| By Marcia Miner, November 1, 2006 |
Fairfield University offers many wonderful opportunities to its students and the community at large. One of the most spectacular is the Open VISIONS Forum, an arts, culture and public affairs lecture series that was founded in 1997 by Philip Eliasoph, Ph.D., professor of Art History.
The origins of this program began many years ago in Eliasoph’s boyhood home on Long Island. It was a place where culture and politics were in the air his family breathed. Contemporary conversation took place at the family table with his siblings and parents. “I remember, in my house, we had four or five newspapers a day. We had the New York Times, Herald Tribune, Journal American, Long Island Press, Newsday and my father used to read the New York Daily News.” In addition, his “dear grandmother,” Paula Eliasoph, who worked closely with the American Impressionist Childe Hassam, and became a noted artist herself, gave him an understanding and an appreciation for the fine arts. Politics and art were integral to his being.
Eliasoph grew up, married and moved to Connecticut. Then there was a night in 1995. It was midnight on the Merritt Parkway and Eliasoph and his wife, Yael, were driving back from New York City after having been to a particularly inspiring lecture at the famed 92nd Street Y, a favored place where the array of speakers ranges from former presidents and Nobel prize winners to talk show hosts. It was, according to Eliasoph, not unusual to see a “Nancy Kissinger or one of the Kennedy kids in the audience.” On stage that particular night had been a number of greats, including Charlie Rose and Jeff Greenfield.
Still excited about the lecture, he turned to his wife in the car and considered these truths: Fairfield University had the splendid state-of-the-art Regina A. Quick Center, and the undergraduate faculty was committed to the life of the mind. Once at home, he couldn’t stop thinking about how the same type of lectures given at the 92nd Street Y could be done at Fairfield University. Within a short time he submitted a concept paper to the vice presidents stating that Fairfield University needed to be the “leading edge of an ongoing education that would engage the community in the academic and intellectual work they do at the University.”
Eliasoph also discovered, when looking over a mailing list of Phi Beta Kappa members, that Fairfield and the surrounding area had one of the heaviest concentrations of Phi Beta Kappa recipients in the country. That suggested to him that the audience for the kind of intellectual stimulation he contemplated for this lecture series was out there and would be in regular attendance. Following three months of inside discussions, Eliasoph was granted permission to begin organizing the first Open VISIONS Forum season.
Less than two years later, in September of 1997, the first guest lecturer of the Open VISIONS Forum, Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art stepped on the stage of the Regina A. Quick Center. This September begins its tenth anniversary and, fittingly, Philippe de Montebello will speak to honor the occasion.
Since its founding, the lectures regularly sell out months in advance, which underscores the success of the Open VISIONS Forum in bringing a slate of speakers who are provocative and thoughtful in a balanced way. Its stated purpose is in continuing a “search for truth and an unyielding belief in freedom of expression without biased prejudice or narrowing intolerance.”
Backstage, a lecturer will often ask Eliasoph about the audience. He reassures them that the first thing most of audience members did that morning was to read the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, and that probably they also watched a bit of C-Span.
The audience is a unique blend of community members and students, which is exactly what the forum’s producer, Elizabeth Hastings, wants. “It is a very rewarding experience contributing to the intellectual life of the students and community at large,” she says. “The speakers, many of them icons in their chosen fields, are the movers and shakers of our global world today. Therefore, [they are] wonderful examples for the students, our leaders of tomorrow.” Some past speakers include Eli Wiesel, Arianna Huffington, Terry Waite, Salman Rushdie, former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, and Tim Russert.
Even younger members of the community—high schoolers—have found reasons to attend Open VISIONS lectures. Last year the Pequot Library joined with Fairfield University as a community partner when author John Irving came to speak. Students from the high schools held round-table discussions and took a closer look at his work.
When it comes down to it, the Open VISIONS lecture series is, as Eliasoph envisioned back in 1995, a truly and remarkably eye-opening educational experience.
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