Francis Morrone December 2024–January 2025
Hello,
This is just a quick end-of-the-year update to let you know about a couple of recently scheduled lecture series I’ll be doing in December and January.
Beginning Wednesday, December 11, I will be doing “The New Tradition: Architecture in Europe and America 1895–1915” for the 92nd Street Y, by Zoom. This will be four one-hour lectures (which will be recorded for your convenience) on Wednesdays—December 11 and 18 and January 8 and 15—at 3:00. I borrowed the title from a 1929 essay by the great architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock, about what architects were trying to do as they moved out of the Victorian age and groped toward something “modern” (though no one really knew what that meant). Thus, it was a transitional phase. And many of you have heard me say before that I think it’s the transitional phases we like best, when the thing being transitioned from has not yet completely disappeared, and the thing being transitioned to has not yet quite taken shape. The period 1895–1915 (or roughly from the World’s Columbian Exposition to the start of World War I) is one such gloriously transitional period. Lecture 1 will be on “The Legacy of the Arts and Crafts,” and so dovetails neatly with the last series I did at the 92nd Street Y (“From the Arts and Crafts to the Aesthetic Movement”) and will cover, among others, Edwin Lutyens and Frank Lloyd Wright. Lecture 2 will be on “Modern Gothic,” lecture 3 on “Modern Classicism,” and lecture 4 on “Art Nouveau and Beyond.” The series costs $156 ($136 if you’re a member).
For Scarsdale Adult School I will be doing “Italy in America,” a series of five lectures on the influence of Italy on American culture. The lectures will cover architecture, art, Italian immigration and the formation of Italian neighborhoods in U.S. cities, food, and music. This follows the last series I did for Scarsdale Adult School, on “France in America.” This one, however, is more personal. Be advised that we’re trying something different this time: Normally, Scarsdale Adult School allows you to sign up for individual lectures rather than the whole series. I get the appeal of that, but as the lecturer I’ve found it frustrating because I felt I couldn’t refer back to other lectures. So this time we’re going to make it a true series: You have to sign up for all five. The lectures will be by Zoom, and they will be recorded. The dates are Wednesdays, January 8 to February 5, at 1:00. The cost is $150.
That’s it for now. I’ll send another notice sometime in January with my spring 2025 schedule.
I want to thank you all for a great year. It’s rare that someone gets to do exactly what he or she wants for a living, and I would not be able to do it if it weren’t for you. When I say thank you, I truly mean it. And I wish all of you the very best for the holidays and for the new year!
Francis