Alexandra York's Art as Spiritual Experience Workshop

Most people tend to think of spirituality in terms of religious or mystical experiences, but exalted feelings of sanctity and the sublime must be evoked on a secular level for rational people and can be inspired by (among other significant things) art that makes manifest our most personal core value system. The experience is keenly personalized not only because our primary values are being stimulated but also in light of our specific life experiences, associations, preferences, fears and dreams, which are different for each of us. Our individualized value systems, our mental methodology for processing information, our personal style, and our background knowledge and experiences make each of us unique and unrepeatable human beings. In this workshop, Alexandra York will help participants delve into the "customized" world of art as spiritual experience. Participants will fill out and work from a Spirituality Questionnaire that will help them gain a deeper understanding of their own personal (often subconscious) value systems, thereby helping them learn to "open up" to art. Participants may share their own answers and discuss them—or not—but group participation will be lively and enlightening for each and all. Space is limited and advance registration is requested.

Alexandra York is the author of CROSSPOINTS A Novel of Choice, a new novel set in the contemporary art world that examines free will and champions the idea that we each create our own souls by our choices.

Douglas Rasmussen's Seminar Comparing Ayn Rand's and Henry B. Veatch's Ethics

Douglas Rasmussen will teach this two-session seminar discussing and comparing the ethical theories of Ayn Rand and Henry B. Veatch, the modern neo-Aristotelian. Rasmussen will not only discuss the similarities and differences between these two ethical theories, but also the many ways they complement each other. The following questions are among the issues that will be discussed in varying detail: Why be moral? What are the virtues and their function in a morally worthwhile life? How is practical wisdom conceived and understood? What is the nature of the connection between facts and values, and what is the role for natural teleology? The aim in this seminar is not, of course, to examine exhaustively these issues, but rather to show that much can be learned about ethics when these two thinkers are critically compared. Admission to this limited-attendance seminar is by advance registration. Preference will be given to students in registration. Participants will need to have read "The Objectivist Ethics" and Veatch's Rational Man in advance (Rational Man is available from Liberty Fund for $10).

Dr. Douglas B. Rasmussen is Professor of Philosophy, at St. John's University. Professor Rasmussen co-edited The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand (1984) and Liberty for the Twenty-First Century (1995), and he co-authored Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order (1991) and Liberalism Defended: The Challenge of Post-Modernity (1997). Recently, he has finished co-authoring "Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics."

Robert Bidinotto's Guerrilla Activism Workshop and Discussion

In this workshop Robert Bidinotto will discuss and work with participants on strategies for applying the principles of "Guerilla Activism" to wage and win philosophical and political battles. Advance registration is recommended.

For three decades Robert Bidinotto has spread Objectivism as a professional "guerilla activist." He currently publishes a Web site, ecoNOT.com, challenging environmentalism on philosophic grounds.

Patrick Stephens's Improvisation Workshop

Patrick Stephens will conduct an improvisational workshop in which participants will have an opportunity to practice creative improvisational techniques. Participants will use improvisation to explore samples from Ayn Rand's fiction. Advance registration for this workshop is required. Space is limited to 16 participants maximum. No previous training is necessary.

Patrick Stephens holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from Brandeis University, where he pursued a triple concentration in acting, directing and design. He has made extensive use of improvisation as a performer, director, and writer.