The Arts & History   

Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine abbess, was a true ‘Renaissance’ woman: she composed frisson-worthy music, wrote sophisticated theology, and practiced medicine.  But she is perhaps best known for the flood of mystical visions she experienced as a young child, which she recorded alongside otherworldly illustrations.  Come take a peek inside Hildegard’s fascinating experiences!

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

For students who want to register for all three October History Happy Hour classes at the same time for a combined discounted rate. Series includes:

Start a Tab! Medieval Tavern Life - Wednesday, October 12

Medieval Selfies - Wednesday, October 19 

Potions & Poison Gardens - Wednesday, October 26

To register for individual classes of the series, please click on the class titles above.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

A place for boisterous misbehavior as well as moralizing critique, the tavern was the social center of the medieval city.  In this lecture, we will explore the cultural practices around tavern-going, including what and when medieval people drank, who they might encounter at the bar, and what contemporary writers thought about all of it!

Optional pairing: Leffe (Belgian Pale Ale) https://leffe.com/en 

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

In an age when most people didn’t see their own faces regularly, self-reflection in the form of self-portraiture takes on a whole new meaning.  Rounded out with a look at medieval mirrors (both real and metaphorical), this lecture will consider the medieval “selfie” and how contemporaries immortalized their own faces in art.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Even if witches weren’t brewing cauldrons full of eye-of-newt, medieval people certainly used the substances available to them to concoct all kinds of mixtures—for better or worse!  Come tour through a medieval garden full of plants both perfumed and poisonous, and examine the recipes that have survived the centuries.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Looking under the paint’s surface with the aid of new technologies, enduring mysteries of the art world are being solved and masterpieces are revealing long-held secrets.  One such secret involving Leonardo’s Mona Lisa can finally be put to rest, revealing a second authentic Mona Lisa. We will explore this and other mysteries and discoveries through vividly detailed images and captivating scholarly and forensic work.

The Godfather films continue to fascinate and entertain audiences. They have become some of the most enduring in the industry and have played a major role in influencing audiences' perceptions and misperceptions of criminal activities and family life. This lecture will examine themes of family; organized crime as a metaphor for American capitalism and values; the immigrant experience; and phrases from the film that live on in the contemporary popular lexicon.  It will also explore the background stories of the making of the film -- Mario Puzo’s input, rallies by various Italian groups against the making of the film, difficulties with the studio, and the casting of experienced actors versus Coppola’s choices of relative unknowns. The program will analyze clips from the film and from the documentary The Godfather Legacy for insights into the development, production, and cultural and cinematic legacy of the films.  Cannolis will be served in honor of the film's 50th anniversary.  Come to the class, have a cannoli!

“The Dakota may as well be in the Dakotas!” So they said when the luxury apartment building was put up on the unelectrified 8th Avenue—soon to be renamed Central Park West—across the street from Central Park. Hotels, churches, museums, and more luxury apartment buildings followed in The Dakota’s wake. Learn how this neighborhood of shacks, free-roaming goats, and a community of predominantly African Americans called Seneca Village was taken over to become the exclusive address of the rich and famous.
Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

The impact of the Beatles has been immeasurable. In their seven years as a recording band they not only wrote one great song after the another, but also transformed every aspect of song-writing technique. It's not an exaggeration to say that theirs is the great musical story of the 20th century. This class will explore many aspects of that story: their beginnings in Liverpool as a skiffle band, their roots in early rock and roll, their apprenticeship in Hamburg, and their role as the leading band of the 1960s. We will listen to and analyze a selection of songs spanning their entire career, from their first album, Please Please Me, to their last, Abbey Road, with a focus on song structure, recording techniques, instrumentation, and lyrics.

Along the Hudson River is a place where President Ulysses Grant lies and which Billy Joel once romanticized in “New York State of Mind”: Riverside Drive. Developed later than the luxurious Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, the hilly, curving Riverside Drive runs along Riverside Park (also designed by Central Park’s Frederick Law Olmstead and later Calvert Vaux) and still features architectural beauties like the Schinasi marble home, the Beaux Arts Grant’s Tomb, and the country’s tallest church, Riverside Church. This lecture will explore these landmarks and many more.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Music has an important part to play in the making of a great film. Sometimes, the original score fits perfectly into the tenor of a film, and becomes as much a part of its success as the cinematography, acting, or editing (Psycho, Jaws, Lawrence of Arabia). Other times, just the right song meets just the right scene, and a skilled director can take advantage of existing music (Martin Scorsese’s use of Derek and the Dominos “Layla" in Goodfellas, Stanley Kubrick’s use of Richard Strauss’s "Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' in 2001: A Space Odyssey). Through clips and discussion of various films, we will see how music, used in a variety of ways, can create indelible cinematic moments.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

How did we come to believe that ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture was meant to be colorless? Despite the evidence of color that has been recorded for centuries, most art historians chose to ignore it, and glorified the purity and idealism of ancient forms in white marble. A current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases new research aided with new technologies and colorful reconstructions of ancient art that have been rewriting art history. This lecture is an exploration of ancient Greek and Roman art as it was meant to be: gilded and painted with bright colors and dizzying patterns.

From Manhattan’s oldest surviving church, St. Paul’s (built in 1766), to the city’s largest synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, these and many other historical houses of worship have remained centers of their neighborhoods withstanding changes in their communities, including economic downturns and significant historical events. Listen to the stories behind some of the most well-known houses of worship in Manhattan that are still standing, including the Eldridge Street Synagogue, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the unfinished St. John the Divine.

Please be sure to register by the day before the class at the latest. You will receive an invitation email with a link to join the Zoom meeting. Click here for a tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Christmas: from keeping Christ in it, to carols filling the air at the mall before Thanksgiving, to preserving holiday traditions that link us back to our past – it can all seem a bit chaotic. But what if you were to look at another era when issues like commercialization, piety and preserved traditions were depicted in paintings?  This lecture focuses on the art of 17th-century Flanders and Holland, including works by great masters like Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Pieter Breughel and Jacob Jordaens, and how each artist depicts Christmas and the season with plentitude, piety and parody.

Discover the magnificent Art Deco architecture of Rockefeller Center, view some of its site-specific art installations, and hear the story behind how its annual Christmas tree evolved into a quintessential New York holiday icon.

Developed after the more exclusive Fifth Avenue, Central Park West went from a community of shacks and free-roaming goats to a desirable row of luxury apartment buildings along the west side of Central Park. Journey along this avenue to see how the new turn-of-the-19th-century wealthy lived. We will discuss the famous Dakota built in 1884, the beautiful, double-towered San Remo built in 1930,  churches and synagogues, and the museums that came along the way. During the tour, we'll compare past and present with vintage and contemporary photos.  

This tour will take you along Riverside Drive on Manhattan’s west side—a quiet enclave in contrast to other residential, historical neighborhoods. Enjoy a shady stroll with views of the Hudson River and Riverside Park (designed by Central Park’s Olmstead and Vaux), with stops at Beaux Arts homes and historical structures, including Grant’s Tomb and Riverside Church.