Humanities director will target new congressman
py rauia mvipw
Senior Reporter
When a younger, Republican
crop of senators and representa
tives make up
the new Con
gress in Janu
ary, a Ne
braska hu
manities ad
ministrator
will be ready
to educate
them.
Jane Renner
Hood, director
of the Nebraska Humanities
Council since 1987, was named
secretary of the national Federa
tion of State Humanities Coun
cils’ board of directors.
The federation, based in Wash
ington, is a branch of the Na
tional Endowment for the Hu
manities.
In her new position, Hood will
help the federation confront the
new Congress by defining the
endowment’s purpose and how it
can serve constituents.
Like the National Endowment
for the Arts, the NEH must be
reauthorized by Congressional
committees every five years,
Hood said. She said the federa
tion wanted to reach the new
Congress as soon as possible.
“Although sitting members of
Congress are very familiar with
what we do, we have an educa
tional challenge on our hands,”
she said.
“I think that if people looked a
little scared it was because they
realized we had to reach these
congressmen, and we weren’t
going to have much time to do
it,” she said.
Hood said she would start on a
local level. While Nebraska Re
publican Reps. Bill Barrett and
Doug Bereuter are familiar with
the humanities programs, she
said, newly elected Rep. Jon
Christensen may not be.
Meeting with Christensen, she
said, should be a top priority.
“The humanities are one of
the best bargains the federal gov
ernment has,” she said.
The endowment receives
$460,000 a year from the federal
government — 30 cents from
every Nebraskan — and funds
more than 190 programs across
the state. Nebraska’s Humanities
Resource Center also funds more
than 700 programs across the
state.
But this does not tell the whole
story.
“We can give him facts and
figures, but the real power of the
humanities lies in the human
story,” she said.
Mothers and children who
worked with an exhibit of Afri
can-American inventors at the
Children’s Museum should talk
to Christensen about their expe
rience, she said.
“It’s the power of telling
Christensen what that very small
amount of money meant for that
child,” she said.
Hood said humanities were
important because they defined
‘‘what it means to be human.”
Humanities include the disci
plines of history, literature, phi
losophy, language, ethics and
anthropology.
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Theater director to join national
panel to evaluate grant requests
By Paula Lavlgn*
Senior Reporter
After 21 years of directing the Mary
Riepma Ross Film Theater, Danny Ladely
will take his critic’s eye to a national
level.
Ladely will travel to Washington on
Dec. 12 to serve on the Film/Video Pro
duction Panel for the National Endow
ment for the Arts Media Arts Program.
During the three-day panel, Ladely
and about four other panel members will
look at 245 grant applications from film
and video artists requesting financial as
sistance for the production of documen
tary works.
As a teen-ager growing up in Gordon,
Ladely worked for the small town’s movie
theater. He studied journalism and En
glish literature at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln. He pioneered foreign and
independent film programs for the uni
versity.
He graduated from the university in
1973 and was immediately appointed as
the first director of the Mary Riepma Ross
Film Theater in the Sheldon Memorial
Art Gallery.
Ladely, who also serves on arts coun
cils in Nebraska and South Dakota, said
his work for the NEA would allow him to
look at his favorite type of film — docu
mentaries.
“People saw so many bad documenta
ries in grade school and high school with
the voice of God telling you what to
think,” he said, laughing. “Good docu
mentaries don’t do that. They may be
biased, but they still allow for your own
intelligence and ability to make up your
own mind.”
Bad documentaries assume the audi
ence is stupid, he said, by overusing nar
rative. Good documentaries use more vi
sual footage and interviews that allow the
audience members to form their own opin
ions, he said.
While reviewing grant application and
samples of the artists’ work, Ladely said
he would look for artist capability, aes
thetic quality, budget request and redeem
ing social value.
The artist must be able to complete the
work, he said, and should choose a narrow
topic that could be fully developed in
about an hour and a half.
“Coming Out Under Fire,” a film shown
at the Ross Theater, provided an example,
he said. The film addressed treatment of
homosexuals in the military in World
WarH.
“It didn’t address treatment of homo
sexuals in society,’’ he said, “because you
can’t cover the subject in an hour and half
to give it justice.”
Although he has not noticed an obvi
ous topic trend, he said documentary films
had become more political.
“In the ’60s and ’70s, it was very
political. In the ’80s, it was almost apo
litical, and it was said that students were
being too apathetic,” he said. “Things
have changed. As we proceed into the
’90s, (politics) becomes more important.”
Ladely said he would like to see more
films by American Indian artists. Although
many American Indians create documen
tary works, he said he would like to see
these artists working on dramatie films.
Australian
a cappella
performs for
UNL students
From Staff Reports
A singing group traveled thousands
of miles just to perform Monday at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Isabella a Cappella, an eight-mem
ber group from Southern Cross Uni
versity in Lismore, Australia, sang in
Westbrook Music Building for UNL’s
University Singers and other students.
The group, which consists of two
sopranos, altos, tenors and basses each,
also performed Sunday at the Lutheran
Student Center. Isabella a Cappella
sings mostly contemporary and jazz
arrangements of songs, plus Austra
lian and aboriginal songs.
UNL wasn’t the only stop on
Isabella a Cappella’s trip to the United
States. The group already has been to
Minnesota’s twin cities and will spend
“It’s been a wonderful
experience just being here
and being part of another
culture. ”
■ X
ISABEL ATCHESON
director
more than a week in Phoenix after
leaving Lincoln, according to Isabel
Atcheson, the group’s director.
“I was on sabbatical here and study
ing the difference between Australian
choirs and American choirs, so I
brought my choir with me,” Atcheson
said.
And how has the trip gone so far?
“It’s been a wonderful experience
just being here and being part of an
other culture,” she said.
The students, who range from 20 to
30-something years old, Atcheson
said, are also enjoying the trip.
Dave Hume, a bass from Brisbane,
said, “I found people to be most hos
pitable. They came to help us in the
area of getting around and with other
things.”
While cold weather may be a nega
tive about the trip, at least one thing
has been very good, Hume said.
“Food. We’ve been constantly fed
being over here,” he said.
And besides just memories of the
United States, the group’s members
will be taking back a piece of Ameri
can culture.
Andrew Tarvit, a tenor, said they
have picked up many American words,
like cool,” “awesome” and “neat.”