The Caroline Werner Gannett Project 2007-08

Watch this space for new courses, colloquia, exhibitions & other information developed by the Caroline Werner Gannett Project!

Stay tuned for a list of visionaries speaking at RIT in 2010-11.

The Caroline Werner Gannett project was recently named the Best Lecture Series in the Rochester area by City magazine.


City Newspaper Best of '09: Critics' Picks

Best Lecture Series: RIT's "Visionaries in Motion"

Between Rochester Arts & Lectures and the myriad offerings at area colleges and libraries, our community enjoys a wealth of public talks in any given year. But for the past four years, no series has rivaled the breadth of luminaries comprising RIT's "Visionaries in Motion," part of the Caroline Werner Gannett Project. Where else can you hear about the nanobots that could one day inhabit our bodies, keeping us free of diseases so that we can live indefinitely? From high-tech innovators Ray Kurzweil (the nanobots), Rudy Rucker, and John Maeda to eclectic artists Maira Kalman, Stefan Sagmeister and Lynda Barry, the series has brought some of the most fascinating people on the planet to Rochester.

This year's line-up is no exception. Astronomer Adam Frank will discuss his ideas linking science and spirituality, comic artists Nick Gurewitch and Chris Onstad will showcase their bizarre creations, and religious scholar Reza Aslan will discuss his new book, "How to Win a Cosmic War." That's not half of the offerings. You could pick a talk at random and it's a safe bet you will leave with a slightly different worldview.

The woman who chooses the speakers, founder and director Mary Lynn Broe, Caroline Werner Gannett Professor of Humanities at RIT, is hip to just about everything happening on the cutting edge of our culture. Broe and her advisory board are tuned in to the zeitgeist and they make sure we receive the frequency. For more information check out cwgp.org. - BY RON NETSKY

Congratulations to recent speaker Stefan Sagmeister for winning the Raymond Loewy Foundation Lucky Strike Designer Award

Congratulations to National Consultant and “Visionary” speaker (April 23, 2008) Heather McHugh for being named a MacArthur Fellow

Learn more about the upcoming year from the Studio 86 podcast on the Caroline Werner Gannett Project: Visionaries in Motion III.

2008-09 Course: Interdisciplinary Negotiations

COLA and COS Honors Freshman Colloquium & Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts (0520-449-01)
Co-directors: Gary Skuse (Science) and Mary Lynn Broe (Liberal Arts)
Academic quarters: three (2008-09)
Credits: 6 (for three quarters)

Lunch with a legendary futurist and inventor. Challenge an environmental activist. Be videotaped talking with a landscape photographer, a new media creator, or a genomics expert. Directed by COS and COLA faculty, students will read work by and interview nine high-profile artists, scholars and thinkers in the Caroline Werner Gannett series, “Visionaries in Motion II: The Human Imprint.” Reflecting the “new RIT” emphasis on creativity, each speaker works at the intersection of several disciplines, faces novel challenges, asks otherwise unasked questions and produces risk-taking imaginative work.Students may register one of three ways: all 6 credits in one quarter; 3 credits in two quarters; or 2 credits each quarter. This 6-credit course spans the entire academic year. Students must commit to participate in all three quarters. Cross-listed course; also COLA and COS Honors Freshman Colloquium.

For more information, see the Courses Page.

flying-words Professor Gary Skuse with Leroy Hood, MD, Ph.D., at RIT on April 23, 2009 maker workshop