News Archives

Arthur Ross Gallery Presents "Antiquity Recovered: Pompeii and Herculaneum in Philadelphia Collections"

PHILADELPHIA The University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Ross Gallery, 220 S. 34th St., is hosting "Antique Anatolian Carpets: Masterpieces from Philadelphia-Area Collections" from Jan. 21 through April 2.The exhibition is guest-curated by Dennis Dodds, an alumnus of the University and noted Philadelphia collector.

Penn brings the fruits of research to market

In groundbreaking research, a Penn psychologist showed how people can build resistance to depression. Now courses aimed at groups like schools, corporations and health-care organizations teach the technique.

Research gets its own Web site

Everyone at Penn knows it; now it’s time to tell the rest of the world. Research at Penn, an online compendium of research news from across the University, and its companion print publication are sounding the message that Penn is a “research powerhouse,” said Vice President for Communications Lori Doyle.

News briefs

One notch higher The latest U.S.News & World Report rankings of “America’s Best Colleges” were released last Friday, and Penn is in a five-way tie for fourth place among national universities this year, up one position from last year. Joining Penn in fourth place are California Institute of Technology, Duke, MIT and Stanford; Princeton, Harvard and Yale (tied for second) occupy the top spots.

Campus Buzz

Another networking project: Your Buzz correspondent recently caught up with Aaron Levy (C’99), who has been devoting most of his waking hours (and he’s not been sleeping much of late) to launching a new space for the visual arts in University City. The new gallery, located at 4017 Walnut Street, gives his Slought Networks contemporary art project its first physical facility.

School named for great alum

After the Penn-Assisted School became the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School last month, the Current asked what shortcuts people were taking with the name. We asked parent Cathy Gontarek, art director, Pennsylvania Gazette; Nancy Streim, associate dean, Graduate School of Education, and GSE planning coordinator for the school, Ann Kreidle. They all said the Penn Alexander School. Kreidle added, “Or PAS.” School Principal Sheila Sydnor chose no shortcut at all.

Staff Q&A: Tom Devaney

Not too long ago, Tom Devaney found himself in a boring job. And unlike most others who, in the same situation, would’ve trudged through with yawns and droopy eyes, the quiet-spoken Devaney made something out of nothing. He made art. “Letters to Ernesto Neto,” due out this spring from Germ Monographs, is a collection of 28 letters Devaney wrote in 2001 while working as an art gallery guard, protecting an exhibit by Brazillian artist Ernesto Neto. The letters are a snapshot of Devaney’s active mind while working in a less than active job.

Executive workout

Celebration of 150 years at SEAS

The School of Engineering and Applied Science is throwing a two-day birthday party featuring a distinguished engineer and robots duking it out on Penn Commons.The party, set for Sept. 25 and 26 (see “What’s On” for details), marks a century and a half of engineering at Penn. SEAS, founded in 1852 as the School of Mines, Arts and Manufactures, prides itself on both exposing its students to the nuts and bolts of technology in a hands-on fashion and giving students a view of the larger world in which technology operates.

New conductor takes podium

J. Karla Lemon is the new conductor and director of Penn’s Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. Prior to Penn, she waved her baton at Stanford University and conducted the Alea II Ensemble for Contemporary Music. She has also served as principal guest conductor of the Women’s Philharmonic and as principal guest conductor of the new-music ensemble EARPLAY. Lemon brings to the Philadelphia concert stage a unique grasp of both early and new music.