OUW is now:
Open University
at Wellfleet Preservation Hall!
The OUW Board of Directors is proud and happy to announce its collaboration with Wellfleet Preservation Hall. Open University at Wellfleet Preservation Hall is underway, with our Fall 2026 classes to be announced soon. You can check the WPH website (wellfleetpreservationhall.org) for courses and the schedule. Thank you for joining OU-WPH to learn something new or focus on an interest and share your thinking!
New Fall 2026 classes coming soon!
Instructor: Alston Brown
Dates: Tuesdays, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17, 11/24
Time: 12-3pm
Location: Wellfleet Preservation Hall
Bitten by the acting bug? Have a monologue, soliloquy, piece of text that you’ve been wanting to bring to life but haven’t had the chance? In this course, we will take speeches from plays and other source material, and workshop them from first read through to performance. This is an acting class, so come ready to get on your feet and dive into the process of exploring this exciting textual form.
Instructor: John Dennis Anderson
Dates: Wednesdays, 10/21, 10/28, 11/4, 11/11, 11/18
Time: 1pm-3pm
Location: Wellfleet Preservation Hall
Washington Irving and his work have been a pervasive presence in American pop culture for over two centuries. Best known as the author of mythical tales of a terrifying Headless Horseman and Rip Van Winkle’s twenty-year sleep, Irving was the first professional American man of letters. His pop cultural legacy ranges from Joseph Jefferson’s 40-year-run on stage as Rip Van Winkle, to Irving himself as a character in the 1938 Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday, to many film and TV adaptations of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” that include Walt Disney’s 1949 animated version, Tim Burton’s 1999 horror film Sleepy Hollow, and a popular 2013-2017 TV series. The class will read select works by Irving and adaptations of them and survey the range of works he inspired .
Instructor: Lewis Shepard
Dates: Wednesdays, 9/23, 9/30, 10/7, 10/14, 10/21
Time: 10:30am-12pm
Location: Zoom
For many Americans when they think of boats on the water, Noah's Ark springs to mind. World literature, often with illustrations, is a starting point when we recall images of life on waters, both fact and fiction,( think of Kon Tiki, Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn) Here in Massachusetts we have the USS Constitution, launched in 1797 and still afloat in Boston Harbor.
Cultural traditions, religion, commerce, have been a part of nautical visions that began in Egypt and continues today. Illustrated books, poetry, fact and fiction, movies, music and the theatre are interwoven with our thoughts of life on the water. Here on Cape Cod we have much to consider, one of the reasons for this class. The history of New England, even including Vermont's Lake Champlain, is replete with source material.
Instructor: Maurice Isserman
Dates: Thursdays, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29
Time: 3pm-5pm
Location: Wellfleet Preservation Hall
Maurice Isserman, co-author of the 2008 Banff Prize-winning history of Himalayan mountaineering, Fallen Giants, will be drawing on his soon-to-be-published history of climbing around the world to provide an overview of mountaineering from its origins down to the present. Among other climbs, the first ascents of the Matterhorn, Denali, Nanda Devi, the North Face of the Eiger, and the West Ridge of Everest will be covered. One week will be devoted to the history of the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division in World War II, with Isserman’s Winter Army as the main text. The course also considers topics related to the cultural and political background of mountaineering, including European Romanticism, American Transcendentalism, the British Empire, and Nazi Germany.
Image: Hamilton College students in Maurice Isserman's Himalayan seminar, on a trek to Annapurna Base Camp, 2025.
Instructor: Marc Strauss
Dates:Thursdays, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29, 11/5
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Zoom
For as long as there have been entertaining musicals in the United States, edifying political commentary has often played a secondary or subliminal role in the art form. For every frivolous Cats (1981) there is an intense Hamilton (2015), matchmaking Hello, Dolly! (1964) a historically relevant 1776 (1969), flippant Funny Face (1927) a satirical Of Thee I Sing (1931). Even in shows that are ostensibly all about fun—say, Irving Berlin’s 1933 As Thousands Cheer, with songs and sketches loosely based on news of the rich and famous—the somber “Supper Time” tells the story of a woman making dinner for a husband who will never return home…from his lynching. In the hyper-energetic, feel-good musical Hairspray (2002), “I Know Where I’ve Been” sings of the long fight for racial equality.
During this five-week course, Marc Strauss, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Conservatory of Theatre and Dance, Southeast Missouri State University, will introduce, show DVD and YouTube videos, and lead discussion on a host of songs and dances from American musicals across eras and regions that seriously address cultural and political issues. During our country’s 250th year in 2026, the course will culminate with the showing and analysis of the Peter H. Hunt-directed Hollywood film 1776, from 1972—created as a lead-up to our 200th anniversary in 1976—written by Peter Stone with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards
Latest News from Open U
Art Excursion!! Organized by artists Grace Hopkins and Joe Diggs, this first day-long excursion course was a day focused on discussion about art and making new connections. We began at the Holderness School in New Hampshire, where Joe has a solo exhibition. Hearing the music to which he composed his art while he described the process was a privileged experience. I mean, WOW!! Then on to the Currier Museum in Manchester, where we found an impressively curated collection.
On the Move! Rhoda Flaxman, OUW’s founding director, has moved to Charlotte, from where she continues her leadership role. Hers was a difficult decision to leave full-time residency in Wellfleet, and she plans to return in the summer. Pictured is Rhoda, center, along with board member Grace Hopkins (l) and Registrar Irene Giangregorio…
Art Excursion!! Organized by artists Grace Hopkins and Joe Diggs, this first day-long excursion course was a day focused on discussion about art and making new connections. We began at the Holderness School in New Hampshire, where Joe has a solo exhibition. Hearing the music to which he composed his art while he described the process was a privileged experience. I mean, WOW!! Then on to the Currier Museum in Manchester, where we found an impressively curated collection.
On the Move! Rhoda Flaxman, OUW’s founding director, has moved to Charlotte, from where she continues her leadership role. Hers was a difficult decision to leave full-time residency in Wellfleet, and she plans to return in the summer. Pictured is Rhoda, center, along with board member Grace Hopkins (l) and Registrar Irene Giangregorio…
What Students Have Said About OUW Courses:
"Loved her passion, her great guests, and the film. I learned more than I expected from this excellent teacher"
"I particularly appreciated the open discussion in a risk-free environment and the inclusive ambiance."
"I enjoyed hearing the different perspectives from a high-level discussion."
"Our teacher created a welcoming atmosphere that encouraged comaraderie both in class and at the social time afterward. I appreciated the sense of the group her teaching built."
"The class achieved a perfect balance of mini-lecture and directed discussion, encouraging active engagement."
"Thanks! This was a terrific learning experience!"
Instructors: Aurelia Pabot and Tracey Barry Hunt
Dates: Tuesdays, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10
Time: 4-7pm
Location: Zoom
For four decades during the twentieth century, a group of artists, intellectuals, writers, and thinkers in London, known most commonly as The Bloomsbury Group, challenged the normative Victorian society they lived in by reimagining British culture. With their art, they brought forth Modernism and created a dialogue between Britain and Europe's art and literary worlds. In their personal lives, the Bloomsbury Group lived defiantly and authentically, focusing on gender equality, gender fluidity, as well as redefining domesticity and the confines of traditional marriages. They were described as having lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles.
This course follows key members of the Bloomsbury Group—Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington—and those closest to them, with the aim of understanding and exploring how their art reshaped Victorian culture and how their legacy is still extremely relevant today. Some questions we will be considering: How did the Bloomsbury Group break 'traditional rules'? Why and how does their work remain so important now and what is their legacy today? And what did they try to accomplish by seeing life as art and art as life? Over the course of 4 sessions we will explore the rich and revolutionary artistry the Bloomsbury Group introduced to Britain, and subsequently, the world.