Events & exhibitions
event • Radcliffe Day

Radcliffe Day 2013

  • Friday, May 31, 2013
    10:30 AM ET
  • Radcliffe Yard
    10 Garden Street
    Cambridge, MA 02138
Speech by Jane Alexander at Radcliffe Day 2013
Photo by Tony Rinaldo

On Radcliffe Day 2013, hundreds of alumnae/i, fellows, and friends gather to celebrate the arts with a morning panel that unites leaders across the visual arts, writing, music, and theater.

The panel will be immediately followed by the annual Radcliffe Day lunch, featuring an address by Jane Alexander, who is being honored as an individual whose life and work have significantly and positively influenced society.

Past Radcliffe Days have featured leaders in their fields, including the feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem; the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor; and the renowned novelist and critic Margaret Atwood.

Biographies

Panelists: "From Artist to Audience"

Diane Paulus '88 is the artistic director at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) and a professor of the practice of theater in Harvard University’s English department. At the A.R.T., her groundbreaking work—including The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and Prometheus Bound—has transformed the audience experience.

The poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher Elizabeth Alexander RI '08 composed the renowned poem “Praise Song for the Day” and delivered it at the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. She is the chair of the Department of African American Studies at Yale University.

Painter Beverly McIver RI '03, who produces art that consistently examines racial, gender, and social identity, is a professor of art at North Carolina Central University. She and her sister Renee were the focus of the powerful 2012 documentary Raising Renee, directed by Jeanne Jordan BI ’93, RI ’03. Jordan met McIver in 2003 at the Radcliffe Institute when they were both fellows.

Mark Robbins RI '03 is the executive director of the International Center of Photography, an institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography in all its forms. He is an artist who uses photography to examine people and their built environment. Previously, Robbins was the dean of Syracuse University’s School of Architecture and served as the director of design at the NEA.

Augusta Read Thomas BI '91 is among the world’s most accomplished and original contemporary composers. The American Academy of Arts and Letters cited the “unbridled passion and fierce poetry” embodied in her works and recognized her as “one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American music.”

Radcliffe Medalist

Jane Alexander has shown courage as an actor and as a champion for the arts during her tenure as the head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 1993 to 1997. Alexander’s acting roles—including The Great White Hope, which confronted race and segregation in the Jim Crow era, All the President’s Men, and Kramer vs. Kramer—have earned four Oscar nominations, seven Tony nominations and one win, and nine Emmy nominations and two wins. As the first working artist to chair the NEA, Alexander fought to protect arts funding in the 1990s when it came under fire by Congress.

Event Videos


Keynote address by Jane Alexander at Radcliffe Day 2013

Keynote Address by Jane Alexander

Panel at Radcliffe Day 2013

From Artist to Audience

More Events & Exhibitions

01 / 08