Heather Davis

The Curtis Organ is not your church’s organ. . It’s a grand, lush instrument with 161 sets of pipes—10,731 pipes in all—that can mimic the swells of an orchestra, the blare of loud trumpets and yes, even the strains of a church organ.

Institute of Contemporary Art Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner once put on a show in New York about people who want everything—those who collect material possessions to try to fill their lives. Now, she’s launched a show about nothing.

It’s not every venue that will take a chance on a local hip-hop act with no national following, an experimental ambient music series and a forum from the African People’s Solidarity Committee. Of course, the Rotunda is hardly every venue.

STAFF Q & A/Tom Waldman wears two hats—medieval scholar and fundraiser. Tom Waldman’s first job at the University was as bibliographer of rare books and manuscripts, a logical choice for someone who had studied medieval history at Columbia and Oxford. It wasn’t until a few years later that he discovered his skill at fundraising.

With few new stars being formed, will the twinkling lights above our heads soon disappear into the night sky?

Folklorist Nick Spitzer C’72’s melodic baritone hints at the places he’s lived. There’s a touch of New Orleans twang by way of Texas, and a quickness of speech that blends the cadences of Philadelphia and his hometown of Old Lyme, Connecticut. So, it’s only fitting that each week on WHYY-FM, it’s Spitzer’s richly toned voice that leads listeners on a musical journey around the country.

If you hear the word “rhythm” in the same sentence as “Dr. Ruth,” you may be more inclined to think about sex than music. But judging from her latest book, “Musically Speaking: A Life Through Song” (Penn Press, 2004), renowned psychosexual therapist Ruth K. Westheimer is just as eager to discuss songs as sexuality.

With characteristic wry humor and eloquence, art critic Robert Hughes, standing before a packed Irvine Auditorium on April 7, argued that the work of Spanish painter Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes still speaks with urgency, even 175 years after his death.

STAFF Q&A/The woman in charge of selling the Penn brand to the world didn’t realize she had a familiar face—until… “We all have the ability to reaffirm and strengthen Penn’s position.”

Even if you’re not a film buff, a stargazer or a hipster, Penn’s neighborhood will definitely be the place to be from April 8 to 21. That’s because this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival is using West Philadelphia as its hub, bringing screenings to neighborhood theaters, visitors to the Inn at Penn and, hopefully, increased foot traffic to the campus.