Blog Post

Inspiring Day at the White House

I am just back from Washington, DC, and too tired to blog tonight, so here's my tweeted recap of an incredible day at the White House, in celebration of the winners of the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal, Monday February 13, 2012.  
 
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ARTS Recipients:   Will Barnet, Rita Dove, Al Pacino, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Martin Puryear, Mel Tillis, United Service Organizations, Andre Watts. 
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HUMANITIES Recipients:  Kwame Anthony Appiah, John Ashbery,Robert Darnton, Andrew DelBanco, National History Day, Charles Rosen, Teofilo F. Ruiz, Ramon Saldivar, Amartya Sen. 
 
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May we all learn to "dwell in possibility." Those are great words to live by. +Humanities
 
 
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Pres Obama took Emily Dickinson's "I dwell in possibility" as core text of his inspiring celebration of Nat'l Medal of Arts and Hum winners
3 minutes ago
 
 
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John Lithgow, Black Tie for Natl Hum and Arts Medalists: "STEM needs its arts/humanities blossoms to thrive, reproduce, give beauty+ joy!"
4 minutes ago
 
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Black Tie dinner for Natl Humanities and Arts Medalists at Smithsonian Museum of Am Indian. I was on committee for it when it was a drea

Arriving at White House w broken toe in stupid blue velcro, was humbled by five or so in wheel chairs, inc artist Will Barnet (born 1911).
1 minute ago
 
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A day full of amazing conversation, inspiring artists, poets, scholars, musicians, and Chuck Close in astonishing suit of many colors!
8 minutes ago
 
 
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"introversion" versus "collaboration" is another silly binary that came up today.So many great Webmakers = loners, together!
9 minutes ago
 
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Natl Humanities Medal winner Teofilo Ruiz said he taught world history: "From the Big Bang to 300 BCE." Now THAT's gen ed!
12 minutes ago
 
 
 
 
One dufus today accused me of "selling out" humanities to digital. Really? That boring binary sells out beauty of art, action, learning.
17 minutes ago
 
 
 
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Hey! If you don't like the Web, remake it into something better. And that means all of us . . .
18 minutes ago
 
 
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One reason I loved HASTAC confererence: instead of grousing, grumbling HASTAC Scholars were artist, activist, proud, brave Webmakers.
19 minutes ago
 
 
 
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Sometimes, amid all the banality of digital life, we forget that the World Wide Web is beautiful . . . if we make it so!
20 minutes ago
 
 
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What can possibly be more World Wide Web than improvisation? Yr Brain on Internet = remix magic.
21 minutes ago
 
 
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People were surprised when I said I begin my "Yr Brain on the Internet" class by having students work with choreographer, jazz improvisors.
22 minutes ago
 
 
 
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What an honor to be at the White House today. Inspiring day in every way:
38 minutes ago
 
 
Anthony Appiah, another National Medal winner, said reason to learn is "we are all supposed to be making this Republic together."
40 minutes ago
 
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Charles Rosen told UC Berkeley story: "Yes, the work is shite but there's so much of it we have to give Prof X tenure."
41 minutes ago
 

 

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DelBanco quoted friend: "You study STEM, arts, and humanities so place inside your skull = interesting place to live rest of yr life."
42 minutes ago
 
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Rosen, like Profs Sen and Appiah, dispelled idea of "fields." It's really about curiosity, wisdom, "how to live a life." Powerful day.
43 minutes ago
 
 
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Rosen was one of recipients of National Medal for Arts and Humanities bestowed by Pres Obama today
44 minutes ago
 

 

 

 
Charles Rosen, the brilliant pianist and musicologist, was still insanely feisty about the love and passion of knowing--science, arts, all.
44 minutes ago
 
 
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Incredible day at the White House:
48 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete
 
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Cathy N. Davidson is co-founder of HASTAC, and author of The Future of Thinking:  Learning Institutions for a Digital Age (with HASTAC co-founder David Theo Goldberg), and  Now You See It:  How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn (Viking Press). She is co-PI on the HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions.   NOTE:  The views expressed in Cat in the Stack blogs and in NOW YOU SEE IT are solely those of the author and not of HASTAC, nor of any institution or organization. Davidson also writes on her own author blog,  www.nowyouseeit.net [NYSI cover] 

 
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