Enhancing the Quality of Life
Lawrence University and the Fox Valley
- Lawrence regularly brings distinguished visitors to address the college and Fox Valley community on topics of broad interest. University Convocations and lecture series such as the Main Hall Forum and the Science Hall Colloquium are open to the public. Convocation visitors have included authors John Updike, Gwendolyn Brooks, Frank McCourt, Maya Angelou, Joyce Carol Oates, and Isabel Allende; journalists David Halberstam and Richard Rodriguez; public intellectuals Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West; historians Arthur Schlesinger, Michael Beschloss, and James McPherson; activists Harry Wu, Fay Wattleson, and Lech Walesa; public officials Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell; and scientists Dudley Herschbach, Brian Greene, and Robert Ballard.
- Since 1908, Lawrence has brought world-class musicians to the Fox Valley
through its Artist Series and Jazz Series concerts.
- Faculty members and students in the Lawrence Conservatory of Music provide more than 100 public concerts and recitals (usually at no charge) each year.
- The Wriston Art Center Galleries present an annual program of exhibitions in the visual arts, drawn from Lawrence's own collections containing more than 2,000 objects, the work of Lawrence art faculty and students, and works from other collections.
- The Lawrence Academy of Music -- a division of the Conservatory of Music -- provides over 2,000 area residents with private music lessons, ensemble opportunities, enrichment courses, summer arts camps, workshops for area music teachers, and an evening lecture series for adults.
- Lawrence annually mounts three plays and a major opera
production. In addition, the college regularly hosts touring productions by Shakespearean Actors from the London Stage and Milwaukee's Wild Space Dance Company.
- Lunch at Lawrence, a monthly luncheon series for the community, features an informative and entertaining series of lectures by Lawrence faculty on a variety of topics.
