art and about history, but it is not art history. Let's be footloose and fancy free, and just follow our feet from one imaginary gallery to another, from one museum to another, to an astonishing building here and a surprising home or factory there. Without any boundaries of time or space, let's enjoy the work of creative people, one by one, asking ourselves how the font of human ingenuity is opened and nourished and fulfilled. The imagined gallery we visit for this class will feature the work known as Rembrandt's Hundred Guilder Print. The intense emotions of its figures have inspired other artists over the years. We will also examine some of these other artists’ creations, including our presenter's sculpture recently installed at Saint Mary's Chapel in Ann Arbor. Michael R. Kapetan is an artist whose own work is informed by the scientific, the aesthetic, and the spiritual as he creates holy images for churches, synagogues, and temples, plus unique solar sculptures that mark the turning of the seasons. Mike is retired from the University of Michigan’s School of Art. He holds a degree in art history from Harvard University, and a master’s degree in sculpture from the University of Michigan.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): Michael R. Kapetan

  • Dates: 1/30/2025 - 1/30/2025

    Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: Th

  • Building: Hybrid: In-Person and Online

    Room: Vineyard Cafe and Zoom

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  • The Museum of Modern Art in New York City 

  • ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent the Friday before class begins.

    The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) is an acclaimed multicultural institution with almost 200,000 artworks. Wendy Evans will show highlights from the collection, including Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, Pablo Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon, and Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory. She will also explore some less-famous works to give us ideas of what to look for on future visits. Wendy Evans was raised among the museums of London, England, and holds advanced degrees from Oxford University and Wayne State. She taught art history at Wayne and is a long-time docent volunteer at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Wendy loves to share her passion for art with groups like Elderwise. More information is available at www.art-talks.org.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): Wendy Evans

  • Dates: 3/24/2025 - 3/24/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: M

  • Building: Online Course

    Room: Online via Zoom

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  • World Heritage Sites 

  • ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent one day before each class session begins.

    This class begins a completely new series of sites, adopted from The Great Courses series, featuring lectures by Justin M. Jacobs of American University, and breathtaking visuals from some of the most outstanding World Heritage Sites. In 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated as World Heritage Sites, more than a thousand locations valued for their outstanding cultural and/or natural significance to humanity. The sites designated by UNESCO include archaeological excavations, masterpieces of religious or secular architecture, and monumental sculpture.

                             January 8           Ethiopia’s Rock-Hewn Churches
                                                         The West Norwegian Fjords
                                                         The Great Wall(s) of China

                            January 15          Mountain Railways of India
                                                         Old Havana, Heart of Cuba’s Capital
                                                         Bagan, Sacred Landscape of Myanmar

    Toby Teorey is the current Vice Chair of the Elderwise Council. He is retired from the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Michigan and in retirement pursues his enduring love of world history, music, and culture.

     

  • Fee: $30.00

  • Instructor(s): Toby Teorey

  • Dates: 1/8/2025 - 1/15/2025

    Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  • Sessions: 2

    Days: W

  • Building: Online Course

    Room: Online via Zoom

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  • Ireland: The Intriguing Emerald Isle 

  • HYBRID: In the classroom and online. A Zoom link will be sent to all one day before class.

    George Jabol is excited to share many photographic adventures from his 2007 tour of Ireland. The first stop is Northern Ireland, including the capital city of Belfast, Derry (Londonderry), and the geologic formation called the Giant’s Causeway. Next, we will visit Sligo and Galway, and a stop at the iconic Irish Cliffs of Moher. In the heart of Ireland, we will travel to Killarney, and to the fishing village at Dingle Bay. We then proceed to Cork, the departure point for more than 2.5 million Irelanders who emigrated to America. We then visit Waterford, with its crystal shops, before our final stop in beautiful Dublin. Join us for George’s panorama of the 40 shades of green found in this scenic island nation. George Jabol received his B.A. degree from Muskingum College in Ohio, and a Ph.D. in English language and literature from the University of Michigan. Fully retired now from a career with the federal government, George creates photographic slide shows as a way to remember his travels and share them with others.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): George Jabol

  • Dates: 2/4/2025 - 2/4/2025

    Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: Tu

  • Building: Hybrid: In-Person and Online

    Room: Vineyard Cafe and Zoom

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  • Visiting the Top and Bottom of the World 

  • ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent the Friday before class begins.

    The ultimate adventure: visiting the top and bottom of the world within a single year. In January 2023, the Sami people and Northern Lights called Mary and her husband to Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, into the long Arctic winter nights. We will enjoy the beautiful scenery, learn about Sami people and their reindeer herds, and experience an overnight stay in an ice hotel, keeping our eyes peeled for the brilliant Northern Lights. In December 2023, Mary traveled south into Antarctica’s summer. Sailing from Ushuaia, Argentina, across the dreaded Drake Passage, we will experience the beauty of the peninsula of Antarctica while cruising past beautiful cliffs, snow-covered landscapes, huge, glimmering icebergs, and lovely bays. We will enjoy the silence of sailing, broken by glaciers calving into the sea, and the wildlife: fur seals and a variety of whales, penguins, and birds (if we are lucky). We will stop by the on-board science lab for the ship’s citizen science program. Join us to discover why Antarctica is known as the world’s last truly wild frontier. Mary Bondarenko loves traveling and, with Antarctica, has now visited every continent. Mary holds a B.S. in psychology and a master’s degree in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and a J.D. from Cooley Law School. She is retired from a diverse career with a Fortune 500 company.

     

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): Mary Bondarenko

  • Dates: 3/17/2025 - 3/17/2025

    Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: M

  • Building: Online Course

    Room: Online via Zoom

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  • Explore Detroit Art at UMMA 

  • OFFSITE TOUR: The University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 South State Street, Ann Arbor
    Time: 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.


    Enrollment: This tour is limited to 15 attendees. A waitlist will be available.

    Please let the Elderwise office know if you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.

    Join an experienced UMMA docent in a guided tour of two dynamic temporary exhibitions. The first exhibition features three generations of Latinx artists from Southeast Michigan. La Raza Art and Media Collective was formed in the 1970s by a group of Latino/a students at the University of Michigan to give a voice to the cultural and political expression of Chicano, Hispanic, and Latin American communities both on campus and beyond. This exhibition revisits the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the RAM Collective to reflect on the profound impact of these visionary creators. The second exhibition highlights the photographic work of Metro Detroit Chinese American artist Jarod Lew, from the Please Take Off Your Shoes series, 2018–2021. It explores themes of identity, community, and displacement through portraits and still lifes set within suburban Southeast Michigan homes. The tour will begin in the UMMA lobby next to the Shop. Tour route and restrooms are both accessible by elevator. The tour will be guided by an experienced volunteer docent, who will select stops throughout the museum and facilitate group discussion.
    Driving directions and parking information will be sent to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): UMMA Docent Staff

  • Dates: 3/19/2025 - 3/19/2025

    Times: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: W

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: UMMA

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  • Ypsilanti Historical Museum Tour 

  • OFFSITE TOUR: 220 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti

    Enrollment: This tour is limited to 10 attendees. A waitlist will be available.
    Please let the Elderwise office know if, after registering, you are unable to attend this tour. This gives students on the waitlist an opportunity to join. It also helps the onsite class assistant.

    The Ypsilanti Historical Museum’s collections are housed in a handsome Italianate mansion built in 1860 by banker Asa Dow. The building’s fourteen rooms are filled with 19th century furnishings and artifacts donated by the area’s residents. It features two parlors, a country kitchen, a solarium, and rooms dedicated to crafts, costumes, music, tools, and toys. There is a room celebrating some of Ypsilanti’s more notable past citizens, their industries, and their accomplishments. If time allows, we will descend to the basement for a quick look at the extensive city archives - which include items such as maps, photographs, directories, court records, tax rolls, and obituaries. The museum is operated and maintained by volunteers, most of whom have local connections, as well as by interns from the historic preservation program at Eastern Michigan University. John A. Stewart is a retired software developer with degrees in biology from the University of Michigan. He has served as a volunteer docent at the Ypsilanti Historical Museum for the past 13 years. Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the tour.

     

  • Fee: $15.00

  • Instructor(s): John A. Stewart

  • Dates: 3/28/2025 - 3/28/2025

    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

  • Sessions: 1

    Days: F

  • Building: Offsite

    Room: Ypsilanti Historical Museum

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