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Holiday Hours Discussion: Architecture and Urban Identity: Themes of Architecture and Cultural Transformation
stARTT is an emerging architecture studio based in Rome. Its focus on transformation at architectural and territorial scale is based both on design and research. In 2014 stARTT was invited to participate in the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, the Venice Biannual (Biennale di Venezia). Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss is an architect, lecturer and author. He is a founder of NAO (Normal Architecture Office) and SMS (School of Missing Studies). He taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, Penn School of Design, Tyler School of Art and Cornell University. Free. RSVP to events@PhilaAthenaeum.org or call 215-925-2688. Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Reception at 5:30 PM, Program starts at 6:00. Industrial Philadelphia Art Competition
Exhibition Dates: December 6, 2015-January 2, 2016 Lecture: Marjorie G. Jones, The Life and Times of Mary Vaux Walcott
Marjorie G. Jones is the author of Frances Yates & the Hermetic Tradition, the first biography of the noted British historian. A graduate of Wheaton College, Norton MA, the Rutgers School of Law & the Graduate Faculty of the New School in New York City, she is a member of Writing Women’s Lives Seminar in NYC. Reception and book signing to follow. Free for Athenaeum Members, All others $10. Members may RSVP to events@PhilaAthenaeum.org or call 215-925-2688. Wednesday, December 9, 2015, 5:30 PM
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Harry Carl Schaub
It takes a special kind of arrogance to write a critical review of a book written by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature as well as 22 other prizes, including the Man Booker International Prize in the UK. However, as I slogged through the 24 stories in this book, all 766 pages of them, I just didn't get it. All of the stories, except two, are about people living in small rural towns in Canada (Ms. Munro is Canadian) and are unrelentingly downbeat. Most involve women in abusive or very unhappy circumstances. The few that have a man as its main character, are about someone who is either homicidal or extremely strange. According to the book's foreward, written by the novelist, Jane Smiley, these are some of Munro's best stories, so they give the reader a solid basis for evaluating her work. Munro is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, writer of short stories in the 20th and the first part of the 21st centuries, to which her many prizes testify. As a writer, she is undoubtedly a wonderful stylist. It is the content that bothers me. I found the collection to be monochromatic--I felt that I was reading the same story over and over again. How many times can you read about women stuck living on a failing farm in a remote part of Canada near a God- forsaken town in serious decline, before becoming really bored. Two of the stories are largely autobiographical. Munro actually grew up on such a farm, and her father was a failed fur farmer who raised silver foxes, minks and other fur bearing animals. Her mother, a former school teacher, tried to market the furs, but the Depression and WW II killed the business. This experience obviously had a serious impact on Munro, as it forms the basis of so many of the stories in this book. Despite my negative reaction, I suggest reading the book and making up your own mind. I have come to the conclusion that the reason I did not like these stories may have had more to do with me than the stories themselves. And, I am clearly in a small minority when it comes to Ms. Munro's work. So, jump in and make up your own mind. Steve
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Italian
architects Simone Capra and Dario Scaravelli from the young architecture
studio stARTT will narrate their idea of city, both contemporary and
future, by presenting selected architectural projects, from which their
vision emerges. The discussion will be moderated by Srdjan Jovanovic
Weiss. This event is co-sponsored by Professionisti Italiani Philadelphia
(PI-Philly) and the Athenaeum, with the patronage of the Consulate General
of Italy in Philadelphia.
The
competition has ended, but the exhibition Industrial Philadelphia: Past
and Present will open on Dec. 6th with a reception from 2:00-5:00
PM. Don't miss your chance to purchase one of the accepted works!
RSVP to 
Spanning
two centuries, The Life & Times of Mary Vaux Walcott tells the
story of a remarkable Philadelphia Quaker (1860-1940), whose life as an
avid explorer, glaciologist, photographer, BIA commissioner & above
all, renowned illustrator of North American wildflowers, earned her the
sobriquet Audubon of Botany.
Athenaeum
member, Harry Carl Schaub's new book Abwehr-General Erwin Lahousen.
was released in Mid-October at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Abwher-General
Erwin Lahousen details the life of WWII General Erwin Lahousen, the first
U.S. witness at the Nuremberg Trials. Lahausen, an Austrian officer,
was the highest German intelligence officer to survive the war and the
Gestapo purge after the coup of July 20, 1944. He was a spy for
France and Austria against the Third Reich, with his French teacher
Madeleine Bihet-Richor as his handler. Currently published in
German, the book will be published in English at a date early in 2016.
Athenaeum
members, Alan Greenberger and Barry Eiswerth co-chaired the team that acquired World Heritage City
status for Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the only city in America to
receive the designation.
Alice
Munro: Family Furnishings, Selected Short Stories, 1995-2014,
Vintage Books division of Penguin Books, 2014, 766 pages. 
Location: 
