Dec. 6 -- An Evening with the Moscow Ballet

A special one-time performance of the Moscow Ballet with preferred seating for the International Center's Global Society supporters. Think "Nutcracker" ... it's Christmas



When: December 6 7:00 PM
Where: Murat Centre

For more information, contact Aliya Chaplin at 317/955-5150, X221, or achaplin@icenterindy.org.

Dec. 8 -- "Building Trust" ... the Center on Philanthropy's annual symposium

In these challenging economic times, building and sustaining trust is more important than ever before. National leaders, scholars, and professionals come together for a one-day symposium to learn how nonprofits can cultivate trust, connect with donors and partners, and continue to make an impact.

When: Tuesday December 8, 9:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Where: IUPUI call (317) 278-8932 for details

At the 2009 symposium, you will:

• Learn about the latest Center on Philanthropy research and how you can put it into practice
• Hear how partnerships forged in challenging times yielded impressive results
• Examine how the business, government, and nonprofits can collaborate
• Celebrate two accomplished fundraising professionals and two exceptional nonprofits
• Be inspired in a lecture by Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

See the full agenda.

The whole day is pricy, and space is limited ... Sign up online. Registration costs $250 per person beginning November 8.

An important part of the symposium is free and open to the public:

Indiana Achievement Awards Reception, Ceremony, and Donikian Family Lecture

3:30–6:30 p.m.

This session is complimentary and open to the public, but please register in advance.

Reception

3:30–4:30 p.m.

Indiana Achievement Awards Ceremony and Donikian Family Lecture

4:30–6:30 p.m.

Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will give the Donikian Family Lecture. Co-author of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy, he challenges the nonprofit sector to become more strategic and to create meaningful, measurable impact.

Dec. 8 -- “Right Now It’s Only a Notion: Giving Form to 'Social Enterprise'”

“Social enterprise”— the notion that businesses can be configured to “do well by doing good”—has received a lot of attention, such as Muhammad Yunus' Nobel Peace Prize, speeches by Bill Gates, a recent Papal Encyclical, and Business Week's and Fast Company Magazine's top 25 lists. This presentation identifies essential characteristics of a social enterprise and explains why conventional for-profit and nonprofit organizational law and forms fail to adequately address the distinct challenges confronting the archetypal social enterprise. It also evaluates new and proposed forms and regimes designed to promote social enterprise-like entities.

When: Tuesday December 8, noon to 1:30pm
Where: IUPUI workshops are run concurrently in the Walker II Building conference room 201-B in Indianapolis and SPEA 300 (the Dean's conference room)



Robert Katz joined the law school faculty in the fall of 2001. He holds a joint appointment with the law school and the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy at IUPUI, and is on the Affiliate Faculty of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics. Prior to his appointment, he served as a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. From 1993 to 1997, he was a trial attorney with the Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He also served as executive director of a charitable foundation in Massachusetts.

Professor Katz’s research interests include legal issues relating to nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, charitable giving, healthcare organizations, and the recovery and processing of donated human tissue for use in transplantation. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as comment editor for the University of Chicago Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, formerly Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Dec. 9 -- "A Theology of American Exceptionalism? Iraq, Civil Religion and American Public Morality"

Raymond J. Haberski, Jr., Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair Department of History and Social Science at Marian University.


When: Wednesday December 9, cocktails 5:45, dinner 6:30
Where: Woodstock Club

Ray Haberski, associate professor of History, has a Ph.D. in history from Ohio University. He teaches courses in United States history, including subfields in intellectual, contemporary, Catholic, and movie culture. He co-directs the U.S. track of the History program.

As of August 2009, Dr. Haberski will also serve as chair of the History and Social Science Department.

Dr. Haberski has written three books, including, It's Only a Movie (2001), Freedom to Offend (2007), and with Laura Wittern Keller, The Miracle Case (2008). He is at work on a book tentatively entitled, The god That Never Failed: Civil Religion and Postwar America for the series "Ideas in Action" at Rutgers University Press.

For the 2008-2009 academic year, Dr. Haberski was the Fulbright Danish Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the Center for the Study of the Americas (CSA) at the Copenhagen Business School. He is an associate of both the CSA and IUPUI's Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.

Dec. 9 -- The Social Event of the Season ... MidWest/MidEast Friendship Dinner

Dec. 27 — Jan. 9, a group of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Hoosiers will make a trip to the Middle East. Their purpose: to identify potential opportunities for Indiana groups to partner with groups in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank in order to help solve the region's toughest problems. The group will meet with groups working in Iraqi refugee camps in Jordan, strengthening in schools in Bethlehem, and fostering Muslim-Christian dialogue in Jerusalem.

And you can be part of it.

All the expenses for the group are covered, so 100% of what is raised December 9 will be delivered directly to the organizations engaged in vital work in the region. It will be our way of demonstrating that we want to be part of the search for solutions.

Looking for a unique holiday gift? In the name of one of your friends, family members, or co-workers, donate money to one of the organizations with which we will be partnering ... we'll send you a certificate describing the purpose of the MidEast/MidWest trip, and explaining why the group receiving the donation is so important.

Your chance to be part of this initiative goes beyond donating money to innovative and essential groups. Follow the trip's blog at http://midwestmideastpartnership.blogspot.com/. Look for opportunities for your congregation, school or club to form a partnership with groups in the MidEast. Join one of the several trips to the region in 2010. Attending the MidEast/MidWest Friendship Dinner on December 9 can be a step toward being part of something truly special.

To research a seat or (even better!) purchase a table, please RSVP to Charlie McDonald at charlie@mcdiii.com.

Dec. 10 -- A talk with artist Josephine Meckseper

New York-based artist Josephine Meckseper has gained international renown for her conceptually based works that employ a variety of media to raise questions about the connections between consumerism and politics in contemporary society. In this talk, Meckseper discusses her diverse body of works, including her two recent films on display in the Carmen and Mark Holeman Video Gallery from October 16, 2009 to February 7, 2010.


When: Thursday December 10, 6:00 PM
Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art, DeBoest Lecture Hall

Free, ticket required

About this exhibit, from Art Daily

Meckseper’s films synthesize many of the core issues that she has explored through her works in other media, using imagery appropriated from advertising and documentary footage to create challenging and aesthetically compelling works. The IMA’s presentation of Meckseper’s work is distinguished from prior shows by its exclusive focus on her work in film. Alternately displayed on opposite walls of the gallery, this pair of works will represent contrasting visual strategies one filmed black-and-white with intense sound, the other saturated by color with an unobtrusive soundtrack—and intends to promote a dialogue about the connections between politics and consumerism in contemporary life.

“What I find so riveting about Josephine Meckseper’s films is the way they are so visually seductive on one hand, yet they also represent a penetrating critique of the way we operate as consumers and citizens,” says Allison Unruh, assistant curator of contemporary art. “Meckseper takes contexts with which we are all familiar, such as television commercials and shopping malls, and prompts us to see them in a new light. It is especially exciting to be exhibiting these recent films now, because they raise a lot of provocative questions that relate to pressing issues such as the financial crisis and the war in Iraq.”

As Josephine Meckseper states, “I am deliberately confronting the indeterminacy produced by a consumer society on its own terms. My work is informed by a Marxist analysis of how capitalism dictates an inequitable imbalance of power down to the form of commercial products. I look for cultural and sociological end points as a platform from which to invert the semantics of propaganda to create a sense of ‘defascination’ in the viewer. My recent film 0% Down, made with found car commercials, negates the manipulative force of advertising by exposing the potential for violence in these products.”

0% Down (2008, video, black and white, sound, 6 minutes) examines present-day society’s intoxication with speed, power, novelty and transformation. To highlight the hyperbolic character of car commercials created for an American market, Meckseper carefully edits excerpts from these advertisements and sets them to Boyd Rice’s industrial soundtrack declaring “Total War.” Images of slick cars speeding through the desert, squaring off with oil rigs and fighter jets, illuminate the connections between the oil and auto industries and warfare in Iraq. The title 0% Down ironically mimics a commercial come-on, while simultaneously making reference to the recent credit crisis and economic meltdown in which the automobile industry has been a major player.

Mall of America (2009, video, color, sound, 12:52 minutes) represents a portrait of the culture of consumption in the United States. The camera meanders through the cavernous spaces of this Minnesota mega-mall, a universe unto itself as it offers almost every conceivable type of shop, attraction and service. Meckseper applies colored filters to abstract and de-familiarize common scenes of store window displays, strolling shoppers and surrounding architecture, and employs electronic music to create a dream-like and surrealistic atmosphere. Reality and heroic fantasy are intertwined in a scene of a U.S. military recruiting station housed in the mall, where mannequins dressed in fatigues and goggles advertise a life of adventure and action to recruits. The camera zooms into view of a military recruitment video in which mock battles are waged, before returning to the routine activities of mall shoppers. In this work, the terrain of the mall is emblematic of our culture and its inevitable connections to global conflict.

Dec. 13 -- Las Posadas

In Mexico a beloved holiday tradition is that of Las Posadas, a celebration that commemorates Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging in Bethlehem. (Posada means “inn” or “shelter” in Spanish.) Celebrate it downtown and on the canal

When and Where: Sunday, December 13, 2009
4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street. Enjoy crafts, movies, a piñata-making demonstration, and a “pastorela” by Christ Church Cathedral.
5:30 p.m. Canal procession of peregrinos begins; enjoy student-created art projects sponsored by the Indianapolis Art Center and IMCPL.
6 to 8 p.m. at Eiteljorg Museum, 500 West Washington Street Listen to festive music, enjoy ponche and snacks, and break piñatas

Family and friends gather and reenact Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter by carrying lit candles, singing special songs and following figures of Mary and Joseph that are carried aloft in a procession. When these pilgrims, or peregrinos, reach predetermined stops, they divide into two groups. One half of the group begs for shelter, while the other half refuses them. At the last stop, usually someone’s home, the doors are opened in greeting and a grand celebration begins where families break piñatas, drink ponche and eat treats.

Join the Indiana Historical Society, Eiteljorg Museum, Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis – Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis Art Center, Consulate of Mexico in Indianapolis, and Indiana Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs to celebrate this festive family tradition.

Dec. 13 -- Fran and Aimee Kandrac, founders of “What Friends Do”, on Being a Friend

Fran and Aimee Kandrac, founders of “What Friends Do”, will speak about their journey to enable everyone to help people in need throughout the world.

When: Sunday December 13 9:30 AM
Where: Second Presbyterian Church 7700 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46260 ... directions here

Part of the "Fall 2009 Faith in Action Series" at 2nd Pres ... put together by Elder Jim Lemons and Rev. Carol Johnston.

Why should you attend this event? Who'd have thought friends need a support group ... but they do.

If you think this event sounds interesting, be sure to check out … Jeffery Zaslow when he reads his book of 10 women's remarkable friendships, The Girls from Ames November 14, and the "speaking of Women's Health" conference August 28 has a keynote speech on "The Ordinary Miracle of Friendship"

Know before you go ... Read about What Friends Do here

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Stephanie, Fran and Aimee Kandrac (from left to right), in memory of Stephanie's friend Laura Crawley, launched a movement to help friends rally around a loved one going through cancer. "][/caption]

Dec. 13 -- Sen. Lugar on "America and the World: A View from the Senate"

A tour of the globe with mega-statesman Se. Richard Lugar

When: Sunday December 13, 7:00 PM
Where: Marian University, Civic Theatre

Free and open to the public.

Why should you attend this event? Even though he is far from the most magnetic speaker in American politics, when Sen. Lugar talks it is riveting. Without notes he will take the audience on a tour of the most troubled spots in world, offering nuanced analyses and realistic solutions. It is an impressive show.

If you think this event sounds interesting, be sure to check out … See the Senator at the Lugar Collegiate Energy Summit September 16. The public conversation between Lee Hamilton (one of Sen. Lugar's only competitors for title of "America's greatest statesman") and his brother Rev. Richard Hamilton on October 8

So what's going on at this event? Richard Lugar is a longstanding advocate of U.S. global leadership, free-trade, and a strong national defense. A Rhodes Scholar and former presidential candidate, he has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in reducing the stockpile of nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. A fifth generation Hoosier and the longest serving U.S. senator in Indiana history, he is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This is an experience that no one should miss. This talk should be a reality check of sorts for many of the discussions happening around Indianapolis this spring. Sen. Lugar probably represents the best combination of power and thoughtfulness we are likely to see in the Senate. That doesn't mean we should limit our ambitions only to what the Senator thinks is realistic ... it means that when he says a course of action is not realistic, we may have to make it happen ourselves, without waiting for the government in DC to do it for us.

Dec. 15 -- Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard University

Marty Feldstein has been noted as one of the top 10 economists in the world. Feldstein's rare skill set generates bi-partisan demand for the former chief economic advisor to President Reagan.


When: Tuesday December 15 noon to 1:30 PM
Where: Indiana Convention Center 100 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46225

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Dr. Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University, has served both Presidents G.W. Bush and Barak Obama on top advisory boards. As a long time Harvard professor, his former students include some of the most powerful players in modern economic policy. He is an advocate for social security reform, a board member of numerous organizations (including Eli Lilly) and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and other publications. While other economists hedged their bets, Feldstein went on record and identified the U.S. as being in a recession two years ago. His expertise and advice on weathering the storm is regularly sought by governments and organizations both domestically and abroad.

Dec. 17 -- "Santa Claus is coming to town," and he's visiting poor Latino kids

The 9th “Santa Comes to Town” Christmas charity event provides personal care products, medical items, education and legal services to over 1,400 families. Toys will be distributed to 5,000 children (age 1-9) during this full day event.


When: December 17th 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: Indiana State Fairgrounds in the Toyota Blue Ribbon Pavilion

According to the Census, the Latino population is the fastest growing ethnic group in Indianapolis. They are also most likely to live in poverty.

Dec. 22 -- Richard Gunderman discusses "Jesus as Healer"

Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Education and Philosophy at IU, teacher at the Center on Philanthropy and author of several books including “We Make a Life by What We Give”, is considered to be a wonderful humanitarian and philosopher who writes and speaks with beautiful and unique insights.

When: Sunday December 22 9:30 AM
Where: Second Presbyterian Church 7700 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46260


Part of the "Fall 2009 Faith in Action Series" at 2nd Pres ... put together by Elder Jim Lemons and Rev. Carol Johnston.

Why should you attend this event? Gunderman is good, a person of substance as well as a fine communicator.

March 6 — "Mind the Gap" at the Harrison Center's First Friday

The Harrison Center brings together entrepreneurial artists and educators in the new exhibit, Mind the Gap. This group show creates a public conversation relating to the education achievement gap

When: Friday, March 6, 6 to 10pm

Where: Harrison Center for the Arts 1505 N. Delaware Street Indianapolis, IN 46202

Admission Free

"Mind the Gap" includes the work of Herron School of Art's faculty members Anila Agha, Flounder Lee, Jennie Mynhier and Lesley Baker and the Harrison Center’s Artur Silva. Just as the educational issues surrounding the achievement gap will require new and innovative solutions, these five artists will explore new ways to communicate these issues. The work in this show was created to address problems facing Indianapolis with art made specifically for this time and place, but the topics explored are relevant to cities all over the country.

In order to bring further awareness to this timely issue, two of the artists will create work to be displayed off-site – a first for the Harrison Center. A mural by Artur Silva will be on display at IPL's headquarters in the window facing Monument Circle and the work of Flounder Lee will be featured in the Market Street window of Brenner Design.

Across from the gallery: Learn more about the work of The Mind Trust’s Education Entrepreneur Fellows. Fellowship projects represented include the Youth Music Exchange (Dr. Michael Bitz), Teach Plus (Dr. Celine Coggins), Summer Advantage USA (Mr. Earl Martin Phalen) and Global Citizen Year (Ms. Abigail Falik).

I Heart Lung performs at 8pm.

In Gallery No. 2 - La Temporadas de un Granjero (The Seasons of a Farmer) - new work by Herron School of Art and Design photography student, Sam Jones.

In Hank & Dolly’s Gallery – Hyperlinx - installation by Shannon Hinkle and Emily Elling.

The artwork hangs through March 28, 2008.

Also that night, wander the Harrison Center ’s 21 artist studios. Harrison Center studio artists: Allison Ford, Karla Becker, Amy Falstrom, Pete Gall, Elizabeth Guipe Hall, Kyle Herrington, Lisa Fett, Shannon Hinkle, Toni Hook, Mary Beth Jackson, Matt Kenyon, Carl Leck, Kim Lohr, Jennifer Meuninck, Tyler Meuninck, Elizabeth Nelson, Kipp Normand, Jude Odell, Emma Overman, Quincy Owens, Kyle Ragsdale, William A. Rasdell, Amy Reel, Artur Silva, Carolyn Springer, Shadi Zakhour.

For more information, visit www.harrisoncenter.org.

About The Mind Trust
The Mind Trust's mission is to dramatically improve public education for underserved students by empowering education entrepreneurs to develop or expand transformative education initiatives. To achieve this mission, The Mind Trust has two strategies: (1) a nationally unique Education Entrepreneur Fellowship that serves as an incubator for transformative education ventures; and (2) a Venture Fund to recruit to Indianapolis the nation’s most successful entrepreneurial education initiatives. For more information, visit www.themindtrust.org.

March 6-7 — Shaping the New Century: A Two-Day International Design Symposium

This is a major deal. An international symposium on recent European industrial and decorative design with a special strand for graduate and undergraduate design students.

When: Friday March 6 and Saturday March 7
Where: Indianapolis Museum of Art

Join designers, critics, scholars, manufacturers, dealers and students for a lively examination of the present and future of European decorative and industrial design in a program conceived by R. Craig Miller, the IMA Curator of Design Arts. Explore the aesthetic and conceptual ideas that have transcended national boundaries from 1985 onward, forging the international design scene we experience today. Meet a variety of leading figures in European design from multiple generations and be among the first in the world to see the exhibition European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century. The evolution of contemporary design will be discussed and examined in four sessions focusing on creating, manufacturing, judging, and marketing design.

The exhibition and symposium present a new lens through which to view the design scene from the late twentieth century to the present. Both the exhibition and the symposium promise to redefine two major movements—Modernism and Postmodernism—which have largely shaped European design during the last two decades.

Not free, but worth the bucks. Get a full agenda here.

March 8 — The Art of Healing: Where Healthcare and Creativity Blend

Wishard Hospital is home to more than state-of-the-art healthcare. In 1914 Indiana’s leading artists worked together to create murals that would lift the spirits of the patients at City (now Wishard) Hospital.

When: Sunday March 8, 2:30 PM

Where: Myers Auditorium, Wishard Memorial Hospital 1001 West 10th St.

Free.

Hear Dean Craig Brater of the IU School of Medicine, Dr. Larry Cripe, oncologist at the IU Simon Cancer Center, and cancer survivor Jan Lucas-Grimm discuss how art facilitates healing by engaging an emotional response which can relieve stress and re-focus the mind. A brief tour of the 1914 murals follows the discussion.

Related exhibition at IMA: Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals in IMA's Alliance Gallery

In 1914, a group of renowned Hoosier artists painted murals for the benefit of patients at Wishard Memorial Hospital (then known as City Hospital). The IMA conservation department has been working to bring these murals back to their original condition since 2004, when they conserved a painting by Indiana African American artist William Edouard Scott. Since then, the conservation of several works by such Indiana artists as T. C. Steele, Clifton Wheeler, J. Ottis Adams and Wayman Adams has been completed. The exhibition includes a cleaned work by T. C. Steele, along with before and during treatment photographs, and a Carl Graf painting divided into partially cleaned and fully cleaned surfaces.

March 6 — Learn about the vital topic of “Religious Trends in China Today and their Social and Political Implications”

When: Friday March 6, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Where: IUPUI room 2115-E in the University Library.

The China Studies Workgroup, the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, the Institute for Research on Social Issues and the School of Liberal Arts present:

"Religious Trends in China Today and their Social and Political Implications"

Dr. Fenggang Yang, Director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University will give a presentation on "Religious Trends in China Today and their Social and Political Implications" on the IUPUI campus.

Dr. Fenggang Yang is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society (CRCS) at Purdue University. He received his BA from Hebei Normal University (Shijiazhuang, China) in 1982, MA from Nankai University (Tianjin, China) in 1987, and Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC) in 1997. His sociological research has focused on religious change in China and immigrant religions in the United States. He is the author of Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, Assimilation, and Adhesive Identities (Penn State University Press 1999), the co-editor (with Tony Carnes) of Asian American Religions: The Making and Remaking of Borders and Boundaries (New York University Press 2004), and the co-editor (with Joseph B. Tamney) of State, Market, and Religions in Chinese Societies (Brill Academic Publishers 2005) and Conversion to Christianity among the Chinese (a special issue of the Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review, 2006). His articles have been published in books and in the American Sociological Review, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, Amerasia Journal, Journal of Asian American Studies, the Sociological Quarterly, and Asia Policy, including one that won the "2002 Distinguished Article Award" of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion ("Transformations in New Immigrant Religions and Their Global Implications") and one that won "2006 Distinguished Article Award" of the American Sociological Association’s Section of the Sociology of Religion ("The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China"). His current research focuses on the political economy of religion in China, Christian ethics and market transition in China, faith and trust among business people in China, and Chinese Christian churches in the United States. He has given many invited lectures at major universities in the United States and China, has given invited presentations at major think-tanks, and has been interviewed by the Washington Post, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, etc. and some newspapers in Asia.

For more information contact Wan-Ning Bao at 317-274-2665.

March 7 — If you are an IUPUI alum, or can pretend to be one, learn about "Homicide Investigation: From Crime Scene to Court"

A crime has been committed! Put on your detective hat and join in a morning of investigation. Learn from the experts how forensic evidence can make or break a case. Join alumni, reconnect with classmates, and make new friends as you interact with faculty from across campus for sessions following an investigation from crime scene to courtroom.

When: Sat. March 07 7:30 AM - 1:45 PM
Where: University Place Conference Center

Sounds like an interesting program.Find out details here.

March 8 — Celebrate International Women's Day

An event for: Men and women who have been impacted by women and concerned about women's issues locally and globally.

When: Sunday, March 8th, 2-3 pm
Where: Trinity Church
Come be a part of women from around the world sharing their most urgent needs and passions here and abroad.

• Look: Photography of women by Katie Basbagill http://www.bohemianredimages.com/
• Listen: Spoken Word, Music and Poetry of Women
• Speak: Share your story and plight for yourself and others
• Eat: Light refreshments provided

Questions? give them to Elise Vestal, ServLife International, and UN World Food Program IN Coordinator elise@servlife.org