News f r o m Catherland
V O L U M E 6 x I S S U E 1 | A P R I L 2 016
IN THIS ISSUE National Willa Cather Center National Willa Cather Center Taking Shape 1 Taking Shape Scholarship Opportunity for High School Educators 2
Volunteer Recognition and 2016 will prove to be of great importance of one of our nation’s most celebrated Recruitment 2 to the Willa Cather Foundation, as authors. Providing a climate-controlled Save the Date for the 16th several years of planning and fundraising space to properly house our growing International Cather Seminar 3 will culminate in the completion of the collection and the addition of professional Welcome Administrative National Willa Cather Center later this study space for visiting scholars will help Assistant LauraLea Johnson 3 fall. Recent months have brought about us fulfill long-term strategic goals. As an Nature As Muse on Exhibit great enthusiasm, as we’ve watched the arts and cultural destination, the Center Through May 23 3 historic Moon Block come to life again. will serve thousands of visitors and Join us for the 61st Annual students annually. Willa Cather Spring With the final phase of construction Conference 4 rapidly progressing, we are beginning Through the generosity of an anonymous donor, we met our initial campaign Telling War Stories: Rhetoric to get a sense of the splendor that awaits of the Great War on Exhibit future visitors, scholars, and students. The goal of $6.7 million. In total, over 480 May 27 through July 31 5 Center’s interior spaces are now framed individuals and foundations nationwide Summer Snow: and drywalled, the vestibule and elevator have supported our campaign, graciously A Celebration of Landscape 6 addition are nearing completion, and led by Honorary National Chair Ken Burns. With final bids and finishing costs Read Across America Day restoration of the ground level façade is Celebrated 6 pressing onward. coming in 4% above our initial project The Song of the Lark budget, we are working diligently to raise Essay Contest Winner 7 Upon opening, the National Willa Cather a balance of $98,000 needed to bring us Center will become an educational resource Red Cloud Named One of to the successful end of the campaign. Seven Literary Destinations like no other, celebrating the life and legacy continued on next page to Visit in 2016 7
Board and Staff 8
Coming Up 8
Visit us online at www.WillaCather.org to browse our bookstore or sign up for our e-Newsletter.
Work progresses on the front façade and in the main reading room. National Willa Cather Center Taking Shape continued from front page
As our fundraising nears completion, a number of shelving, study desks, and exterior landscaping materials. naming and recognition opportunities remain available For more information about lending support and at various giving levels. Supporters are also invited to assist helping prepare the National Willa Cather Center for its in outfitting the Center through charitable donations to grand opening, please contact Ashley Olson, Executive allow for purchase of exhibit display cases, archive room Director, at 866-731-7304 or [email protected].
Scholarship Opportunity for High School Educators
Are you a high school educator looking to attend the Willa Spring Conference offers. It is our sincere hope that these Cather Spring Conference? If so, apply to be considered partnerships will facilitate a dynamic exchange of ideas for our High School Educators Scholarship. Through between Cather scholars and high school educators, upon this program, five high school educators will receive a whom we rely for our next generation of Cather readers. complimentary registration for the 61st annual Willa Please apply as soon as possible, but not later than May 10. Cather Spring Conference, June 2–4, 2016. Successful An application may be found on our website or obtained applicants will experience the historic sites, the cultural by contacting Tracy Tucker, Education Director, at opportunities, and the Cather research and pedagogy that 402-746-2653 or [email protected].
Volunteer Recognition and Recruitment
National Volunteer Week: According to national friendships, and is even good for your mental health. estimates, volunteers provide over a billion dollars With those types of benefits, who wouldn’t want to be a in services annually. They are deeply rooted in their volunteer? The Willa Cather Foundation offers numerous communities and willing to turn their beliefs into action. volunteer opportunities that can meet a wide variety of While April 10–16 was National Volunteer Week, the interests, skills, and schedules. If you like to socialize, Willa Cather Foundation took a special opportunity you’re the perfect volunteer to help with our programs, to express our gratitude to those who give freely of their artist receptions, and educational events. Positions time to help support our mission. In appreciation of their as bookstore greeters, clerks, or tour guides provide steadfast support and to welcome prospective volunteers, opportunities on a daily basis year-round. For those with we hosted our second annual volunteer appreciation and a green thumb, we’re always looking for gardening and recruitment event in February. landscaping volunteers to help keep the grounds at our If you’ve been to a performance at our historic Red Cloud historic properties beautiful. Organizational projects like Opera House, received a mailing from us, or attended filing, preparing large mailings, and other administrative Spring Conference, you’ve been touched by the work of a tasks are just the thing for people who enjoy working in an volunteer. Quite simply, we are able to do more, stretch our office environment. budget further, reach more people, and achieve ambitious Whether you have one hour a day, one day a week, or goals because they are working alongside us. Willa Cather one week a month, we can offer you an enjoyable and wrote, “Where there is great love there are always miracles.” rewarding volunteer experience. If you’re interested in If you’ve been to an event in which our volunteers are helping us meet our mission of promoting Willa Cather’s involved, you know that they reliably perform miracles. legacy through education, historic preservation, and the Volunteer Opportunities: Volunteering allows you arts, please contact Marianne Reynolds at 402-746-2653 to use your talents for public good, helps you build new or [email protected].
2 News from Catherland | April 2016 Save the Date for the 16th in Olathe, Kansas, Johnson spent fifteen years managing collectible and gift shops in Kansas and Florida. “I’m excited International Cather Seminar to embark on a new chapter in my life as a member of the Willa Cather Foundation staff,” remarked Johnson. “I’ve Mark your calendars for the next International Cather met many wonderful people over the past few months and Seminar, scheduled for June 11–17, 2017, at Pittsburgh’s have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Cather and Duquesne University. Willa Cather left Nebraska in 1896 discovering her literature.” and for the next decade made Pittsburgh her primary residence. During these ten years, she worked as an editor, teacher, reviewer, and freelance writer. She collected Nature As Muse on Exhibit friends and mixed with all sorts of Pittsburghers. She Through May 23 published extensively—not only hundreds of profiles and reviews, but also more Three incredibly talented artists have joined forces to than thirty short stories; create Nature as Muse. This exhibit features an eclectic a collection of poetry, selection of pieces from the father-daughter duo, Jack April Twilights (1903); Sandeen and Amy Sandeen of Hastings, Nebraska, and and The Troll Garden, landscape painter, Mary Linnea Vaughan of Santa Rosa, her first collection of California. A public reception on April 16 allowed patrons stories. After moving an opportunity to meet the artists and hear about their to New York in 1906, work through a series of short talks. This exhibit has been she continued visiting described by patrons as a sensory experience that invites Pittsburgh until 1916, viewers to look at the world around them in a new light. writing parts of several Stop by the Red Cloud Opera House Art Gallery through novels at the McClung residence. Despite the importance May 23 to view the exhibit for yourself. Pittsburgh played in her life, much remains undiscovered. This seminar will further explore the influences of Pittsburgh on Cather’s life and career. Seminar sponsors include the Willa Cather Foundation, the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Duquesne University’s McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts and the Department of English, Penn State Greater Allegheny, and Saint Francis University. Please watch for the official call for papers in our next newsletter. Welcome Administrative
Assistant LauraLea Johnson Anthem by Mary Linnea Vaughan
Recently, the Willa Cather Foundation was pleased to welcome LauraLea Johnson as our Administrative Assistant. Johnson, now a resident of Red Cloud,
LauraLea Johnson joined our team last December. Her prior not-for-profit experience includes a five-year stint as administrative assistant at the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation in Custer, South Dakota. After attending MidAmerica Nazarene University Thingamajig by Jack Sandeen Topaz by Amy Sandeen
www.WillaCather.org 3 Join us for the 61st Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference
As the world remembers the sacrifices made during evening, we look forward to joining dance instructors the Great War, we invite you to join us in Red Cloud Nick Hernandez and Maja Peci, as they teach dance steps June 2–4, 2016. This year’s Spring Conference will from the 1910s set to popular music of the era. examine the war’s impact not only on Willa Cather’s On Saturday, “Decades Since Our Doughboy: One life and war-era writings but on those of her literary of Ours and the War Years,” this year’s Passing contemporaries, as well as the legacy of the war on Show panel, will be moderated by conference co- American culture. director Julie Olin-Ammentorp and will feature Dan Dr. Pearl James, Clayton, the director of the Center for the Study of author of The New War Experience at Regis University; Andy Jewell and Death: American Janis Stout, editors of The Selected Letters of Willa Modernism and World Cather; and Max Frazier, conference co-director and War I, will deliver a instructor at the United States Air Force Academy. keynote address which Following the Passing Show, conference-goers will examines the work enjoy a special World War I luncheon, featuring of Cather, Fitzgerald, recipes designed to help the war effort and published Hemingway, and in the official Food Service Administration cookbook, Faulkner in context Win the War in the Kitchen. of the war. James Additional activities include a presentation by Diane has published and Dr. Pearl James Prenatt on Willa Cather and journalist Elizabeth presented extensively Shepley Sergeant; viewing on World War I-era literature, modernism, and the of the documentary “World visual culture of World War I, including as part of a War I: The American Legacy;” series presented by the National World War I Museum and visiting sites related to in Kansas City. the novel One of Ours by We’ll also welcome Karen Gettert Shoemaker, author caravan. The conference will of the 2016 “One Book One Nebraska” selection conclude with a banquet The Meaning of Names, to discuss the family stories featuring French cuisine and historical research she used in her novel. A from the Picardy region and lecture by Dr. Richard Harris, as well as readings of Sarah Young’s performance World War I-era poetry and drama, will be featured Keep the Home Fires Burning:
on Friday, June 3. Music from the Great War. Dr. Sarah Young Later, we will honor As both a classically trained more than sixteen soprano and a Cather scholar, Young specializes in regional artists who research on the music and musicians of Cather’s time have contributed and will deliver a moving recital of the songs and ballads to our invitational popular during the Great War. exhibit Summer Snow: A Celebration of Landscape at a cocktail reception in the Opera House. As we conclude our activities on Friday Karen Gettert Shoemaker
4 News from Catherland | April 2016 Telling War Stories: Rhetoric of the Great War on Exhibit May 27 through July 31
Rhetoric is the study and practice of effective persuasive, Society, Dr. Richard Harris, the Nebraska State Historical informative, and inspirational communication—whether Society, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. that be in the form of written or spoken language or Most exciting, perhaps, is a collection of World War I in the form of visual images. Though one focus of this paintings on loan from the Herbert Hoover Presidential year’s Spring Conference is the literature of Willa Cather Library-Museum. In order to assist our soldiers during and her contemporaries as it reflects the First World World War I, the United States Food Administration was War, literature is only one response. Telling War Stories created to urge citizens to buy less, serve smaller portions, highlights other rhetorical tactics from the period— and reduce waste at home and in their communities. persuasive and inspirational words and images that affected Herbert Hoover headed this massive program and not only Cather and other writers, but the reading public promoted directives to “Save the Wheat” by serving one as a whole, the politicians who decided the course of the wheatless meal a day; “Save the Meat” by not eating beef, war, the soldiers themselves and their loved ones. mutton or pork more than once daily; “Save the Milk” for This exhibit, curated by Willa Cather Foundation children; and “Save the Fuel” by burning fewer fires and Education Director, Tracy Tucker, will offer a historical using wood instead of coal. framework that is accessible and visually interesting This exhibit seeks to spur dialogue and reflection about life for all audiences, while addressing a larger question of in America at the time of the Great War. It may be viewed the language of war and peace. The exhibit will include daily through July 31 by visiting the Red Cloud Opera items from the Willa Cather Foundation’s own museum House. Business hours are Monday to Saturday from collection, as well as the collections of the Jaffrey Historical 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Propaganda poster courtesy of the Library of Congress, WWI Poster Collection
www.WillaCather.org 5 Summer Snow: A Celebration of Landscape
As we gather for Spring Conference to celebrate Cather and discuss World War I and its effects on American life and culture, we hope that you’ll enjoy our invitational exhibit, Summer Snow: A Celebration of Landscape. This exhibit will feature the work of more than sixteen well-known regional artists and will be on display in our Red Cloud Opera House auditorium from May 1 to July 31, 2016. Our conference theme, “‘Both Bitter and Sweet’: Cather, Literature, and the Great War,” focuses on Cather’s writing during the years 1914–1919. As we read her fiction, nonfiction, and interviews of the period, Cather’s interest in the landscape—both in Nebraska and in war- torn Europe—becomes clear. She writes of the decimated European landscape and the emotional connection people have to their land in her Pulitzer Prize-winning Cottonwood by Carol Thompson, from the permanent collection of the Willa Cather Foundation. novel, One of Ours. Protagonist Claude Wheeler, a farm boy from Nebraska, faced with the destruction of the Never mind; the cottonwoods were good enough for war, observed just how important these connections France, and they were good enough for him! He felt they were. “Claude thought he had never before realized were a real bond between him and this people.” how beautiful this tree could be,” Cather wrote of the cottonwood. “In verdant little valleys, along the clear The title of the exhibit comes from a 1921 interview, in which rivers, the cottonwoods waved and rustled . . . seemed Cather describes the French “summer snow” celebration, to grip deep into the soil and to rest easy, as if they had held in the early summer as the silky tufts of cottonwood been there forever and would be there for ever more. At seeds drift down. “Unless you can see the beauty all around home, all about Frankfort, the farmers were cutting down you everywhere, and enjoy it, you can never comprehend their cottonwoods because they were ‘common,’ planting art,” Cather told the reporter. This exhibit celebrates those maples and ash trees to struggle along in their stead. small details in the landscape around us.
Read Across America Day Celebrated
If you’ve ever shared a beloved book with another art downtown and high school students read excerpts of person, you know the joy and excitement this small Cather’s work for residents of Heritage Care Center and but meaningful act can bring. To highlight the value of Cherry Corner Estates. Elementary school students were books and reading, the National Education Association treated to local leaders reading Dr. Seuss books, and Dr. holds an annual Read Across America day every Seuss art projects for school-age children were held at the year on March 2, Dr. Seuss’s birthday. This year, the Auld Public Library. Willa Cather Foundation, Red Cloud Community Academic studies consistently demonstrate a strong Schools, Auld Public Library, Cherry Corner Estates, correlation between reading and academic success, from and Heritage Care Center partnered to celebrate our kindergarten to university. In other words, science proves inaugural Read Across Red Cloud (RARC). what readers know to be true: reading books is good for RARC was an intergenerational event, featuring activities you. In bringing a community of readers together on one for people of all ages to celebrate the joy and importance special day, RARC offered opportunities to experience of reading. Students created literary-inspired sidewalk and celebrate the joy of reading.
6 News from Catherland | April 2016 The Song of the Lark Essay Contest Winner
Our student essay contest celebrating the 100th publication their pens to the page, their hands to the clay. . . . Artists anniversary of The Song of the Lark concluded recently, and need passion, and passion is what made Thea Kronborg a we are pleased to announce our winner: Sarah Anderson, real success.” Sarah and her family will enjoy a weekend a tenth grader from York, Nebraska. Anderson’s winning stay at the Cather Second Home in Red Cloud, a free tour essay, “Passionate Persistence,” examines Thea Kronborg’s of the Cather historic sites, tickets to an Opera House drive to greatness. “Before artists can clutch the hearts of show, a set of Cather’s novels, and other promotional their audience,” Anderson writes, “they must be pursuing merchandise commemorating the 2015 publication their art for a reason other than fame and glory. It must be centenary of The Song of the Lark. passion that causes them to put their voices into song,
Red Cloud Named One of Seven Literary Destinations to Visit in 2016
Freelance arts and travel writer Marsha Dubrow recently perfect setting for an afternoon hike, picnic at sunset, or compiled a stellar list of 2016 literary destinations for U.S. stargazing. Excursions to the Starke Round Barn, Webster News & World Report. Within the feature, Red Cloud’s County Museum, Hastings Museum, and Museum of Willa Cather historic sites round out a list of seven top Nebraska Art are all great ways to round out a weekend literary destinations, including Louisa May Alcott’s itinerary. Simply call us toll-free at 866-731-7304 to plan Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts; Edith your getaway. Wharton’s The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts; Emily Dickinson’s The Homestead, in Amherst, Massachusetts; Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Andalusia farmhouse, in Milledgeville, Georgia; and Eudora Welty’s Tudor-Revival style home in Jackson, Mississippi. Visit us in Red Cloud to tour Willa Cather’s childhood home and other properties that make up the largest collection of nationally designated historic sites dedicated to an author in the United States. The Nebraska State Historical Society’s Willa Cather Childhood Home, a National Historic Landmark, contains many Cather family artifacts. Upstairs, a “story within itself,” is young Cather’s small attic bedroom, as described in The Song of the Lark. Guided tours of the home are offered by the Willa Cather Foundation year-round. To deepen your experience, plan to spend a quiet evening at the Cather Second Home. Choose the room once occupied by Cather or a room once belonging to her parents or siblings. Guest are also encouraged to take in a performance at our historic Red Cloud Opera House. With gorgeous vistas and never-been-plowed native grassland, the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie is the Willa Cather’s Childhood Home
www.WillaCather.org 7 Board Officers President: Lynette Krieger, Hastings, NE Vice President: Marion A. Arneson, Wayne, NE Secretary: Glenda J. Pierce, Lincoln, NE Acting Treasurer: C. Kay Stahly, Kearney, NE Past President: Thomas Reese Gallagher, New York, NY Board of Governors The Willa Cather Foundation Virgil Albertini, Fairway, KS 413 North Webster Street Mark W. Bostock, Windsor, CO Red Cloud, NE 68970 Max Despain, Monument, CO Katherine Endacott, Pleasant Dale, NE Sarah Baker Hansen, Omaha, NE Richard C. Harris, Sea Cliff, NY Jill Hornady, Grand Island, NE Andrew Jewell, Lincoln, NE Charles Johanningsmeier, Omaha, NE Ruth H. Keene, Omaha, NE Susan Maher, Duluth, MN Fritz Mountford, Hastings, NE John J. Murphy, Newton, MA Julie Olin-Ammentorp, Manlius, NY Charles A. Peek, Kearney, NE Guy Reynolds, Lincoln, NE Ann Romines, Alexandria, VA Nancy Sherwood, Omaha, NE Steve Shively, Logan, UT Amy Springer, Red Cloud, NE C. Kay Stahly, Kearney, NE Robert Thacker, Canton, NY Lu Williams, Red Cloud, NE
John A (Jay) Yost, New York, NY Advisory Council Bruce P. Baker II, Omaha, NE Laurie Smith Camp, Omaha, NE James L. Fitzgibbon, Red Cloud, NE David B. Garwood, Red Cloud, NE Joel Geyer, Lincoln, NE Jane Renner Hood, Lincoln, NE Ron Hull, Lincoln, NE Betty Kort, Hastings, NE Mellanee Kvasnicka, LaVista, NE Lucia Woods Lindley, New York, NY Gary L. Meyer, Red Cloud, NE UN–L Opera presents The Marriage of Figaro Nancy S. Picchi, New York, NY Friday, May 20, 7:00 p.m. Rhonda Seacrest, Lincoln, NE FREE James P. Southwick, Heber City, UT John N. Swift, Whittier, CA Community Theatre presents Middletown by Will Eno Gary W. Thompson, Lincoln, NE July 7–9, 7:00 p.m. and July 10, 3:00 p.m. Joseph R. Urgo, Asheville, NC $10 for students / $15 for adults Staff Missoula Children’s Theatre presents Rapunzel Ashley Olson, Executive Director Friday, August 5, 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. LauraLea Johnson, Administrative Assistant $5 for children / $10 for students / $15 for adults Jacqueline Lemmer, Program & Marketing Assistant Karin Prellwitz, Maintenance Assistant Nebraska Shakespeare presents Hamlet Marianne Reynolds, Development Coordinator Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m. Tracy Tucker, Education Director & Archivist $20 in advance / $25 day of show Cheryl Wilson, Buildings & Sites Curator
AT THE RED CLOUD OPERA HOUSE AT Visit us online at www.WillaCather.org for information on upcoming events. Sylvia Andersen, Tour Guide COMING UP! Kay Blackstone, Tour Guide Kevin Daehling, Prairie Curator Priscilla Hollingshead, Tour Guide Arts programming presented Barb Kudrna, Tour Guide with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Lisa Mahin, Tour Guide Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Janet Maruhn, Tour Guide
8 News from Catherland | April 2016