Recap of pre-2016 Courses
"Cape Cod Memoirs" with Rhoda Flaxman
One was a Wellfleet cop. One, a poet, lived in the Provincetown dunes with her new husband. One faced the problem of how to save his big, old family house on the Cape Cod Canal. And the fourth retreated to Dennis for a year of recovery.
What do these four memoirs have in common? How are they different? Through a combination of mini-lecture and open discussion we will try to explain how each writer makes art from life on Cape Cod.
"Wellfleet's History Revealed Through Stories and Pictures" with Jeff Tash
The story of Wellfleet follows an extraordinary historical thread that begins with the Pilgrims in 1620 and ultimately winds itself to our present day retirement community renown as an arts and intellectual center and as a refined tourist destination. From its beginnings our community, built on Narrow Land, had a founding experience that can best be explained as halfway between the Salem Witch Trials and Peyton Place! Our economy, like our tides, has ebbed and flowed through economic booms and busts. Meanwhile, our tiny little resilient town has a giant history that parallels the tale of America's past. The course will include a walking tour of Wellfleet's historic district.
"Field Trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman House and the Currier Museum" with Betsy Bray
The Isadore J. and Lucille Zimmerman House (1950) was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). Wright designed the house, the interiors, all the furniture, the gardens and even the mailbox. There is time to enjoy the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire.
"Two Architectural Geniuses: Frank Lloyd Wright and Charlie Zehnder" with Grace Hopkins and Betsy Bray
Did you know that the Outer Cape was home to an architect strongly influenced by the concepts and design aesthetic of Frank Lloyd Wright? Charles Zehnder designed more than fifty modern houses on the Outer Cape in the second half of the twentieth century, and Wright’s influence can be clearly seen in his structures. This course—the very first to explore the relationship between two architectural masters—will combine site visits to Zehnder houses and invited presentations by experts in the field. Cape Cod Modern, the first overview of our modernist houses, will serve as text.
"Diamondback Terrapins Field Research and Conservation" with Barbara Brennessel
Diamondback terrapins are a threatened turtle species in Massachusetts. We will get to know this charismatic turtle in its Wellfleet Harbor habitat, via field work, discussion and lecture. Our class project will be to capture and mark terrapins for the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary population study. We will also explore their aquatic and terrestrial habitats, find nests laid by female terrapins, and protect them with Predator Excluders (PEs). When we visit “turtle gardens,” we’ll learn how to contribute to efforts to protect their fragile nesting habitats.
"Artist Duos in Lower Cape Studios" with Grace Hopkins
Provincetown hosted America's oldest and most enduring art colony. Even today the Lower Cape is home to a vibrant art scene of studios and galleries. Join us in Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet for visits to studios where very different artists make art side by side. Meet the artists, love the paintings, sculpture and photography, and have as your guide, Grace Hopkins, Cape abstract photographer and daughter of Abstract Expressionist painter, Budd Hopkins, and art historian, April Kingsley.
"Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: People and Places" with Deborah Forman
Although Cape Cod has been attracting artists to this scenic wonderland for more than a century, many artists take another view and find their expression in creating portraits, figures, still lifes, and interior views. The course will cover the 45 artists Deborah Forman included in her book, Contemporary Cape Cod Artists: People and Places (Schiffer Publishing, 2014). The range of work, from traditional to more edgy creations, and the variety of the mediums (oil, acrylic, watercolor, drawings, prints and photography) displays a rich diversity of styles. Discussions will be based on your interpretations, feelings, and interest in the works. Comparisons of the artists’ inspirations, approaches, and styles should incite a lively interchange. The course will include presentations by several of the artists included in the book.
"Contemporary Writers With Cape Cod Connections: Short Stories" with Rhoda Flaxman
Cape Codders may be surprised to learn that contemporary authors such as Raymond Carver, Jumpa Lahiri, Margaret Atwood and Michael Cunningham have been associated with the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. This course will explore the short fiction of some FAWC writers, emphasizing the Lower Cape’s long tradition of contributions from painting, literature and theater arts colonies.
"Microbes That Changed History" with Barbara Brennessel
Our seminar will trace the effect of microbes on human history and examine how our culture, environment and behavior have established, maintained and spread infectious diseases. We will sort out the microbes, good and bad and learn how their evolution and adaptations are intimately linked within an ecological framework. We will follow the trail of epidemiologists, our modern day disease detective, as they attempt to discover the source and routes of transmission of epidemics. And we will explore the medical, cultural and ecological approaches that are undertaken to prevent the spread of these deadly afflictions.
“Going to the Opera in Wellfleet” with Christopher Ostrom
So you think you hate opera? Join us for a five-week exploration of this often-misunderstood art form. We will explore opera from a musicological, dramaturgical, and historical perspective, and receive and insider's view into the creation of an original production. This course will complement the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcasts presented by Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.
“Versification: The Essentials” with Martin Edmunds
For practicing poets seeking a refresher on the essentials of versification in English, and for those who were never taught form and meter at all. We will take up masterly examples of formal verse as our inspiration and our models as we focus on work written during this class by the participants. Students will compose poems in several of the meters and forms under study including iambic pentameter, black verse, ballad stanza, sonnet, and villanelle.
“Cape Cod Artists’ Views of Land and Sea,” with Deborah Forman
Cape Cod has attracted artists to this grand land and its spectacular seas for more than a century. Many artists have created work that interprets their experiences o this place. This course will cover the fifty artists Deborah Forman has included in her recent book (see title above). Their range of work , from traditional to more edgy creations, displays a rich diversity of styles inspired by the Cape’s legendary beauty. Several artists included in the book will visit the class.
“Stories of Home on Cape Cod: A Literary Exploration,” with Rhoda Flaxman
How does establishing a home on Cape Cod differ from building a life anywhere else? This semester we will explore one classic text (Henry Beston’s The Outermost House), one set of linked stories that depict two hundred years of a house on the Outer Cape (Alice Hoffman’s Blackbird House) and one memoir (George Howe Colt’s The Big House). About each of these works we will ask how writers depict the joys and challenges of creating a home on Cape Cod, and whether being at home on this great edge of the world is different from being at home anywhere else.
“The Complete History of Wellfleet,” with Jeff Tash
This class, offered in three separate semesters, consists of five two-hour lectures where each week a different century is examined, starting in the 1600s. Each presentation is composed of pictures, videos, audio recordings, and , most importantly, storytelling. Come hear the Wellfleet story and learn about its amazing past.
“A View from Inside the Summer Plays at WHAT,” with Jeffry George
A parrot, a cabaret singer, a singing quartet and two couples needing an adjustment. An orphaned parrot raised by humans becomes an international fashion icon. As an American living in Berlin, Sally Bowles discovers her strength in war-torn Germany. After thirty years of singing together, a quartet of middle-aged men get their big break and are on their way to Nationals. Do two couples on Xmas Eve truly just need a period of adjustment to find their individual comfort zones? In this 30th Anniversary of Wellfeet Harbor Actors Theater we take a look at life from very different angles by analyzing the scripts in advance. Come and get a view from inside WHAT’s summer productions. Each course participant will receive two tickets to the Friday preview performance of each production this summer.
“Coastal Ecology of the Outer Cape,” with Gordon Peabody (Safe Harbor)
Explore the unique habitats, plants and animals along the coastline of the Outer Cape. Learn how our coastal resources systems are linked together, and look at how the Outer Cape’s landform is undergoing changes from wind, waves, and tide. Guest speakers and possible field trip.
“Narrowland and Sea,” with Barbara Brennessel
Building upon the inspiration of some of our greatest nature writers, we will explore the relationship between the lower Cape and the waters that surround it. We will take a virtual trip, beginning with the ancient glaciers that formed our Narrowland and ending in modern times, where the global repercussions of anthropogenic activities are causing changes at the local level. Some of the topics for discussion will be climate change, ocean acidification, the ‘balance of nature,’ the loss of biodiversity, fisheries in crisis, and the future of shellfish and shellfishing. There will be opportunities for field trips that highlight some of the concepts discussed in the course.
“Wellfleet’s History is America’s History,” with Jeff Tash
The story about Wellfleet is filled with drama.But reading history books can often be dry and laborious. This course strives to make our town’s history compelling and fun through a collection of stories, images, and other media that describe our colorful past including the many ebbs and flows of our economic development as well as the rich assortment of influential characters who over the centuries called Wellfleet their home.
“Theatre on Cape Cod,” with Jeff Zinn
We know there is a vibrant tradition of theatre on Cape Cod and has been for generations. But what exactly do we mean when we say that? When we look at, say the early Provincetown Playhouse dominated by Eugene O’Neill, or The Cape Playhouse in the heyday of the Straw-Hat Circuit, or the several incarnations of Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, or the community theaters that sprout and thrive like mushrooms, we see that “theatre on Cape Cod’ can mean many things. In this class/seminar we will answer the question by reading—or watching—a selection of plays chosen from the aforementioned theaters’ catalogues. We want to know what theater means to you, why you go, and what you look for in the experience Bring your opinions!
“Thinking About Wellfleet, The Romance and the Reality,” with Brent Harold
Wellfleet has long thrived on the romancing of it by residents and part-time visitors alike. Of what does this romance consist? And what are the contradictions and issues that lie beneath its surface? How we think about our town is crucial to the role we play in its ongoing history, We will consider such key concepts as ‘place’ and ‘change’ and such revolutions in our history as the advent of tourism the National Seashore controversy, the washashore invasion, the second home market-- as well as recent struggles over franchises, public water and sewage, regionalization, theater.
“Outer Cape Lit,” with Rhoda Flaxman
Our Outer Cape landscape has been the inspiration for many excellent writers from our earliest history to the present. For our first exploration of this theme, we’ll read contemporary writers who both live on and write about the Outer Cape. Sampling works in four genres, we will read and discuss Annie Dillard’s novel The Maytrees, Sinan Unel’s screenplay, Race Point, poetry by Mary Oliver and Marge Piercy, and selected essays by Robert Finch and others.
“Governing, Cape Cod Style,” with Seth Rolbein
If all politics are local, as House Speaker—and sometime Harwich resident—Thomas P. O’Neill famously said , then an appreciation of the strengths and success of local politics is key to understanding why the national version too often veers into dysfunction. This course will reach back to the Mayflower Compact, signed off our shores in 1620, to see if it is indeed the nation’s seminal document outlining our relationship with our government or not. From the egalitarianism and foibles of open town meeting to the rationale of a recent change in the structure of Cape Cod Boards of Selectmen ending with the question of why our towns are ‘strong’ but our county ‘weak,’ we’ll examine how structure can either inhibit or propel progress. Special guests, including Dan Wolf, will be invited.
“Creating a Wellfleet Historical ‘Map App,’” with Jeff Tash
Wellfleet’s history is America’s history. Pilgrims visited our shores even before they settled Plymouth. This Open University course is a ‘lab’ where students will conduct ‘history research’ culminating in a Wellfleet Historical Society web app using Google map technology. Students will pinpoint places of historical interest along with corresponding images and write-ups accessible via mouse clicks or pointing gestures on laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
“Perspectives on the Provincetown Art Colony,” with Deborah Forman
Join Deborah on a journey through the history of the Provincetown art colony, which can be viewed as a microcosm of 20th century American art. The course will begin with the launching of the colony when Charles Hawthorne opened his school in 1899. It will lool at early conflicts between the traditionalists and modernists, the impact of the Hans Hofmann School, and the golden years of the late ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s when Abstract Expressionists were in town and New York galleries had satellite locations in Provincetown. When the art colony began to languish in the late ‘60s, the effort to revitalize it with the founding of the Fine Arts Work Center and the impact of Long Point Gallery will attest to the determination to maintain the town’s cultural integrity.
“Prose and Poetry of Cape Cod,” with Rhoda Flaxman
Cape Cod has always inspired writers to examine the human condition and , particularly, relationships between humans and the natural world. But do writings about the Cape constitute a unique tradition? Do writers who live and work among us emphasize recurrent themes, subjects, techniques, and visions? This semester Cape Cod Lit will explore this and other questions via poem, novel and memoir. As we read we will ask which concepts and questions about Cape writing are unique to our lives here and which are universal. The class will combine mini-lectures with directed discussion for a lively seminar experience appropriate to all ages and backgrounds.