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Join your friends in WISE and learn more about the future of our lifelong learning organization. Please register online by clicking the link below.

Interested in proposing an event? We now have a proposal form that is easy to complete on-screen and emailed to the WISE office. We look forward to hearing about your ideas for events on and off campus!

    • 03/19/2024
    • 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
    • Zoom only

    {No Registration Required}

    Selections of Spiritual Readings… shared by Dr. Ann McGreevy

     This Spotlight Presentation will feature varied books, authors, magazines and websites that Dr. Ann has found supportive, worthwhile and often inspiring . Participants are invited to share a book or other resources with all of us during the final discussion.


     Bio ….Ann McGreevy is a Worcester native and taught for 20 years in the Worcester Public Schools - at Flagg St. School and in the Gifted and Talented program. Ann earned a Ph. D. In Education from the University of Connecticut, has taught in colleges and universities in MA and NH, and published over 40 articles on creativity and lives of eminence. Her memoir, One Teacher’s Journey, will soon be available locally and on Amazon.

    • 03/21/2024
    • 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
    • Zoom only

    {No Registration Required}

    BROKEN: A Holocaust Memorial in Fused Glass by Frances Elson

    As a Holocaust survivor growing up in a community that included many refugees from the horror in Europe, I heard very little of these stories, as our parents felt they should protect us for our own stories. Not until 1994, when Stephen Spielberg established the Shoah Foundation to gather oral histories from 50,000 survivors did I begin to gather details about the first 5 years of my life.  These stories lodged themselves in my spirit for many years, although I rarely spoke of them, and certainly not in public.

    All through my professional life as a social worker, educator and interior designer I was being pulled toward my emergence as a glass artist at the age of 61 and since that time I have dedicated myself to exploring this medium and honing my craft.  Meanwhile my parents’ stories were incubating in my soul until I realized that I had the perfect medium in which to proceed.  Glass is a very strong, yet very breakable material, and the image of “Broken” returned over and over as a structure in which to frame these stories and to express the lessons we should be learning from them.  I had been gathering photos and documents for years, I had my Mother’s oral history, and a raft of documents gleaned after her death. I began to re-assemble the shards to create my own very personal memorial.

    The project consists of several elements:

    ·       6 glass panels, about 16 x 20 each

    ·       Images of each of the panels, printedon canvas, 24 x 36 each.  The exhibition could include both the glass and canvas prints.

    ·       Written annotations of each panel printed on plexiglass to accompany each panel

    ·       A professionally edited film of Rose Horowitz (my Mother), done for the Shoah Foundation

    ·       A book of poetry “The Holocaust and the Hope”, by Sylvia Solomon, written after her visits to the Holocaust “sites”, and our parents’ homes

    ·       A compilation of Cantorial and Yiddish music that was my Father’s dream for his future and ultimately the key that unlocked our future in Canada

    ·       A memorial to my great-uncle, Shlomo Gilbert, a well-known writer of novels and plays in pre-war Poland, and to his brother, Phillip Gilbert who made it possible for us to leave our Displaced Person’s camp and emigrate to Canada

    ·       An essay by my grand-daughter Tari Kurman in which she describes her vision of a modern Holocaust Museum and an architect’s rendering of that vision. 

    ·       A power-point presentation on the entire project

    It is my fervent hope that through sharing this project, I can share the legacy of my parents and express the fragility of our freedoms through the fragility and great strength of fused glass.


Upcoming events

Members will receive details from the WISE Office as time gets closer to the event. This is just a preliminary notice of what a WISE membership offers beyond the popular courses. Also, don't forget to check emails for details on Special Events, the WISE Movie Club, Book Club, Special Interest Groups, and other learning opportunities!

WISE Members: You can find the Zoom link for events on this page.

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Worcester Institute for Senior Education (WISE)
Assumption University, 500 Salisbury Street, Worcester MA 01609
wise@assumption.edu
508-767-7513

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