{"id":25731,"date":"2016-10-10T16:05:21","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T21:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=25731"},"modified":"2016-10-10T16:05:38","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T21:05:38","slug":"honors-council-lecture-explores-arts-place-in-culture-and-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2016\/10\/10\/honors-council-lecture-explores-arts-place-in-culture-and-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Honors Council Lecture Explores Art\u2019s Place in Culture and Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daniel Guentchev, assistant professor of philosophy at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, will explore the cultural and educational role of the arts in a society which increasingly questions its necessity as part of the university’s Honors Council Lecture Series.<\/p>\n

Guentchev’s lecture, “Susanne Langer’s Conception of Art and the Education of the Entire Person,” begins at 7 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer Hall room 107 on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ campus. Honors Council lectures are free and open to all.<\/p>\n

Susanne Langer was an American philosopher and educator who in 1942 published “Philosophy in a New Key,” which promoted her theory that art is the language used by human beings to express their emotions.<\/p>\n

“Language, in its literal capacity, is a stiff and conventional medium, un-adapted to the expression of genuinely new ideas, which usually have to break in upon the mind through some great and bewildering metaphor,” she said. “Art, on the other hand, has no consequence; it gives form to something that is simply there, as the intuitive organizing functions of sense give form to objects and spaces, color and sound.”<\/p>\n

Guentchev will explore how Langer’s theories in the context of a modern American society that questions the value of the arts and of their role in education.<\/p>\n

“Langer develops her theory in light of the tendency, in the 20th Century, to see art as a form of luxury which can be sacrificed easily and without fear of serious loss when times are tough, budgets are tight and when we believe that we ought to focus on our serious priorities,” Guentchev said. “Langer argues that the arts are an essential element of education and their neglect results in educating stunted people and creating dysfunctional societies.”<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Dr. Daniel Guentchev<\/h4>\n

Dr. Daniel Guentchev is an assistant professor in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s Department of Philosophy. Before joining the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ faculty, he studied drawing under private tutors in his native Plovdiv, Bulgaria until moving to Poultney, Vt., where he pursued a bachelor’s degree in studio art and philosophy. He later received his master’s degree in philosophy at the University of Toledo and a PhD at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.<\/p>\n

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ the Honors Council Lecture Series<\/h4>\n

The Honors Council Lecture Series is hosted by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Honors Council. The council is the advisory group to the honors program composed of 12 faculty members representing each of the university’s colleges. Student representatives are also elected to the council by their cohorts for one-year terms.<\/p>\n

Fall Honors Council Lecture Series<\/h4>\n