NBC’s Today show featured Colgate University’s gift of 119 indigenous artworks to Curtin University in Western Australia.
Watch the segment below, or visit the Today Show page.
Please visit this link to read the full story.
Read the full remarks by Provost Douglas Hicks at the Curtin University transfer ceremony.
Here is a slideshow of the art.
(Editor’s Note: Remarks by Douglas A. Hicks, provost and dean of faculty, at the transfer of art ceremony held at the Center for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University, in Perth, Australia, on May 8, 2013.)
Vice Chancellor Hacket, distinguished government officials, faculty and staff at Curtin and Colgate universities, and honored colleagues from Western Australia and the Noongar boodja:
Watch Colgate students Sebastian Sagramoso Haley ’15, Fareeza Islam ’14, Hugo Fausto Torres-Fetsco ’15, Sara DiMassimo ’14, and Saliha Moore ’14, put up drywall, spackle, paint, sand, and decorate an old barn, transforming it into a center of discovery at a local day-care center in this short video documentary by Torres-Fetsco.
The students, as part of biology professor Krista Ingram’s Community-based Study of Environmental Issues course this semester, converted part of a barn behind the Chenango Nursery School into a hands-on nature center designed to spark the curiosity of preschoolers.
“The whole idea behind the course is that the students do projects in the community,” Ingram said. “The amount of work they put in was absolutely phenomenal … they did a lot of research on New York state standards for what teachers would be looking for at different age groups, and they looked at other nature centers in the area. There’s sensory tables and stuffed animals. There’s a way of using what children love to help them understand science.”
I gave my torch medal to Patty because I became very close to her family through tutoring her son Colby, and they have always been very welcoming to me. I love seeing her and her family around campus, and I know that I will always have a connection to this region because of them. — Becca Friedland ’13 (Potomac, MD) speaking about her torch medal recipient, Sodexo’s Patty VanVoorhis
Olympic coaches might not earn medals, but Colgate’s world-class mentors do.
The Konosioni Honor Society, in partnership with the Office of Alumni Relations, started a new tradition in 2013, asking members of the senior class to award torch medals to individuals who had the single greatest impact on their Colgate experiences.
This 1949 painting by Reynold Hart is called “A Native Corroboree.” It is one of the 119 indigenous artworks going from Colgate to Curtin University in Western Australia.
In an important example of international, cultural, and educational collaboration, Colgate University will give 119 indigenous artworks to Curtin University in Western Australia. The works, a significant part of the heritage and history of the region, were created by Noongar children who were part of Australia’s “Stolen Generations.” Read more
Tony Aveni, Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies, teaches a class in the Ho Science Center.
Professor Anthony Aveni has a lot to celebrate.
As students mark their last week of the spring semester, the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies marks the conclusion of his 100th semester teaching at Colgate.
“[It’s meant to] allow everyone to listen to how others interpreted the sound art, how they experienced this exhibit and created their own work,” said Wenhua Shi, assistant professor of art and art history at Colgate, who co-curated the exhibition with Dajuin Yao, artist and director of Open Media Lab at the China Academy of Art. Read more
Isaac van Ostade (Dutch, 1621-1649), “Peasants at a Doorway [Country Inn].”
The newly acquired paintings are from the Max Oberlander collection, and include works by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Brouwer, Ryckaert, and van Ostade.
The exhibition, which also draws on the Picker’s permanent collection of works from the 15th to 17th centuries, seeks to place the new acquisitions in the broader context of how we understand art by the Old Masters, according to Oliver.
The exhibition is the culmination of her extensive research on objects in the Picker’s collection that were produced before 1800. Read more
Dan Epstein, Colgate assistant professor of political science, was interviewed on the New England Cable Network (NECN) and was asked about any possible ties between the Boston Marathon bombing suspects and Chechnya extremist groups.
Read more
“Did you hear the one about the new restaurant NASA is building on the moon? It has great food but no …”
This was the kind of question asked of undergraduates during Physpardy, the “geekiest of competitions” (according to Professor Enrique Galvez) that was held at the annual Rochester Symposium for Physics Students. 
Colgate placed second in the Jeopardy knockoff, competing against college teams from Houghton, Rochester, West Point, SUNY, and Siena.
A student works with laser experiments in Prof. Kiko Galvez’s physics lab in Colgate’s Robert H.N. Ho Science Center. (photo 2008)
The Colgate contingent was led by physics professors Enrique Galvez and Ken Segall. Galvez brought the juniors Carrie Brurgess ’14, Fiora Cheng ’14, Brett Ross ’14 to talk about quantum optics. Segall led seniors Matt Brunetti ’13, Sean Guo ’13, and Ryan Freeman ’13, to talk about their research in physics.
“I was really impressed with the research being done by undergraduates at other universities,” said Freeman, “but I have to say that I really think that Colgate’s undergraduate research stands out.” He said that is likely due to absence of graduate students at the university, who would likely draw the attention of professors.
“We, as undergraduates, are a more integral part of the research being done here,” Freeman said.
Galvez, a leader in the field of teaching quantum mechanics, was recently featured in a Scientific American roadshow.
Other questions at the event included:
In the category Alphabet: “Speed of light in a vacuum.”
In the category Newton’s gravity: “The number of “g’s” you’d experience if you’re on a planet with half the earth’s radius and half its mass.”
In the comment field, add your answers — in the form of questions of course.
