For those of you living outside of the Midwest, I can promise you an exciting four weeks on one of the most picturesque campuses in North America. Bloomington, with its live-music clubs, galleries, bookstores, and antique shops, is a safe, friendly college town in the rolling hills of southern Indiana, an hour’s drive from the Indianapolis International Airport and four hours from Chicago. It is home to the internationally renowned Jacobs School of Music, which each summer hosts a high-profile classical music festival that attracts thousands of visitors, and we will offer each participant free tickets to one or two events (an arrangement we have discussed with the Dean of the Music School). Last year, National Geographic ranked Bloomington one of America’s “top adventure towns” thanks to the many opportunities for recreation it offers and the proximity of the Hoosier National Forest and Lake Monroe, the site of a dramatically successful reintroduction of the bald eagle.
Many of our meetings will take place at the Lilly Library,a fully wired research facility with a particularly rich collection of 19th-century books. Other campus amenities include fine art museums, world-renowned libraries, and superb athletic facilities. TheLilly Library, one of the premier rare books libraries in the world, houses more than 400,000 rare books and 7 millions manuscripts. The Lilly owns Audubon’s magnificent Double Elephant Folio, as well as first editions of his other publications, and the Lilly’s staff—especially Curator of Rare Books, Joel Silver—will be on hand to assist participants during their four-week stay. Participants might well want to use some of their spare time to explore other non-related Audubon holdings of the library, as well as of other collections on campus (Each participant will be issued a temporary library card which gives them privileges to exam collections on their own). We will meet in the Lilly’s splendid Slocum Room, surrounded by displays of intricate puzzles the library has collected, as well as in technology-enhanced classrooms in Ballantine Hall and in the wonderful classroom of the College Arts and Humanities Institute. Indiana University’s tree-lined campus, a sprawling collection of historic limestone buildings, is widely known as one of the most beautiful college settings in the United States. |