Art Museum Curators and Management

Art museums house the greatest works from artists around the world from classics to modern pop art, without discrimination and open to interpretation. Art museums are debatably one of the most sacred places in society. Any history museum will give details about ancient artifacts or new discoveries; art, however, can change in meaning with each new visitor. Museum curators go beyond the “do not touch” signs with their large key rings opening vaults of worth and beauty. Curators work directly with artists and other museums to resurrect a dying cultural tradition. With the assistance of Valparaiso University’s own Gloria Ruff, Assistant Curator and Registrar, I have had the privilege to get a guided tour of what goes on in a day in the life of a curator. Museums are in decline, maintaining with their heads just above the water. Laws were passed and curriculums changed in higher education so that these houses of culture do not dissipate into the history books

Industries Storm States Over Climate Change

Examines 2003-07 contributions by the energy industry, manufacturers, and pro-business and environmental groups to state-level political campaigns. Analyzes data by contributor, recipient type, state, candidate's incumbency, party, and win-loss status

What we leave behind: poetry, music, and Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney’s death in late summer, 2013, came as a shock and is now a residual sadness. I miss his guidance, his humanity, his humor. Heaney’s presence, through the poems, has been a richly-colored thread connecting each stage of my life—or at least of how I made sense of them. I sometimes think most everything I do is still stitched with his color (the color of a woodland in bloom). . .