Media contact: Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383
For Immediate Release
November 17, 2004
Chicago, IL -- A standing room only crowd gathered on Thursday, November 11 at the Columbia College Chicago Dance Center to get "Up Close" with legendary actress Lauren Bacall. In the Dance Center's intimate setting, Ms. Bacall shared a video program and an autobiographical presentation of her life and career, was interviewed by Columbia Theater Department Chair Sheldon Patinkin and then took questions from the audience. She wrapped up the program by reprising, at an audience member's request, her famous "you know how to whistle," lines from To Have and To Have Not.
The November 11 program was the inaugural event for the college's new high-profile series, Conversations in the Arts: Up Close With... The program series is designed to provide an education opportunity for students, attract donors to the school and strengthen the arts and media college's position as a major player in Chicago's cultural life. Columbia College -- which presents hundreds of public programs annually including art exhibitions, dance and theater performances and literary events -- already attracts more than 300,000 arts patrons to its campus each year.
Prior to the public event, a select group of the college's 'friends' gathered at the presidential residence for a sit down dinner with Ms. Bacall hosted by Columbia President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D. During the cocktail reception, the group was treated to entertainment by Columbia musical theater students Leah Morrow and Danielle Boyd, who performed songs from Applause! and Woman of the Year, accompanied on the piano by Columbia music student Nicanor Gutierrez.
Immediately following the "Conversation" at the Dance Center, Ms. Bacall joined approximately 50 members of the college's President's Club at a private reception hosted by Columbia's Center for Book and Paper Arts. Attendees, who enjoyed cocktails, a hot buffet, passed hors d'oeuvres and the center's current art exhibition also had the opportunity to chat with Ms. Bacall and have their programs autographed.
Upcoming programs in the Conversations in the Arts: Up Close With... series include James Earl Jones February 10 and Mary Tyler Moore April 14. For more information visit www.colum.edu/conversationsinthearts.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Founded in 1890 as a communications school for women, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a "hands-on minds-on" approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D. Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Through the diversity of its students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and multiplicity of voices to American culture. For further information visit www.colum.edu.