Biographer to begin Lecture Series

Pultizer Prize-winning biographer Edmund Morris will launch the Dole Institute of Politics’ Presidential Lecture Series this fall.

Each lecture will start at 8 p.m. in the Lied Center.

Morris, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” and the sequel “Theodore Rex,” will speak Nov. 3. A native of Kenya, Morris graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa and immigrated to the United States in 1968.

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian who is working on a trilogy based on Lyndon Johnson’s secret White House tapes and a new account of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, will appear Nov. 10.

David McCullough, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “John Adams,” will speak Nov. 17. McCullough received his first Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his biography of Harry S Truman.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

Halloween event set for Saturday

“The Dark at the Top of the Hill,” a family Halloween event, is 7 p.m.-9:15 p.m. Saturday at Kansas University’s Natural History Museum and Kansas Union, 13th and Jayhawk Boulevard.

Tickets are $2.

For more information, call 864-4173.

Historical society to sponsor bus tour

Alma The Wabaunsee County Historical Society will sponsor a bus tour of sites associated with Territorial Kansas and the Underground Railroad on Oct. 27.

Society members Carol Cook and Michael Stubbs will guide the tour.

The tour will explore routes and safe house sites used by slaves seeking freedom in the late 1850s. These sites were a continuation of routes through Douglas and Shawnee counties. The tour will begin at 1 p.m. at the historical society’s museum on Missouri Street in Alma. After visiting Harveyville, Mission Creek and Wabaunsee, the tour will conclude at 5:30 p.m. in Alma, where a supper will be served.

Cost, including the meal, is $10. Reservations can be made by calling 765-2200.

Vampires to be theme of Washburn discussion

Topeka The social history of the vampire will be the theme of a discussion at 7 p.m. Oct. 29, in Henderson Learning Resources Center, room 107, at Washburn University.

Thomas Prasch, assistant professor of history, will detail the image of the supernatural creature, illustrating the material with film clips from the 1920s to the present.

No admission is charged.

The event is sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, the history honorary society. Some of the films excerpted are rated R for both violent and sexual content and viewer discretion is advised.

Women in Arts committee formed

Kansas City, Mo. A new bi-state committee for the National Museum of Women in Arts a museum focusing on the visual, written, craft and performing arts of women has been formed in the metro area.

The committee, which will include women in the arts and those who enjoy arts from as far west in Kansas as Lawrence and as far north in Missouri as St. Joseph, will be launched during a reception from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick.

The committee will use education materials from the National Museum of Women to develop programs and partnerships for youth. It also will showcase the arts of area women, sometimes combining forces with other state committees and even the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Sculptures to be added at Washburn Exhibition

Topeka Five new sculptures will be added to the Washburn University campus as part of the seventh annual Washburn Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition.

The opening reception and tour will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, beginning at the Mulvane Art Museum.

The five pieces were selected from among 85 submissions from 45 artists in 22 states. The Campus Beautification Committee sponsors the exhibition.

The artists selected hale from Seymour, Ind.; Signal Mountain, Tenn.; Atlanta; Miami Beach, Fla.; and Sartell, Minn.

The sculptures will be on campus until next summer unless a donor is interested in purchasing a piece for the university.

Lied Center director leaves for Butler

Cassandra Howard, director of education/programming manager at the Lied Center since November 1999, is leaving Lawrence to accept a position with a new center for arts education and outreach at her alma mater, Butler University in Indianapolis.

Howard will assist in developing an education and outreach plan for the center, which will be part of Butler’s Jordan College of Fine Arts.

Howard earned her bachelor’s degree in arts from Butler in 1994. Her last day at the Lied Center was Wednesday. The search to fill her position will begin soon, said Karen Christilles, associate director of the Lied Center.