Indiana University Northwest’s Center for Urban and Regional Excellence offers free workshops for those aged 50 and over through its Senior University program. Workshops take place at various locations on the IU Northwest campus in Gary, Ind.
Senior University offerings include:
“All that Jazz” – Jazz History Lecture
Thursday, July 16
1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
This lecture will incorporate audio, visual and musical demonstration and will be led by Billy Foster, an IU Northwest piano instructor. Foster served as a public school music teacher in Gary for 35 years. Foster was also a jazz piano instructor at Valparaiso University from 1980 to 2014. In this capacity he conducted many jazz clinics, lectures and educational performances and served on the Indiana Arts Commission Advisory Panel for three years.
“The Drawing Board” – Still Life Workshop
Monday through Wednesday, July 20-22
2 to 4 p.m.
This three-day workshop will explore drawing techniques that include line, color and shadow. Participants will receive instruction in laying out compositions and rendering still life imagery. Upon completion of the course, participants will have created a still life drawing.
“Indiana Pride” – History of Northwest Indiana
Tuesday through Thursday, Aug. 4-6
1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Calumet Regional Archives - This workshop will offer information on IU Northwest’s Calumet Regional Archives. Topics will include types of records sought/preserved, preservation techniques, and how to access materials. The session will include a tour of the Archives.
Wednesday: Moonlight in Duneland, The History of the South Shore Line’s Marketing Campaign of the 1920s - The Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad has served as a Calumet Region icon for over 100 years. During its Golden Age in the 1920s, the South Shore Line enjoyed financial success, as it transported record numbers of passengers between Chicago and South Bend. Much of that success was due to a vigorous marketing campaign to attract riders, including advertising, newsletters, maps and other printed materials, and, of course, the beloved South Shore Line posters. This workshop will detail the components of that marketing campaign and include the viewing of a number of original 1920s posters.
Thursday: Steelmakers and Steel Towns, A Historical Overview of East Chicago/Indiana Harbor and Gary, Indiana - Since the late 19th Century, the Calumet Region of Northwest Indiana has been known as the “Workshop of America.” In particular, north Lake County was the scene of hundreds of industries, from railroad car manufacturing to oil refining. It was the huge steel plants along the Lake Michigan shoreline, however, that became the symbols of the heavy industrial character of the region. Using historical photographs from the Calumet Regional Archives, this workshop will present an historical overview of the three largest players in the local steel industry in the early 20th century. In addition, the beginnings of their steel towns, serving as the homes of thousands of steel workers, will be examined.
Registration Details
Senior University is sponsored by the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence. Space in the workshops is limited, and advance registration is required. For more information, contact Caroline Schrenker at cschrenk@iun.edu or (219) 980-6964.
In email correspondence, please include your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, and the workshop(s) you wish to attend. You will be notified within four business days if there is space available in the workshop(s) of your choice.