Colby Magazine

Into the Forests of Gondar

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Colby researchers plumb the secrets of Ethiopia's ancient "church forests"

For Colby and the Lunders, a Bold Stroke

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Related: For Lunder Collection: A New Home Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, recalls a time when Peter and Paula Lunder began to wonder about the ultimate purpose of their growing collection of American art. Prices were skyrocketing, and the Lunders were questioning whether this was where they should be devoting their resources. “When they settled on the idea of donating everything to the Colby museum, at that point it was suddenly okay,” Broun said. “They went from collecting good but not great works, when they thought it was just for their own purpose, to collecting the best of the best of the best when they knew it was all going to Colby.” The destination for the Lunders’ collection was made official in 2007, but the couple had settled on Colby years before. And that decision led the Lunders to change their purpose from acquiring art that would hang in their homes to art that would benefit Colby students, faculty, and the state of Maine. The result? One of the largest and most important collections of the works of James McNeill Whistler in the world. Addition of contemporary sculpture to a collection that already included some of the most renowned works of the 19th century. The most important works of specific artists, including Winslow Homer, John LaFarge, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Jacob Miller, and Joseph Mozier, among many others, curators say. “They not only found great paintings and examples of the artists’ work but also works that stand for the bigger moments in the overall story of the country,” Broun said. “It’s a spectacular broad view of all the best artists in America and what they tell us about how we became the country we are today.” Choosing the signposts of that story is a challenging task. The Lunders cultivated an enormous network of conservators, curators, scholars, and other advisors across the country. Because of their reputation as discerning collectors with considerable resources, the Lunders are sought out by dealers and art auction houses and are constantly being presented with opportunities to buy important works. “They probably see ninety percent of everything that’s on the American art market,” Broun said. “It’s kind of an honor to get picked to be in the Lunder Collection.” And while there are art buyers who make decisions solely on recommendations from experts, the Lunders are known as discerning and educated collectors. “I think they both have a very skilled eye,” said Sharon Corwin, the Carolyn Muzzy Director of the Colby College Museum of Art. “They are both extremely knowledgeable.” And they are devoted to Colby and the state of Maine. Broun, who has known the Lunders for years, describes them as “modest people who aren’t seeking any benefits for themselves.” Rather, she said, everything they do is intended to benefit Colby and the state. In that way, the Lunder Collection and the Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion are gifts made not just to Colby but to the state as a whole. “For them to be able to give it to a place like Colby, where it would have such an impact on the teaching that happens here but also be a resource for the rest of the state—they win on both fronts,” Corwin said. The quality of the collection, the spaces, the new facility elevate the Colby museum to the forefront of college art museums in the country, she said. That is especially remarkable because the Colby Museum of Art is only 54 years old. It has grown thanks to a host of dedicated supporters, she said. “[The museum] has a really deep history of visionaries and generosity,” Corwin said, “and Peter and Paula are very much part of that.” —Gerry Boyle ’78

For Lunder Collection: A New Home

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Extraordinary works of American art to be centerpiece for Colby and state of Maine

Game Changer

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Todd McGovern played on

In Their Footsteps, 1914-1963

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Three wars, a devastating economic depression, and creation of a new campus from scratch: during the years 1914-1963 Colby was up to the challenge.

Colby Leads Way to Net Zero Emissions

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Colby\'s biomass heating plant, completed in 2012, substantially cut the College’s emissions. When it comes to carbon-neutral campuses, 668 colleges and universities have signed the pledge. On April 4 Colby became the first among NESCAC, Ivy, and comparable colleges to achieve net zero carbon emissions. Colby is the fourth in the nation and the largest institution to reach the goal to date, according to David Hales, president of the nonprofit Second Nature, which supports the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and its 668 signatories. The achievement was a decade in the making, as Colby worked to calculate, reduce, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions. A tradition of Yankee thrift has made energy efficiency projects a priority at Colby for many years. Cogeneration of electricity at the steam plant started in the late 1990s, and energy improvements have been part of renovations since the Arab oil crisis 40 years ago. Having switched to sustainably generated electricity contracts 10 years ago, the College came within striking distance of net-zero carbon emissions after its new biomass fueled heating plant became operational last year. Though the plant wasn’t running at full capacity as systems were tested and adjusted, Colby purchased 700,000 fewer gallons of oil in 2012 than in previous years, according to Director of Physical Plant Patricia Whitney. While there is some disagreement whether sustainably harvested biomass is “carbon neutral” or “carbon lean,” Colby used national standards established by the nonprofit Clean Air-Cool Planet for calculating carbon emissions and then hired an independent firm to check and confirm methodology and calculations. Both the College’s analysis and that of Competitive Energy Services of Portland agreed that after all the measures to reduce emissions, the College still produces about 8 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. The biggest source is transportation—both employee and student commuting and business travel by employees. The final piece of achieving carbon neutrality was purchasing carbon offsets—investing in greenhouse gas reduction projects elsewhere in Maine and the United States that countervail Colby’s remaining emissions. Those offsets, which invest in projects including preventing methane from going into the atmosphere at the Presque Isle landfill for example, cost $50,000. That amount is more than covered by fuel cost savings of biomass and is expected to decline as Colby continues to reduce emissions. Vice President for Administration Doug Terp ’84 said shifting from oil to biomass saved Colby $1.2 million in the first year. And, he told employees in April, “instead of spending a couple million dollars that goes out of the state of Maine, and much of it out of the United States, the bulk of our fuel purchases now, on the heating side, are going back into the woods of Maine, which is supporting the local economy.” For additional information on Colby’s carbon neutrality, including answers to frequently asked questions, see www.colby.edu/carbonneutral.

Steinem Connects With Activism at Colby

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Ms. magazine cofounder Gloria Steinem spoke to a packed house in Lorimer Chapel. Famed activist and political figure Gloria Steinem spoke to a packed Lorimer Chapel Feb. 28, the same day Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act. She served as the keynote speaker of S.H.O.U.T!, a week of multicultural celebration organized by the Pugh Community Board. Steinem took passage of the act earlier that day as a point from which to jump into a discussion of the need to think closely about our connections with people, the effects our actions have, and the current state of the feminist movement. Steinem, who came to prominence in the late Sixties after she published an article titled “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation,” referenced the 1970 takeover of Lorimer Chapel by 18 African-American students as she spoke about the shared efforts and effects of diverse activisms. The argument that feminism is no longer relevant to young people is a myth, she said. Women and men have different patterns of activism, and the more that women “experience life, the more likely we are to be activists.” Framing activist movements as struggles to first establish an identity and then achieve equality, Steinem said that while the feminist movement’s identity is firmly established, it remains for young people, such as those before her in Lorimer Chapel, to continue the work of gaining equality. Those efforts, she said, are only half complete, and finishing them requires careful consideration of our relationships with one another. \"The act of behaving ethically is understanding that everything we do matters,\" she said. \"The means we choose every day will form the ends we get.\"

Adoration of the Autobots

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Gift Ntuli ’14, Adoration of the Autobots, 2012, screenprint, 10\" x 8\".

Where There Now is a Campus, There Once Were Farms

web@colby.edu (Colby College) — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 UTC

Editor’s note: Professor Charles Ferguson (Associate Professor of French, emeritus) spent 28 years in classrooms on the Colby campus before retiring in 1995. In 2008 he took a very different look at Mayflower Hill—the pastoral land that preceded Colby’s move from downtown Waterville. What was there? Who farmed the fields that now are Colby’s sprawling lawns? Where were the houses that existed before Colby stately brick buildings? MAYFLOWER HILL BEFORE COLBY By Charles Ferguson In the fall of 2008 I began looking into the land Colby acquired in 1931 as the site for its new campus. Starting with Ernest Marriner\'s History of Colby College (1962) and Earl Smith\'s Mayflower Hill (2006), I then looked through the documents and pictures covering the new campus in Special Collections, Miller Library. Once I\'d seen something of the Hill as it was before 1931, I sent an inquiry to the Morning Sentinel, and on December 8 it was published: I\'m seeking records of what Mayflower Hill looked like when it was farmland rising past \"Maple Court\" up to \"Beefsteak Grove.\" If you have memories of the families who once lived on the Hill -- reminiscences, souvenirs, snapshots -- I would much appreciate hearing from you. Thanks in advance for your replies. Charles FergusonEast Vassalboroc_fergus@fairpoint.net Several persons responded to my query (one phoned the morning it appeared), and thanks to their recollections and guidance I have been able sketch out this description of the Hill as it was on March 30, 1931, when a dozen parcels of land were deeded to \"the President and Trustees of Colby College.\" Read the story of early Mayflower Hill >

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