Konstandin Hoxhi, known as Koto Hoxhi (1824–1895) was an advocate of the Albanian language. He taught the language secretly to his students in Qestorat in Southern Albania. He was imprisoned and died in prison for his beliefs.

Biography
Koto Hoxhi was born in Qestorat in 1824 (Gjirokastër District, southern Albania, then Ottoman Empire). He and Sami Frashëri, Vaso Pasha and Jani Vreto devised an alphabet for expressing the Albanian language. Based on this it was possible to create the first alphabet book in Albanian. Koto Hoxhi was married to the daughter of Christakis Zografos, a local wealthy benefactor from Qestorat.

Hoxhi was a teacher in the Greek seminary school in Qestorat which conducted all its lessons in Greek. In 1874, Hoxhi was responsible for writing one of the first plays performed in Albanian. The play was called A Wedding in Lunxhëria and it was performed in Gjirokastër.

He secretly started to teach his students at Qestorat written Albanian and later requested from the Ottoman governor of Ioannina permission to set up an Albanian school. For these activities Koto Hoxhi came into trouble with the Greek consulate of Ioannina and was excommunicated by the bishop of Gjirokastër of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He was arrested and first imprisoned for this in the jail of Gjirokastër. Eventually he was transferred to the Yedikule prison in Istanbul where he died in 1895.

Whilst Hoxhi was a prisoner in Istanbul he was visited by Sevasti Qiriazi, one of the teachers of the First Albanian Language School of modern times, who persuaded a prison employee to smuggle her in disguised as a boy. The report came back that the former teacher was now a "bag of rags" on a stone slab that served as a bed. The "filthy hole" of a cell was deep within the prison and Hoxhi had lost most of his intellect, however he was grateful for the visit. He was clothed in rags and his hair and beard were long. He said that his body was broken but his soul was free, he hoped that Albania would be united and happy. Hoxhi said that the Sultan had told him that he could be released if he would give the names of the other people who were involved, but he had refused to cooperate. Hoxhi had been on the Central Committee the defence of the rights of the Albanian people which supported the ideas of the League of Prizren. Other members included Pandeli Sotiri, Hasan Tahsini, Pashko Vasa, Jani Vreto, Sami Frashëri and Abdyl Frasheri.

Legacy
Two of his students, Pandeli Sotiri and Petro Nini Luarasi, would notably continue his work.

Urani Rumbo founded a primary school for girls in his name in Gjirokastër in 1920.

Works
A Wedding in Lunxhëri, play, 1874

References

1824 births
1895 deaths
People from Gjirokastër
Activists of the Albanian National Awakening
19th-century Albanian people
People from Janina vilayet
Albanian educators

Koto Hoxhi


Hugo Donais (born October 14, 1983) is a Canadian retired cyclist who specialized in downhill mountain biking, four-cross and BMX.

Donais was born in Laval, Quebec, and grew up in nearby Terrebonne. He began racing competitively in 1995 and turned professional in 2001, the same year he won the Junior Canada Cup Series. Donais spent much of his professional career with the Norco Factory Team and was twice selected as a member of the Canadian national cycling team.

During his professional career Donais starred in several cycling-related films and television programs, including Full Throttle, ES2 – Fully Loaded and episodes of Ride Guide.

UCI career

Donais represented Canada twice at the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships, in 2001 as a junior and in 2003 in the Elite category. He also competed in several UCI Mountain Bike World Cup events between 2002 and 2004.

Retirement

Donais retired from competitive cycling in 2005 and moved to British Columbia the following year. Since 2007 he has pursued a career in financial planning.

Palmares

1999
 3rd Overall MTB Nationals Downhill - Cadet Expert Men
2001
 1st Overall  Mountain Bike Downhill Canada Cup Series - Junior
 1st Overall  Quebec Cup - Elite
 22nd Overall UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships- Junior
2002
 1st Overall  Quebec Championship
 9th Overall Canada Cup Series
2003
 1st Overall  Calgary Canada Cup
 2nd Overall Canada Cup Downhill National Series
1st Stage 1
 2nd Overall Toronto International Bike Show BMX Pro Dual
 1st Overall  Quebec Championship
 72nd Overall UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships
2004
 2nd Overall Toronto International Bike Show BMX Pro Dual
 4th Overall Canada Cup Series
2005
 2nd Overall Canadian BMX Eastern National Series
 5th Overall UCI Crabtree BMX International
 1st Overall  Quebec Championship 4-Cross

References

External links
 Hugo's website
 Hugo on Facebook

1983 births
Canadian male cyclists
Canadian mountain bikers
Downhill mountain bikers
Four-cross mountain bikers
Living people
French Quebecers
Sportspeople from Laval, Quebec

Hugo Donais


Lysimachia scopulensis is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae known by the common name shiny-leaf yellow loosestrife. It is endemic to Hawaii, where there are two small populations on the island of Kauai. It was federally listed as an endangered species of the United States in 2010.

This shrub was discovered in 1991 in Kalalau Valley on Kauai. It was described as a new species in 1997. It grows on cliffs.

This shrub has red or green branches up to 75 centimeters long. The closely spaced leaves are lance-shaped to nearly oval in shape and have curved tips. The leaves are dark green but the central vein and the petiole may be red in color. The flower has red petals each about a centimeter long. This species sometimes hybridizes with Lysimachia glutinosa.

The two populations of this rare plant contain no more than 30 individuals in total.

The plant is threatened by the invasion of introduced species of plants and feral goats.

References

scopulensis
Endemic flora of Hawaii
Biota of Kauai
Plants described in 1997

Lysimachia scopulensis


Abu Abd Allah Mohammed ibn Abdun al-Jabali al-Adadi () (died after 976) was a physician and mathematician from Al-Andalus. He is the author of Risala fi al-Taksir (Treatise on Measurements), the oldest remaining mathematical text from Al-Andalus. He travelled to the learning centers in the East in the years after 958 C.E. He stayed in Basra and visited al-Fustat (Old Cairo), Egypt where he was put in charge of the hospital. Ibn Abdun studied the ideas of Abu Sulayman Sijistani (d. 990) and according to one source he met him personally in Basra. He returned to Cordoba in 971 C.E.. He entered the service of the Caliph al-Mustansir (died 976) and his son Hisham II al-Mu'ayad. Ibn Abdun was the teacher of Ibn al-Kattani.

References

10th-century physicians
Physicians from al-Andalus
10th-century mathematicians
Mathematicians from al-Andalus
10th-century writers from al-Andalus

Mohammed ibn Abdun al-Jabali


Marcel Wengler (born 20 April 1946) is a Luxembourg composer and conductor. From 1972–1997, he headed the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Since 2000, he has been director of the Luxembourg Music Information Centre. His compositions include symphonies, concertos, chamber music and musicals.

Early life and education

Born in Esch-sur-Alzette, Wengler studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels and at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. Igor Markevitch and Sergiu Celibidache were his mentors during his conducting studies.

Career

As a conductor, Wengler has worked across Europe with a variety of radio companies, recording over a hundred works. With the RTL Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded a series of CDs covering works by Luxembourg composers.

Wengler has composed around 80 works, including symphonies and concertos as well as a stage, chamber and ballet music. In 1983, he wrote the music for Volker Schlöndorff's film Swann in Love with the Munich Philharmonic.  His musical, Rex Leo (1986), has been staged both in Luxembourg and Graz. In 1995, he conducted the first performance of his Cello Concerto with the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra in Lisbon and, in 1997, his Viola Concerto with Garth Knox and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. His Violin Concerto (1997) was performed during the World Music Days in Romania and he conducted the première of his Flute Concerto (1999) with the Orquestra Nacional do Porto. His compositional style was initially influenced by Beethoven and Mahler and later by Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Hans Werner Henze.

Marcel Wengler is the President of the Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music (LSCM), founded in 1983, where he has done much to promote Luxembourg composers who would otherwise have little chance of having their music performed in their native country. One of the achievements of the LSCM was the formation of the Luxembourg Sinfonietta ensemble which he has directed since it was founded in 1999. Since 2000, he has been director of the Luxembourg Music Information Centre which publishes catalogues of Luxembourg compositions and participates in building up an international databank of new music.

Awards
1978: first prize, International Conductors' Competition, Rio de Janeiro

Selected works
Stage
 Rex Leo, Musical (1986)

Orchestra
 Sinfonietta (1976)
 Konstellationen (1980)
 Symphony No. 2 (1982)
 Versuche über einen Marsch (1984, 1995); original version for symphonic band
 Antarctica Project, Music from the documentary film for string orchestra (1986, 1988)
 Diaporama (1989)
 The Answered Question (1997)

Band
 Sinfonietta (1976)
 Versuche über einen Marsch (1984)
 European Rhapsody (1990)
 Horse Parade: Marche des petits princes (1999)

Concertante
 Concerto for harpsichord and chamber orchestra (1972)
 Antiphonie for solo trumpet, timpani and 10 brass instruments (1983)
 Concerto for oboe and string orchestra (1984)
 Novellette for also saxophone and string orchestra (1991)
 Concerto for cello and orchestra (1995)
 Concerto for viola and orchestra (1997)
 Concerto for violin and orchestra (1997)
 Concerto for flute and orchestra (1999)

Chamber music
 String Quintet for 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass (1973)
 La crique: Musique de scène for flute, clarinet, violin and cello and piano (1978)
 Sonata a tre for violin, clarinet and piano (1981)
 Nach Mitternacht for harp solo (1982)
 Divertimento a 11 for flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, percussion, violin and cello (1982)
 Bakxai for percussion ensemble (1983)
 Elegie for trumpet and organ (1985)
 Quartetto for 2 violins, cello and harpsichord (1985)
 Die Pest in Brühl: Trauer Marsch for chamber ensemble (1985)
 Ständchen (Serenade) for trumpet and guitar (1986)
 Batuque for percussion ensemble (1986)
 Marche des Capucins for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, cello, piano and percussion (1986)
 Ballade for brass quintet (1986)
 Tango für vier for 4 clarinets (1998)
 Fanfare noble et sentimentale for brass quintet (1991)
 String Trio (1992)
 Piano Trio (1995)
 Faux Pas de Deux for flute and harp (1996)
 Peärls Quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano (1998)
 Shadows for 4 saxophones and accordion (2000)
 Pas de trois for violin, accordion and didgeridoo (2000)

Piano
 Nachtstück (1982)

Vocal
 Die Weisse Wildnis for baritone and orchestra (1982)
 Rimbaud Lieder for baritone, bass flute, guitar, cello, double bass and percussion (1984); words by Arthur Rimbaud
 Der Adler for mezzo-soprano and piano (1999); words by Hans Arp
 Le chant des Léonides, Vocalise for soprano and ensemble (1999)
 Der unbekannte Engel for soprano and chamber ensemble (2000)
 Das Karussell for soprano and 14 instruments (2001)

Film scores
 Swann in Love (1984)
 Stammheim (1986)
 Antarctica Project, Documentary (1986)
 Mumm Sweet Mumm (1989)
  (1989)
 Schacko Klack (1989)
 Dammentour (1992)

References

External links

 Marcel Wengler biography
 Marcel Wengler at the Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music

1946 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
20th-century conductors (music)
20th-century male musicians
21st-century classical composers
21st-century conductors (music)
21st-century male musicians
Luxembourgian composers
Luxembourgian conductors (music)
Male classical composers
Male conductors (music)
People from Esch-sur-Alzette

Marcel Wengler


Charlotte Jeanne Béraud de La Haye de Riou (4 October 1738 – 6 February 1806) was a mistress of Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, and later his wife. However, Louis XV would not allow her to become the Duchess. She is known simply as Madame de Montesson. For her husband's fun and her own, she set up a small theatre and wrote many plays, in which she acted. She was a friend of Joséphine de Beauharnais. She married twice but had no children. In 1770, a small home was built in Paris for her use. The building was called the Hôtel de Montesson. It was destroyed by fire in 1810.

Brief biography

Born in Paris in 1738 she was the only daughter of Jean Béraud de La Haye de Riou, Seigneur of la Gauvrillère and Josefa Minard. Her father was from an old Breton family, she first married a seventy-year-old widower Jean Baptiste de  Montesson, Marquis of Montesson on 11 October 1757 who died in 1769. Her beauty and intelligence attracted the attention of the widowed Louis Philippe d'Orléans who she secretly married in 1773 with the authorisation of King Louis XV. After her marriage to the Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, a member of the royal family and a Prince du Sang, her low rank did not allow her the title of Duchess of Orléans, nor having the rank of a Princess of the blood. During the French Revolution, she was arrested and imprisoned in the Temple Prison in Paris. She eventually died in Paris aged 67. She was buried at the Église Saint-Roch, Paris.

Titles and styles

4 October 1738 – 11 October 1757  Mademoiselle de La Haye de Riou.
11 October 1757 – 1769 The Marquise of Montesson. (Madame la marquise de Montesson)
1769 –	6 February 1806 The Dowager Marquise of Montesson.  (Madame la marquise de Montesson douairière)

References and notes

Other websites

1738 births
1806 deaths
People from Paris
House of Orléans

Madame de Montesson


James Tyler Guitars is a manufacturer of electric guitars. The company was located near Van Nuys, California and established in 1972. consequently reaching the public eye through studio musicians like Dann Huff, Michael Landau, and Neil Stubenhaus.  The company is known for creating custom high end guitars, with an unusual headstock, and guitar body finishes with names like "psychedelic vomit", "burning water", and "caramel cappuccino shmear".

History
During the 1980s the company did primarily repairs and modifications on guitars, but built some custom guitars based on parts from other manufacturers such as Kramer for the Los Angeles studio musicians Dean Parks, Michael Landau and Dann Huff.  In 1987 the first production model was released called the "Studio Elite", a hot-rodded Fender Stratocaster  The woodwork was done by hand and it featured a "hockey paddle" headstock, which was used to ensure that the company does not infringe on Fender Musical Instruments Corporation's trademark headstock design. The Studio Elite model is featured on Guitarist magazine's list of "50 guitars to play before you die".

Their second model, the "Ultimate Weapon" (available with two or three humbuckers and a Floyd Rose locking tremolo), was introduced in 1993 and was also based on the Fender Stratocaster but with a redesigned appearance. The latest incarnation of the guitar, the "Ultimate Weapon HD", introduced in 2007, came with a pickguard, an H/S/S pickup layout  and a Wilkinson vibrato. Tyler describes this model as "a Studio Elite wearing an Ultimate Weapon suit."   In 2006 they introduced two models named Mongoose and Mongoose Retro, the former leaning towards Gibson-style design, while the latter is more of a Fender-design, both being "a sort of Les Paul-meets-Telecaster" and taking over for the  Telecaster-styled Tylerbastar line.  By now the manufacturing process had also started to utilize a Fadal digital CNC machine for routing the guitar bodies, allowing for additional optional features like a hollow body.  The company now also winds their own pickups, while earlier they used standard and custom pickups from manufacturers like Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Lindy Fralin, Tom Anderson and John Suhr.

The company's first original finish was created in 1991 for Michael Landau as a joke that Tyler has commented "unfortunately, the world took it seriously". It got named "psychedelic vomit", and Jordan McLachlan of Guitarist magazine described it as "completely mad and random".  The second finish was created in 1993, again for Michael Landau, and was named "burning water", and is a combination of different colors which Neville Marten described as "a mass of swirls in different metallic colors".  In 1998 the first "shmear" finish was created, a paint job that uses layers of different kinds of paint and takes about a week to finish.

In 2008 the company released a series of guitars using the brand "Joe" and only made them available to the Japanese market.  These guitars are a more minimal version of the Studio Elite and the Strat-style Classic models.

A Tyler-designed series of Line 6's Variax line of guitars was announced in the spring of 2010.

The company also produced a limited number of custom-built bass guitars between 1992 and 2006, used for instance by David Hungate and Neil Stubenhaus.

In 2011 Tyler Guitars relocated their operation and offices to a new facility in San Fernando Valley. In 2014 James Tyler partnered with Japanese distributor Daisuke Kitahara to manufacture affordable versions of their popular models in Japan before establishing Tyler Guitars Japan two years later.

Models
 Studio Elite
 Ultimate Weapon
 Mongoose
 Tylerbastar
 Classic

Artists
Some musicians who use/have used Tyler guitars are:

 Abraham Laboriel
 Dann Huff
 David Williams
 David Hungate
 Dean Parks
 Elvis Costello
 Glenn Pearce
 George Lynch
 Jake E. Lee
 Jennifer Batten
 John Fogerty
 Keith Howland
 Kenny Loggins
 Michael Anthony
 Michael Casswell
 Michael Landau
 Neil Stubenhaus
 Prince
 Rick Derringer
 Robben Ford
 Steve Howe
 Steve Lukather
 Steve Watson
 Stuart Hamm
 Takeshi Akimoto
 Terry L Perry
 Gerry McGee
 Tommy Walker (worship leader)
 Vivian Campbell
 Walter Becker
 Wayne Krantz
 Yuji Toriyama
 Jae Park

References

External links
 Official website

Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States
Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Design companies established in 1972
Manufacturing companies established in 1972
1972 establishments in California

James Tyler Guitars


Arnold Hauser (8 May 1892 in Timișoara – 28 January 1978 in Budapest) was a Hungarian-German art historian and sociologist who was perhaps the leading Marxist in the field. He wrote on the influence of change in social structures on art.

Life and Main Works

Hauser studied history of art and literature in Budapest, Vienna, Berlin and Paris. Among his teachers were Max Dvořák in Vienna, Georg Simmel in Berlin, Henri Bergson and Gustave Lanson in Paris. After World War I he spent two years in Italy, familiarizing himself with Italian art. In 1921, he moved to Berlin, and in 1924 to Vienna. By that time he had concluded, in his own words, that "the problem of art and literature, in the solution of which our time is most eagerly engaged, are fundamentally sociological problems."

Another crucial influence on Hauser was Hungarian philosopher Bernhard Alexander, which transmitted to Hauser an interest for both William Shakespeare and Immanuel Kant. This led to Hauser's systematic study of theater and, later, cinema as parts of the larger world of art.

He embraced Marxism by first reading the writings of György Lukács, then meeting him and becoming part of his Sonntagskreis in Budapest. It was in Budapest that Hauser published his first writings, between 1911 and 1918, including his doctoral dissertation about the problem of creating a systematic aesthetics, which appeared in the journal Athenaeum in 1918. He published very little in the next 33 years, devoting himself to research and travel.

His The Social History of Art (1951) argued that art—which, after a paleolithic period of naturalism, began as "flat, symbolic, formalized, abstract and concerned with spiritual beings"—became more realistic and naturalistic as societies became less hierarchical and authoritarian, and more mercantile and bourgeois (Harrington).

Criticism
Hauser's Marxist approach was criticized by Ernst Gombrich as "social determinism" going too far. Gombrich wrote in his review of The Social History of Art that Hauser's "theoretical prejudices may have thwarted his sympathies. For to some extent they deny the very existence of what we call the 'humanities'. If all human beings, including ourselves, are completely conditioned by the economic and social circumstances of their existence then we really cannot understand the past by ordinary sympathy."

Some scholars have argued that Gombrich saw Hauser as a typical exponent of Marxism, without appreciating his nuances and subtle critique of the most rigid forms of social determinism.

Writings
 1951: Sozialgeschichte der Kunst und Literatur (The Social History of Art and Literature)
 1958: Philosophie der Kunstgeschichte (The Philosophy of Art History)
 1964: Der Manierismus. Die Krise der Renaissance und der Ursprung der modernen Kunst (Mannerism: The Crisis of the Renaissance and the Origin of Modern Art)
 1974: Soziologie der Kunst (The Sociology of Art)
 1978: Im Gespräch mit Georg Lukács kleiner Sammelband mit drei Interviews und dem Essay "Variationen über das tertium datur bei Georg Lukács"

References
 Harrington, Austin (2004). Art and social theory: sociological arguments in aesthetics. Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 64–68.
  Alberto Tenenti: Hauser, Arnold: Art, histoire sociale et méthode sociologique. In: Annales. Economies, Societes, civilisations. Paris: 12(1957)3, S. 474–481.
 Zoltán Halász: In Arnold Hauser's workshop. In: The new Hungarian quarterly. Budapest: 16(1975)58, p. 90–96.
  Ekkehard Mai: Kunst, Kunstwissenschaft und Soziologie. Zur Theorie und Methodendiskussion in Arnold Hausers "Soziologie der Kunst". In: Das Kunstwerk. 1/1976, S. 3–10.
  Jürgen Scharfschwerdt: Arnold Hauser. In: Alphons Silbermann (Hrsg.): Klassiker der Kunstsoziologie. Beck, München 1979. S. 200–222.
  K.-J. Lebus: Eine sozialhistorische Sicht auf Kunst und Gesellschaft. (Annotation zur Herausgabe der Sozialgeschichte... im Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1987). In: Bildende Kunst. Berlin: 35(1988)12, p. 572.
  K.-J. Lebus: Zum Kunstkonzept Arnold Hausers. In: Weimarer Beiträge. Berlin 36 (1990) 6, p. 210–228. (online)
 Jim Berryman, "Gombrich's Critique of Hauser's Social History of Art," History of European Ideas, vol. 43, no. 5, 2017, 494–506.
 Csilla Markója, "The young Arnold Hauser and the Sunday Circle - The publication of Hauser's estate", Journal of Art Historiography, 21, 2019, 1–20.

References

External links

1892 births
1978 deaths
Writers from Timișoara
Hungarian art critics
Hungarian sociologists
Hungarian art historians
Sociologists of art

Arnold Hauser (art historian)


The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual and performing arts. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees through its six schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater.

The school was first envisioned by many benefactors in the early 1960s including Nelbert Chouinard, Walt Disney, Lulu Von Hagen, and Thornton Ladd. CalArts students develop their own work, over which they retain control and copyright, in a workshop atmosphere.

History

CalArts was originally formed in 1961, as a merger of the Chouinard Art Institute (founded 1921) and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music (founded 1883). Both of the formerly existing institutions were going through financial difficulties, and the founder of the Art Institute, Nelbert Chouinard, was terminally ill. Walt Disney was longtime friends with both Chouinard and Lulu May Von Hagen, the chair of the Conservatory, and discovered and trained many of his studio's artists at the two schools (including Mary Blair, Maurice Noble, and some of the Nine Old Men, among others). To keep the educational mission of the schools alive, the merger and expansion of the two institutions was coordinated; a process which continued after Walt's death in 1966. Joining him in this effort were his brother Roy O. Disney, Nelbert Chouinard, Lulu May Von Hagen and Thornton Ladd (Ladd & Kelsey, Architects).

Without Walt, the remaining founders assembled a team and planned on creating CalArts as a school that was a destination, like Disneyland, to be a feeder school for the various arts industries. To lead this project they appointed Robert W. Corrigan as the first president of the institute.

The original board of trustees at CalArts included Nelbert Chouinard, Lulu May Von Hagen, Harrison Price, Royal Clark, Robert W. Corrigan, Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney, film producer Z. Wayne Griffin, H. R. Haldeman, Ralph Hetzel (then vice president of Motion Picture Association of America), Chuck Jones, Ronald Miller, Millard Sheets, attorney Maynard Toll, attorney Luther Reese Marr, bank executive G. Robert Truex Jr., Jerry Wexler, Meredith Willson, Peter McBean and Scott Newhall (descendants of Henry Newhall), Mrs. Roswell Gilpatric, and Mrs. J. L. Hurschler.

In 1965, the Alumni Association was founded as a separate organization . The 12 founding board of directors members were Mary Costa, Edith Head, Gale Storm, Marc Davis, Tony Duquette, Harold Grieve, John Hench, Chuck Jones, Henry Mancini, Marty Paich, Nelson Riddle, and Millard Sheets.

The ground-breaking for CalArts' current campus took place on May 3, 1969, as part of the Master Plan for a new planned community in the Santa Clarita Valley of Los Angeles. However, construction of the new campus was hampered by torrential rains, labor shortages, and the Sylmar Earthquake in 1971. As a result, the first combined campus for the Institute started at the former Villa Cabrini Academy (now the home of Woodbury University) in July 1970. CalArts moved to its new campus in Valencia, now part of the city of Santa Clarita, California, in November 1971.

Founding CalArts president Corrigan, formerly the founding dean of the School of Arts at New York University, fired almost all the artists who taught at Chouinard and the Conservatory in his attempt to remake CalArts into his new vision. He appointed fellow academic Herbert Blau to be the founding dean of the School of Theatre and Dance, and serve as the institute's first Provost. Blau and Corrigan then hired other academics to found the original academic areas, including Mel Powell (dean of the School of Music), Paul Brach (dean of the School of Art), Alexander Mackendrick (dean of the School of Film), Maurice R. Stein (director of Critical Studies), and Richard Farson (dean of the School of Design), as well as other influential faculty such as Stephan von Huene, Allan Kaprow, Bella Lewitzky, Michael Asher, Jules Engel, John Baldessari, Judy Chicago, Ravi Shankar, Max Kozloff, Miriam Shapiro, Douglas Huebler, Morton Subotnick, Norman M. Klein, and Nam June Paik, most of whom came from a counterculture and avant garde perspective.

Corrigan held his position until 1972, when he was fired and replaced by then board member William S. Lund, Walt Disney's son-in-law, as the Institute approached insolvency. The period between 1972 and 1975 was extremely unstable financially, and Lund had to make significant operational reductions, including layoffs, the pausing of some degree programs, and the elimination of the School of Design, in order to keep the Institute alive.

In 1975, Robert J. Fitzpatrick was appointed president of CalArts. During his presidency, the Institute grew its enrollment and stabilized, renewed its accreditation, and added new programs for which it is known globally today including the programs of Character Animation and Jazz. While President, Fitzpatrick also served as the director of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival. He then founded the Los Angeles Festival, which grew directly out of the proceeds of the 1984 Olympic Games. After 1984, John Orders (the assistant to the president/chief of staff) largely coordinated the institute's operations in partnership with the other leaders. In 1987, Fitzpatrick resigned as president to take the position of head of EuroDisney (now Disneyland Paris) in Paris, France.

During the search for a President from 1987-88 Nicholas England, the then dean of the School of Music, served as Acting President. In the fall of 1988, Steven D. Lavine, then the Assistant Program Director for the Arts and Humanities of the Rockefeller Foundation, was appointed president. During his time in office Lavine continued to grow enrollment without significantly physically expanding the campus, and added the Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theatre, part of the Los Angeles Music Center's new Walt Disney Concert Hall project, to the operations of the Institute.

Lavine navigated the 1994 Northridge Earthquake which closed the main building in Valencia at the start of the spring semester. Classes were held in rental party tents on the 60 acre grounds, and alternate teaching locations were scattered miles apart around Los Angeles County. The building was "red tagged" and not allowed to be used until millions of dollars of repairs were performed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided the bulk of the financial assistance allowing fundamental repairs due to seismic activity to occur, with private donations allowing the aesthetic renovations of certain spaces in the building, which opened again during the fall 1994 semester.

Also in 1994, Herb Alpert, a professional musician and admirer of the institute, established the Alpert Awards in the Arts in collaboration with CalArts and his Herb Alpert Foundation. The foundation provides the funding for the awards and related activity. The institute's faculty in the fields film/new media, visual arts, theatre, dance, and music select artists in their field to nominate an individual artist who is recognized for their innovation in their given medium. Recipients of the award have a visiting artist residency at CalArts, mentor students, and sometimes premiere work at REDCAT. In 2008, CalArts named the School of Music for Alpert, in recognition of his ongoing support.

On June 24, 2015, Lavine announced he would step down as president in May 2017, after 29 years in the position. After an 18-month search which included over 500 candidates, Board Chair Tim Disney and the CalArts board of trustees announced on December 13, 2016, that Ravi S. Rajan, then the dean of the School of the Arts at the State University of New York at Purchase, was unanimously selected as president, to begin in June 2017.

Over the years the institute has developed experimental interdisciplinary laboratories such as the Center for Experiments in Art, Information, and Technology, Center for Integrated Media, Center for New Performance at CalArts, and the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts. Some of these experimental labs continue today.

Academics
CalArts offers various undergraduate and graduate degrees in programs that are related to and combine music, art, dance, film, animation, theater, and writing.  Students receive intensive professional training in an area of their creative aspirations without being cast into a rigid pattern. The institute's overall focus is on experimental, multidisciplinary, contemporary arts practices, and its stated mission is to enable the professional artists of tomorrow, artists who will transform the world through artistic practice.  With these goals in place, the Institute encourages students to recognize the complexity of political, social, and aesthetic questions and to respond to them with informed, independent judgment.

Admission
Every program within the Institute requires that applicants send in an artist's statement, along with a portfolio or audition to be considered for admission. The institute has never required an applicant's SAT or other test scores, and does not consider an applicant's GPA as part of the admission process without the consent of the applicant .

Conception and foundation
The initial concept behind CalArts' interdisciplinary approach came from Richard Wagner's idea of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total artwork"), of which Walt Disney himself was fond and explored in a variety of forms, beginning with his own studio, then later in the incorporation of CalArts. He began with the film Fantasia (1940), where animators, dancers, composers, and artists alike collaborated. In 1952, Walt Disney Imagineering was founded, where Disney formed a team of artists including Herbert Ryman, Ken O'Brien, Collin Campbell, Marc Davis, Al Bertino, Wathel Rogers, Mary Blair, T. Hee, Blaine Gibson, Xavier Atencio, Claude Coats, and Yale Gracey. He believed that the same concept that developed WDI could also be applied to a university setting, where art students of different media would be exposed to and explore a wide range of creative directions.

Schools
Schools at CalArts include:

 School of Art
 School of Critical Studies
 School of Film/Video
 The Herb Alpert School of Music
 School of Theater
 The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance

Notable facilities

A113

A113 is a classroom at CalArts where the character animation program (then called the Disney animation program) was originally founded. Many CalArts alumni have inserted references to it in their works (not just animation) as an homage to this classroom and to CalArts.

Downtown Los Angeles

In 2003, CalArts built a theater and art gallery in downtown Los Angeles called REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater as part of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in the Los Angeles Music Center.

John Baldessari Art Studios
In 2013, CalArts opened its John Baldessari Art Studios, which cost $3.1 million to build, and features approximately 7,000 square feet of space for MFA Art students and program courses. In addition to debt, funding for the studios was partially raised by the sale of artwork donated by School of Art alumni, for whom each studio was then named.

Notable alumni, faculty, and honorary degrees
List of California Institute of the Arts people

Alpert Award in the Arts
The Alpert Award in the Arts was established in 1994 by The Herb Alpert Foundation and CalArts. The Institute annually awards a $75,000 no-strings-attached fellowship to five artists in the fields of dance, film and video, music, theatre, and visual arts. Awardees have a residency at CalArts during the following academic year.

Critical reception and cultural influence

In 2011, Newsweek/The Daily Beast listed CalArts as the top school for arts-minded students. The ranking was not aimed to assess the country's best school, but rather to assess campuses that offer an exceptional artistic atmosphere.

CalArts' various schools are consistently featured in the top ten lists of the "best schools" of Art, Film, Animation, Theater, Music, and Dance of publications such as U.S. News, New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and various other news and trade publications. No other single college or university in the world reflects such a high reputation across the full breadth of the many arts and creative industries.

Animation industry
Several students who attended CalArts' animation programs in the 1970s eventually found work at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and several of those went on to successful careers at Disney, Pixar, and other animation studios.  In February 2014, Vanity Fair magazine highlighted the success of CalArts' 1970s animation alumni and briefly profiled several (including Jerry Rees, John Lasseter, Tim Burton, John Musker, Brad Bird, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, Henry Selick and Nancy Beiman) in an article illustrated with a group portrait taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz inside classroom A113.

In the late 1980s, a group of CalArts animation students contacted animation director Ralph Bakshi. As he was in the process of moving to New York, they persuaded him to stay in Los Angeles to continue to produce adult animation. Bakshi then got the production rights to the cartoon character Mighty Mouse. By Bakshi's request, Tom Minton and John Kricfalusi then went to the CalArts campus to recruit the best talent from what was the recent group of graduates. They hired Jeff Pidgeon, Rich Moore, Carole Holiday, Andrew Stanton and Nate Kanfer to work on the then-new Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures television series.

In an interview, Craig "Spike" Decker of Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation criticized commercial aspects of the school, saying "A lot of animators come out of CalArts – they could be so prolific, but then they're owned by Disney or someone, and they're painting the fins on the Little Mermaid. You'll never see their full potential."

CalArts style

A pejorative term, "CalArts style" gained prominence in the late 2010s to describe an animation style allegedly overused on popular American television channels such as Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. The term's origin is attributed to animator John Kricfalusi in a now-deleted blog post from 2010 about the film The Iron Giant, in which Kricfalusi criticizes what he sees as young animators subconsciously copying superficial aspects of well-respected animators' work without learning underlying animation skills. The "CalArts style" has been attributed to successful animated shows like Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and Over the Garden Wall, which are from CalArts graduates Pendleton Ward, Alex Hirsch, and Pat McHale respectively, but has also been attributed to the works of many non-CalArts animators, such as Rebecca Sugar's Steven Universe, Kyle Carrozza's Mighty Magiswords, John McIntyre's 2016 Ben 10 reboot, Ben Bocquelet's The Amazing World of Gumball, Justin Roiland & Dan Harmon's Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland & Mike McMahan's Solar Opposites, Domee Shi's Turning Red, etc.

Detractors claim that because of CalArts' importance to American animation, it often inspires other styles of illustration. American animator Rob Renzetti questioned the use of the term, saying that it has been applied so broadly as to be functionally meaningless as criticism, and is instead just name calling. Adam Muto, executive producer on Adventure Time, has also said the term over-simplifies the process of animation design, and is too vague. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw on The Daily Dot wrote that many animation fans that deride the "CalArts style" do so only when it is associated with shows that appear to promote, in their views, "Tumblr culture" that favors progressive views.

Art
During the formative years of the Art School many of the teaching artists led different camps of movements. The two main camps were the conceptualism students, which were led by John Baldasseri, and the fluxus camp, which was led by Allan Kaprow. Kaprow's approach to art was a continuation from his tenure at Rutgers University. Other movements included Light and Space, which was closely related to the artists associated with the Ferus Gallery in the greater Los Angeles area. In 1972, Calarts hosted an exhibition called The Last Plastics Show, which was organized by faculty artist Judy Chicago, Doug Edge, as well as Dewain Valentine. This exhibition included artists such as, Carole Caroompas, Ron Cooper, Ronald Davis, Fred Eversley, Craig Kauffman, Linda Levi, Ed Moses, Barbara T. Smith, and Vasa Mihich.

In the autobiography Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by CalArts alum Eric Fischl, he describes his experience as a student as "CalArts had such a narrow idea of the New. It was innovation for its own sake, a future that didn't include the past But without foundation, without techniques or a deeper understanding of history, you'd go off these wild explorations and end up reinventing the wheel. And then you'd get slammed for it."

Art critic Dave Hickey critiqued the art program of CalArts by suggesting that the variety of reference that students are exposed to is limited to a certain pantheon. He stated "I can go over to Cal Arts and ask them if they know who John Wesly is, and they would go, 'Huh? What discourse does he participate in?' I am in the art world only insofar as there are interesting things for me to write about. When that stops, or when I stop getting offers to write things, I'll be out." Additionally, Hickey mentioned the use of appropriation by students at programs like CalArts. In this, he referenced the show Pop-Up Video, by which he stated "Creators Tad Low and Woody Thompson should receive honorary MFAs for [Pop Up Video], because grad students worldwide are getting diplomas for just this sort of thing -- stealing (or as they say in art school, "appropriating") hackneyed pop images and scribbling on top of them à la granddaddy Marcel. The show, which would not be out of place on a monitor in a darkened gallery at CalArts [...]".

In the LA Weekly op-ed piece "The Kids Aren't All Right: Is over-education killing young artists?", published in 2005, curator Aaron Rose wrote about an observed trend he recognized in Los Angeles's most esteemed art schools and their MFA programs, including CalArts. He uses the example of Supersonic, "a large exhibition ... that features the work of MFA students from esteemed area programs like CalArts, Art Center, UCLA, etc." In his observation of the showcase, he examined, "... the work left me mostly empty and with a few exceptions seemed like nothing more than a rehash of conceptual ideas that were mined years ago." He went on to state that "these institutions are staffed with amazing talents (Mike Kelley and John Baldessari among them). Legions of creative young people flock to our city [Los Angeles] every year to work alongside their heroes and develop their talents with hopes of making it as an artist." He goes on to further state "What happens too often in these situations, though, is that we find young artists simply emulating their instructors, rather than finding and honing their own aesthetics and points of view about the world, society, themselves. In the beginnings of an artist's career, the power in his or her work should lie not in their technique or knowledge of art history or theory or business acumen, but in what one has to say."

CalArts alumnus Ariel Pink notes in an interview "Unlike other art schools, they didn't focus on skills of any kind, specific color theory or anything like that. They were the only art school that was totally focused on teaching artists about the art market. They were trying to make the next Damien Hirst. They're trying to make the next Jeff Koons. Those guys don't need to know how to paint or draw."

Music
CalArts graduates have joined or started successful pop bands, including: Maryama, Tranquility Bass, The Belle Brigade, The Weirdos, The Swords of Fatima / Buko Pan Guerra, Bedroom Walls, Beelzabubba, Dawn of Midi, Dirtwire, The Rippingtons, Fitz and the Tantrums, Fol Chen, London After Midnight, No Doubt, Mission of Burma, Radio Vago, Oingo Boingo, Acetone, Liars, Suburban Lawns, The Mae Shi,The Suburbs, Touché Amoré, and Ozomatli.

Individually, Danny Elfman and Grant-Lee Phillips never officially enrolled at CalArts, but participated in the world music courses at CalArts. Elfman would later gain recognition for his composition work with CalArts alum Tim Burton, and Phillips would go onto a career in music.

Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, members of the band Sonic Youth, remarked in an interview with VH1 about the band Liars, of which Angus Andrew and Julian Gross are CalArts luminaries. Moore's initial remarks were: "There's this whole world of young people who [think] everything's allowed. What Liars are doing right now is completely crazy. I saw them the other night and it was really great. It's really out-there". Gordon then stated "I'm not so crazy about the way [the Liars' They Were Wrong, So We Drowned] sounds. It's like 'how lo-fi can we make it?' But I think the content is really good". In reference to CalArts and Gordon's statement, Moore lastly remarked "They're art kids. They came out of CalArts and that's the kind of sensibility you have when you come out of these sort of places." Interestingly, Moore's partner Gordon went to the Otis College of Art and Design, herself a product of an art school.In a 2005 interview, Moore discussed the book Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia and his conversation with Gordon after reading the book. During their conversation, Moore asked Gordon why she had chosen to attend Otis College of Art and Design instead of CalArts, a school she had always wanted to attend since she grew up in Los Angeles. Gordon explained that she was unable to afford CalArts' high tuition. Moore went on to emphasize that the book did not mention the economic feasibility of attending CalArts and that this financial barrier can create a division between those who can afford highly regarded academic art education and those who pursue DIY art.

Theater
In his book, Survival of the Richest, media theorist and  MFA directing program graduate Douglas Rushkoff described his time while a theater student at CalArts. He saw CalArts as an institution that offered numerous opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration; however, despite the creative atmosphere, the theater school was rooted in tradition, adhering to the classical approach to drama with a focus on crisis, climax, and resolution.

Rushkoff, influenced by the experimental theater of the 1970s and 1980s (i.e. Happenings, Fluxus), had a different perspective on theater. Rushkoff believed in blurring the line between performer and audience, and questioned the traditional theater model, which he viewed as imposing a sense of inevitability and confirming established order. He saw this as cultural propaganda, creating problems in the first act and solving them in the last.

In addition to his dissatisfaction with the traditional theater model, Rushkoff was troubled by the high cost of theater productions. After attending a performance of Brecht's Threepenny Opera at the Ahmanson Theatre in 1989, and noticing the high cost of the least expensive ticket, he decide to leave the theater behind in favor of the Internet. He believed that interactivity and digital platforms, such as the Web and hypertext stories, would provide users with multiple pathways and the freedom to choose their own adventures. Even in video games with clear-cut goals (i.e. Super Mario, World of Warcraft), players could derive satisfaction from exploring the game world rather than focusing solely on achieving the official story objectives.

See also
Afterall
Black Clock
East of Borneo
Pixar
The 1 Second Film
The Pictures Generation
Womanhouse

References

External links

Universities and colleges in Los Angeles County, California
Art schools in California
Drama schools in the United States
Film schools in California
Music schools in California
Creative writing programs
Performing arts education in the United States
Private universities and colleges in California
Education in Santa Clarita, California
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Universities and colleges established in 1961
1961 establishments in California
Theatres in California
Event venues established in 1993
School buildings completed in 1971
Santa Clarita, California
Art in Greater Los Angeles
Performing arts in California
Animation schools in the United States

California Institute of the Arts


Agam Kuan (, "unfathomable well") is an ancient well and archaeological site in Patna, India. It is said to date back to the period of Mauryan emperor, Ashoka (304–232 BCE). It is circular in shape, lined with brick in the upper  and wooden rings in the remaining .

The Agam Kuan is set within an archaeological site identified by the Archaeological Survey of India which also contains the adjacent Shitala Devi temple where the Shakti deity Shitala Devi is venerated. Inside this temple, the pindas of the Saptamatrikas (the seven mother goddesses) are worshipped. The temple is widely revered for its belief in curing smallpox and chicken pox.

Location
Agam Kuan is situated close to the Gulzarbagh railway station, on the way to Panch Pahadi, on the outskirts of Patna, Bihar state. It is east of Patna and south-west of Gulzarbagh Station. India

According to the legend
During the 1890s, the British explorer, Laurence Waddell, while exploring the ruins of Pataliputra, identified Agam Kuan as the legendary well built by Ashoka for the purpose of torture before he embraced Buddhism, as part of Ashoka's Hell chambers. The torture practice was also reported by Chinese travellers (most probably Fa Hien) of the 5th and 7th centuries A.D. The well is stated to have been used to torture convicts by throwing them into the fire that used to emanate from the well. Ashoka's Edict no. VIII makes mention of this well, which was also known as "fiery well" or "hell on earth". Another popular legend states that this was the well where Ashoka threw 99 of his elder half-brother's heads and put the heads in the well to obtain the throne of the Mauryan Empire.

According to a myth, the well has a subterranean link with the Patala (netherworld) or hell; this was inferred on the basis that a saint found a heavy log in the well which was supposed to have been lost in the sea. Another geo-hydrological link suggested that Agam Kuan is connected to the Ganges river.  The site is also connected with several Jain legends, the most notable of them being that of a Jain monk, Sudarshana, who, when thrown into the well by a king named Chand, floated to the surface and was found seated on a lotus.

Visitors throw coins into Agam Kuan, as it is still considered auspicious. It is used for many religious ceremonies, especially Hindu weddings. Although it is venerated, the well waters are not consumed. Offerings of flowers and coins are thrown into the well usually during summer months as the well's history is linked to "heat and hell". Dating to Mohammedan rule, the Mughal officials offered coins of gold and silver to Agam Kuan.

Features
The structure is  deep, circular in plan, with a diameter extending over . It is brick-encased in the upper half to a depth of  while the lower  are secured by a series of wooden rings. Covered with moss, the surface structure, which now covers the well and forms its most distinctive feature, has eight arched windows. The well was refurbished during the reign of Emperor Akbar and a roofed structure was built around the well.  This circular structure has been fitted with eight windows which are well placed.

Grounds

In addition to the Agam Kuan, the archaeological site features a temple, as well as several ancient and medieval sculptures. The Shitala Devi temple is adjacent to the well, and is dedicated to Shitala Devi, which houses the pindas of the Saptamatrikas (the seven mother goddesses). The temple is widely venerated for its belief in curing smallpox and chicken pox, and it is also visited by devotees for wish fulfillment. The temple's female priest is an uncommon practice.

A statue of Yaksha of the Mauryan art period stands guard outside the temple. It was described earlier by Alexander Cunningham when he visited the site in 1879–80. This artifact is not traceable in the present day.

See also
Patan Devi
Mahavir Mandir

References

Bibliography

Buildings and structures in Bihar
Maurya Empire
History of Bihar
Tourist attractions in Patna
Buildings and structures in Patna
Archaeological sites in Patna
Water wells in India

Agam Kuan


Laufás-Edda (Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar) is a 17th-century redaction of the Snorra Edda, which survives in numerous Icelandic manuscripts.

History
Laufás Edda was compiled by the Icelandic priest and poet Magnús Ólafsson (c.1573–1636) on the request of the Icelandic scholar and antiquarian Arngrímur Jónsson. Magnús began his work at Auðkúla in 1607 after he had been dismissed from his office as parish minister, and completed his new redaction during the winter of 1608–09. Magnús would later serve as the priest at Laufás parish in Northern Iceland and as a consequence his version of the Edda is usually referred to as the Laufás-Edda.

The purpose of his efforts was to make a systematic and encyclopedic version of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. Laufás-Edda is a rearranged redaction of the Snorra Edda. The myths in Gylfaginning are presented as a series of examples (dæmisögur) and the kennings of Skáldskaparmál are organized alphabetically by subject. The last part, Háttatal, was not included.

Due to its popularity, the Laufás redaction later became the basis for the first printed Edition of the Snorra Edda, Peder Hansen Resen's Edda Islandorum. Resen's edition was accompanied by a Danish and Latin translation. The Laufás-Edda, especially through Resen's edition, became a convenient and popular work of reference for poets and antiquarians, serving as an encyclopedia for researching both myth and poetic language.

References

Sources
Anthony Faulkes, ed., Two Versions of Snorra Edda from the 17th Century, 1: Edda Magnúsar Ólafssonar (Laufás Edda); 2: Edda Islandorum: Völuspá, Hávamál (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, 1979)

Further reading
Faulkes, Anthony   (1993) Magnusarkver: The writings of Magnus Olafsson of Laufas (Reykjavík : Stofnun Árna Magnússonar)
Adalsteinsson, Ragnar Ingi  (2014)  Traditions and Continuities: Alliteration in Old and Modern Icelandic Verse (University of Iceland Press)

External links
Newly discovered manuscript of Magnús Ólafsson's Edda
Specimen Lexici Runici compiled by Magnús Ólafsson
Magnús Ólafsson biografi (In Danish)

Icelandic literature
Medieval literature

Laufás-Edda


Vincenzo Franchitti (born 22 May 1950) is an Italian former professional tennis player.

Franchitti competed on the international tour in the 1970s and was a two-time Florence quarter-finalist.

His best career win came against Björn Borg at the Bologna Indoor in 1974, which made him one of only two Italians to defeat the Swede during his career, along with Adriano Panatta.

References

External links

1950 births
Living people
Italian male tennis players

Vincenzo Franchitti


Dangote Cement Plc is a Nigerian publicly traded multinational cement manufacturer headquartered in Lagos. The company is engaged in the manufacture, preparation, import, packaging, and distribution of cement and related products in Nigeria, and has plants or import terminals in nine other African countries.

Acquisition of Obajana cement factory
The management of Dangote Industries Ltd. (DIL) claims that it fully owns the Obajana Cement Plant and that all legal procedures were followed in its 2002 acquisition.
The company made this claim in a statement headed "Obajana Cement Plant: Separating Facts from Fiction" and released by Anthony Chiejina, Group Head Branding and Communications, DIL.
Because it questioned Dangote Cement's ownership of the firm, the Kogi State government closed the Obajana plant. Tax payment difficulties were also brought up by the administration.
The Obajana Cement Plant, one of the major taxpayers and the vehicle for one of the largest corporations with investments from hundreds of Nigerian and foreign investors, is regarded by the group as one of the most important elements of economic activity in the country.
The firms claimed: "Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), pursuant to the legally binding agreement it entered into with KSG to invest in Kogi State, bought the property on which the Obajana Cement Plant is built alone in 2003, well after it had acquired the shares in the Obajana Cement business in 2002.
"After paying the required costs and compensating the landowners, DIL received three Certificates of Occupancy in its name.
"Again, well after it had purchased the shares of the Obajana Cement Company, DIL was fully responsible for the conception, design, acquisition, construction, and payment of the plant and machinery.

History
It was formerly known as Obajana Cement Plc, and changed its name to Dangote Cement Plc in July 2010. Obajana Cement Plc was incorporated in 1992. Dangote Cement Plc is a subsidiary of Dangote Group and is the largest company traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Dangote Cement listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in October 2010, and as at August  2014 accounts for 20% of the total market capitalization of the Exchange. In 2014, the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) purchased a $300 million stake in Dangote Cement.

Aliko Dangote has invested US$6.5 billion into the company between 2007, and 2012. Cement accounted for roughly 80 percent of Dangote Group's business as of 2011.

Operations
The Dangote Cement plant in Obajana, Kogi, is the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa with
10.25 million tonnes per year capacity across three lines and a further 3 million tonnes per year capacity currently being built.

In 2012, the firm opened a $1 billion cement plant in Ibese, Ogun.  The facility is capable of producing 6 million metric tonnes of cement per year, raising the company's total production by 40 percent at the time. The plant was installed by the Chinese construction and engineering firm Sinoma, and represents one of the largest non-oil investments in Nigeria.

The company's plant in Gboko, Benue has 3 million tonnes per year capacity with an upgrade to 4 million tonnes per year planned in 2013. A plant in Senegal along with a plant in Tanzania opened in 2015. That same year, a plant was opened in Ethiopia also, which came under threat of civil unrest in 2017, and civil war in 2021.

References

External links
Official website
Dangote Cement at Bloomberg.
Dangote Cement at BusinessWeek.
Dangote Cement  at Reuters.
Dangote Cement at Financial Times.
Dangote Cement at Forbes Global 2000.

Cement companies of Nigeria
Manufacturing companies based in Lagos
Manufacturing companies established in 1992
Companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange
Nigerian brands
Nigerian companies established in 1992

Dangote Cement


David Samuel Gottesman (February 22, 1884 – April 21, 1956) was a Hungarian-born, American pulp-paper merchant, financier and philanthropist.  He was generally known as Samuel Gottesman or D. Samuel Gottesman.

Biography
He was born to a Jewish family on February 22, 1884, to Mendel Gottesman and Sarah Fischgrund in Munkacs, in Bereg County, Hungary, (present-day Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukraine). In 1885, Gottesman emigrated to the United States and later joined his father's paper-making business, M. Gottesman & Company.

Samuel Gottesman died on April 21, 1956.

Banking
He was also a successful banker, organizing the Central National Bank in New York City. Today, through a series of mergers, the bank became amalgamated into JPMorgan Chase & Co. Further, he became the director of the Eastern Corporation and of Rayonier Inc.

Philanthropy
Gottesman became well known for his generous philanthropy. His monetary gifts extended to the New York Public Library and numerous Jewish organizations and institutions, including the D. Samuel Gottesman Library at Yeshiva University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.

One of his highest-profile gifts was the donation of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the State of Israel, where they are housed in the Shrine of the Book.  His sister-in-law, Esther G. Gottesman, perceived the importance of the scrolls and encouraged him to purchase and donate them to Israel. The shrine, located adjacent to the Israel Museum in western Jerusalem, was funded by a foundation established by Gottesman's children as a memorial to their father.

Family
Samuel Gottesman was the uncle of billionaire David Gottesman, the grandfather of sports psychologist Steven Ungerleider, and the great grandfather of physician and film producer, Shoshana R. Ungerleider.

His wife, Jeane Herskovits Gottesman, died of cancer in 1942 at age 49, a year after his granddaughter Jenifer was born. She likewise died of cancer, in 1991.

His daughter, Celeste Ruth Gottesman (1913–2013), was a wealthy modern-art collector and museum and library benefactor who resided in New York City. Her first husband was Jerome John Altman, whom she divorced in 1935 and then married American architect and philanthropist Armand Phillip Bartos. Celeste also established the Pinewood Foundation in 1958, named after her father's estate in Lawrence, Long Island, New York.

References

1884 births
1956 deaths
People from Mukachevo
Ukrainian Jews
Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Jewish American bankers
20th-century American philanthropists
Gottesman family

Samuel Gottesman


Graham Charles Fortune  (13 December 1941 – 19 March 2016) was a New Zealand diplomat and public servant. He served as New Zealand's High Commissioner to Australia from 1994 to 1999, and Secretary of Defence from 1999 until 2006.

Early life and family
Fortune was born on 13 December 1941, the son of Winifred Jessie Fortune (née Hutchison) and her husband, Charles Henry Fortune, a journalist who died when he was at school. Educated at King's High School, Dunedin from 1955 to 1959, he went on to study chemistry and geology at the University of Otago, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1962 and a Master of Science in 1963. His thesis, supervised by Geoff Malcolm, was entitled Measurement of thermal pressure coefficients of polyethylene and polypropylene.

Career
After leaving university, Fortune worked as a journalist for four years on the Dunedin Evening Star. In April 1964 he joined the Department of External Affairs. Initially he was in the South Pacific and Antarctic Affairs Division, and involved with administration of New Zealand's science and exploration programme in the Ross Dependency and the development of Scott Base. He then had a number of overseas postings, including to the Cook Islands in 1965, five years in Ottawa, and three years in Papua New Guinea. After a secondment to the State Services Commission from 1977 to 1980, he was a senior administrator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for six years before being appointed the deputy secretary of Foreign Affairs. From 1987 to 1990 he served as New Zealand's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and he was High Commissioner to Australia from 1994 to 1999.

Fortune was as Secretary of Defence from 1999 until his retirement in 2006. He subsequently served as a board member of Antarctica New Zealand and undertook various consultancy roles for the New Zealand government in the areas of policy and management.

In the 2007 New Year Honours, Fortune was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for public services.

Orienteering
Outside of his career as a public servant, Fortune was active in orienteering, and won several Australian and New Zealand championships. He served as vice president of the New Zealand Orienteering Federation from 2007 to 2008, and was a member of the steering committee for the 2013 Orienteering World Cup.

Death
Fortune died suddenly in Auckland on 19 March 2016.

References

1941 births
2016 deaths
People educated at King's High School, Dunedin
University of Otago alumni
New Zealand public servants
High commissioners of New Zealand to Australia
Permanent Representatives of New Zealand to the United Nations
Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand orienteers
Male orienteers
New Zealand referees and umpires

Graham Fortune


Vanished, also known as Danielle Steel's Vanished, is a 1995 American made-for-television romantic drama film directed by George Kaczender and starring George Hamilton, Robert Hays and Lisa Rinna. The film is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Danielle Steel.

Plot
Marielle is happily married to Charles Delauney, and they have a four-year-old son together, Andre. After being visited by Marielle's parents, who warn her about Charles, Marielle, Charles and Andre go on holiday in Switzerland. While Marielle is being greeted by a neighbor, Andre tries to get his ball from the lake and ends up drowning. Charles blames Marielle, and she ends up having a nervous breakdown.

Two years later, Charles visits her in a hospital and tells her he still loves her, and although she confesses she loves him too, she says they can't rebuild the past. They divorce, and Marielle begins a new life in New York.

There, she meets Malcolm Patterson, the only person to employ her. After showering her with gifts and romantic meals, Malcolm proposes, and after much persuasion she accepts. Shortly after they are married, Malcolm and Marielle begin trying for a baby and when she is unable to conceive, Malcolm is clearly angry. She attempts to tell him about her past but he doesn't listen, and tells her never to think about the past. Three months later, she visits him at the office and is introduced to his new secretary, Ms. Saunders. She announces she is pregnant.

Malcolm hires a nanny for Marielle, much to her annoyance. When their son Theodore is born, the nanny insists that consistency is important in Teddy's life.

Malcolm begins preparing a train set for Christmas. Marielle attempts to tell him about the anniversary of her first son's death, but he cuts her short. The next day, she goes to church and lights a candle for Andre alone, however bumps into her ex-husband Charles there. They talk about the past and share a hug, which is witnessed by her chauffeur.

The next day, Marielle takes Teddy to the park and once again, sees Charles. He is angry that Marielle didn't mention having another son, and says it's not fair that she has a husband, a new life and a son and he has nothing. He then asks her if she'd go to the ends of the earth to find someone she loved, and she hurries off.

That night she is on the phone to Malcolm and hears something upstairs. She tells Malcolm who tells her not to worry. After they end the phone call she goes upstairs anyway and sees the nanny gagged and tied up, and discovers Teddy is missing.

While the house is being searched, detective John Taylor questions the servants and the chauffeur tells about how he saw Marielle with Charles. John then questions Marielle and Malcolm listens, stunned, while she tells about her past. Marielle insists it isn't in Charles's nature to hurt a child.

The police search Charles's house and find Teddy's blue pyjamas there. He is arrested on suspicion of kidnap. Marielle goes to the police station and Charles insists he didn't kidnap Teddy.

In court, all the evidence seems to be pointing to Charles. However, outside John Taylor reveals to Marielle that Malcolm knew all about her past.

It is later revealed that Malcolm kidnapped his own son - he had been having an affair with Ms. Saunders and that he was going to start a new life with her and Teddy, and that he'd only married Marielle to get a baby, as Ms. Saunders was infertile.

Marielle and Malcolm divorce, and at the end of the film, John reveals he loves Marielle as she prepares to begin a new life with Teddy in Vermont.

Cast
 George Hamilton as Malcolm Patterson
 Lisa Rinna as Marielle Delauney
 Robert Hays as John Taylor
 Maurice Godwin as Charles Delauney
 Alex D. Linz as Teddy
 Daniela Akerblom as Ms. Saunders
 Ron Lea as Tom Armour

External links

1995 television films
1995 films
1995 romantic drama films
American romantic drama films
Films shot in Montreal
Films directed by George Kaczender
NBC Productions films
NBC network original films
Films based on works by Danielle Steel
1990s English-language films
1990s American films

Vanished (1995 film)


The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See (),  better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, along with the adjoining Alcázar palace complex and the General Archive of the Indies. It is one of the largest churches in the world as well as the largest Gothic church.

After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for a thousand years. The Gothic section alone has a length of , a width of , and its maximum height in the center of the transept is . The total height of the Giralda tower from the ground to the weather vane is .

Seville Cathedral was the site of the baptism of Infante Juan of Aragon in 1478, only son of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Its royal chapel holds the remains of the city's conqueror, Ferdinand III of Castile, his son and heir, Alfonso the Wise, and their descendant, King Peter the Cruel. The funerary monuments for cardinals Juan de Cervantes and Pedro González de Mendoza are located among its chapels. Christopher Columbus and his son Diego are also buried in the cathedral.

The Archbishop's Palace is located on the northeastern side of the cathedral.

Construction and history

Almohad mosque (1172–1248)
The Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf ordered the construction of a new grand mosque for the city in 1172 on the south end of the city. The new mosque was dedicated in 1182, but was not completed until 1198. It supplanted the one built between 829 and 830 by Umar Ibn Adabbas on the site of the present-day collegiate church of Divino Salvador, as the main mosque in the city. Larger and closer to the city's alcázar, the mosque was designed by architect Ahmad ben Basso as a  rectangular building with a surface of over , including a minaret and ablutions courtyard. Its prayer hall consisted of seventeen aisles oriented southward, perpendicular to its qibla wall, in the manner of many mosques of Al-Andalus, including the mosque of Ibn Adabbas.

"Christianized mosque" (1248–1401)
Shortly after Seville's conquest by Ferdinand III, Yaqub Yusuf's mosque was converted into the city's cathedral. Its orientation was changed and its spaces partitioned and adorned to suit Christian worship practices. The internal space was gradually divided into chapels by constructing walls in the bays along the northern and southern walls. Almost the entire eastern half of the cathedral was occupied by the royal chapel that would hold the bodies of Ferdinand, his wife and Alfonso the Wise.

Gothic cathedral (after 1401)

Seville Cathedral was built to demonstrate the city's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista in 1248. In July 1401, city leaders decided to build a new cathedral to replace the grand mosque that served as the cathedral until then. According to local oral tradition, the members of the cathedral chapter said: "Hagamos una Iglesia tan hermosa y tan grandiosa que los que la vieren labrada nos tengan por locos" ("Let us build a church so beautiful and so grand that those who see it finished will take us for mad"). The actual entry from 8 July 1401, recorded among others by Juan Cean Bermudes in 1801 but now lost, proposed building "una tal y tan buena, que no haya otra su igual" ("one so good that none will be its equal).

Work began in 1402 and continued for over a century. The precise date when construction began is not certain, but some sources date it to 1433. Several factors, including royal resistance to the temporary relocation of the royal chapel delayed construction. In 1433, King John II of Castille allowed the temporary transportation of the royal bodies from the old Capilla Real ('Royal Chapel') – including those of Alfonso X, Beatrice of Swabia, Ferdinand III, Peter the Cruel, and María de Padilla – to the cathedral's cloister for storage.

The clergy of the parish offered half their stipends to pay for architects, artists, stained glass artisans, masons, carvers, craftsman and labourers and other expenses. Due to the size of the building and the cramped nature of the urban fabric around it, demolition and construction took place in different stages. Construction began at the building's northeast corner and continued on its eastern end. After the permission granted by John II, the old Capilla Real on the cathedral's east side was demolished to allow work to continue.

A number of architects worked on the project, often from other countries. In 1434, a Dutch master named Ysambert was placed in charge. He was followed from 1439 to 1454 by a French master named Carlín, and then by Juán Normán until 1472. After 1472 there were two master masons in charge, probably in an attempt to accelerate work. They were succeeded in 1497 by a Master Ximón (possibly Simón de Colonia), who was then succeeded in 1502 by Alfonso Rodríguez until 1513.

By 1467 the eastern part of the cathedral had been completed. The stained glass windows were made after 1478 by Enrique Aleman. The enormous retable was designed in 1482 by Dutch artist Pieter Dancart, who worked on it until his death in 1487, when it was still unfinished. The crossing lantern  () was completed before 1502 by Ximón and construction of the cathedral was completed in 1506–7.

In 1511, however, the crossing lantern and some of the vaults collapsed, necessitating reconstruction. After some debate, the current crossing lantern, with its ornate lierne vaulting, was designed by Juan Gil de Hontañón the Elder in 1513 and completed in 1519. In 1526 the central part of Dancart's retable was complete, but its side sections were only completed between 1550 and 1594. After the completion of the Gothic cathedral, Seville's subsequent prosperity resulted in many additions to the building in Renaissance and Plateresque style.

The crossing again collapsed in 1888, and work on the dome continued until at least 1903. The 1888 collapse occurred due to an earthquake and resulted in the destruction of "every precious object below" the dome at that time.

Description

The interior has the longest nave of any cathedral in Spain. The central nave rises to a height of . In the main body of the cathedral, the most noticeable features are the great boxlike choir loft, which fills the central portion of the nave, and the vast Gothic retable of carved scenes from the life of Christ.

The builders preserved some elements from the ancient mosque. The mosque's sahn, that is, the courtyard for ablutions for the faithful to conduct their ritual cleansing before entering the prayer hall is known today as the Patio de los Naranjos. It contains a fountain and orange trees. However, the most well known is its minaret, which was converted into a bell tower known as the Giralda, and is now the city's most well-known symbol.

Giralda

The Giralda is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville. Its height is  and its square base is  above sea level and  long per side. The Giralda is the former minaret of the mosque that stood on the site under Muslim rule, and was built to resemble the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, Morocco. It was converted into a bell tower for the cathedral after the Reconquista, although the topmost section dates from the Renaissance. It was registered in 1987 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The tower is 104.5 m in height and was one of the most important symbols in the medieval city. Construction began in 1184 under the direction of architect Ben Ahmad Baso. According to the chronicler Ibn Sahib al-Salah, the works were completed on 10 March 1198, with the placement of four gilt bronze balls in the top section of the tower. After a strong earthquake in 1365, the spheres were missing. In the 16th century the belfry was added by the architect Hernán Ruiz the Younger, which hides the Almohad lantern; the statue on its top, called "El Giraldillo", was installed in 1568 to represent the triumph of the Christian faith.

Doors

Seville Cathedral has fifteen doors on its four façades. The major doors are:

West façade
The Door of Baptism, on the left side, was built in the 15th century and decorated with a scene depicting the baptism of Jesus, created by the workshop of Lorenzo Mercadante of Brittany. It is of Gothic style with a pointed archivolt decorated with tracery. It contains sculptures of the brothers Saint Isidore and Saint Leander and the sisters Saints Justa and Rufina, by Lorenzo Mecadante, also a series of angels and prophets by the artisan Pedro Millán.
The Main Door or Door of Assumption, in the center of the west façade, is well-preserved and elaborately decorated. Cardinal Cienfuegos y Jovellanos commissioned the artist Ricardo Bellver to carve the relief of the Assumption over the door; it was executed between 1877 and 1898.

The Door of Saint Michael or Door of the Nativity, has sculptures representing the birth of Jesus by Pedro Millán. It was built in the 15th century and is decorated with terracotta sculptures of Saint Laurean, Saint Hermengild and the Four Evangelists. Today, this door is used for the Holy Week processions.

South façade
The Door of Saint Cristopher or De la Lonja (1887–1895) of the south transept, was designed by Adolfo Fernandez Casanova and completed in 1917; it was originally designed by the architect Demetrio de los Rios in 1866. A replica of the "Giraldillo" stands in front of its gate.

North façade

The Door of the Conception (1895–1927, Puerta de la Concepción) opens onto the Court of the Oranges (Patio de los Naranjos) and is kept closed except on festival days. It was designed by Demetrio de los Rios and finished by Adolfo Fernandez Casanova in 1895. It was built in the Gothic style to harmonize with the rest of the building.

The Door of the Lizard (Puerta del Lagarto) leads from the Court of the Oranges; it is named for the stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling.

The Door of the Sanctuary (Puerta del Sagrario) provides access to the sanctuary. Designed by Pedro Sanchez Falconete in the last third of the 17th century, it is framed by Corinthian columns with a sculpture on top representing King Ferdinand III of Castile next to the Saints Isidore, Leander, Justa and Rufina.

Door of Forgiveness (Puerta del Perdón) gives access to the Patio de los Naranjos (Patio of the Oranges) from Calle Alemanes and therefore is not really a door of the cathedral. It belonged to the ancient mosque and retains its horseshoe arch shape from that time. In the early 16th century it was adorned with terracotta sculptures by the sculptor Miguel Perrin, highlighting the great relief of the Purification on the entrance arch. The plaster ornaments were made by Bartolomé López.

East façade
The Door of Sticks or the Adoration of the Magi (Puerta de Palos or Puerta de la Adoración de los Magos) decorated with sculptures by Lope Marin in 1548, has a relief of the Adoration of the Magi at the top, executed by Miguel Perrin in 1520. The name "Palos" or "Sticks" is due to the wooden railing which separates that area from the rest of the building.

Door of the Bells (Puerta de las Campanillas) was so named because at the time of its construction the bells to call the workers were rung there. The Renaissance sculptures and the relief on the tympanum representing Christ's Entry into Jerusalem were made by Lope Marin in 1548.

Chapels

The cathedral has 80 chapels, including the . It was reported in 1896 that 500 masses were said daily in the chapels. The baptistery Chapel of Saint Anthony contains the painting of The Vision of St. Anthony (1656) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. In November 1874, it was discovered that thieves had cut out the portion depicting Saint Anthony. Then, in January 1875, a Spanish immigrant attempted to sell the same fragment to a New York City art gallery. The man stated it was a complete original by Murillo, Saint Anthony being one of the artist's favorite subjects. The owner of the gallery, Hermann Schaus, negotiated a price of $250 and contacted the Spanish consulate. Upon securing the sale, Schaus sent it to the Spanish Consulate, which shipped it to Seville via Havana and Cadiz. It was returned to the cathedral and added back into the work in 1875 by the restorer Salvador Martínez Cubells.

Organ
The cathedral originally hosted a pair of historic instruments: a Gospel organ by Jordi Bosch, finished in 1793, and an Epistle organ by Valentín and José Valentín Verdalonga, finished in 1831. Neither survived the 1888 earthquake. They were replaced in 1901–1903 with twin organs by Aquilino Amezua. These were converted to electrical control in 1973 and are now played from a single four-manual console on the floor between them. The organ was then reworked by Gerhard Grenzing in 1996, adding some more traditional Baroque capabilities to this romantic-symphonic instrument.

Timeline

 1184 – Construction of the Almohad mosque begun
 1198 – Completion of the mosque
 1248 – Conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III, the mosque Christianized
 1356 and 1362 – Two earthquakes destroy minaret, replaced by bell gable
 1401 – (8 July) Decision made to replace former mosque
 1402 – Nave begun- SW corner
 1432 – Nave completed, east end started
 1466 – Demolition of Royal Chapel authorized by Juan II of Castile
 1467 – East end completed, vaults begun. Anchors added.
 1475 – Stalls begun
 1478 – Stalls completed
 1481 – Doorways in high altar completed
 1482 – Retable begun
 1498 – Vaults completed, lantern begun
 1506 – Main dome (lantern) completed
 1511 – Lantern collapses, rebuilding begins
 1515 – New choir vaults completed
 1517 – New transept vaults completed
 1519 – Lantern rebuilding completed
 1526 – Retable completed
 1551 – Capilla Real begun
 1558 – Belfry replaces bell gable
 1568 – Giralda, top stages
 1575 – Capilla Real completed
 1593 – Chapterhouse (Sala Capitular) completed
 1793 – Epistle organ finished
 1831 – Gospel organ finished
 1888 – Main dome and vaults collapse

Burials

 Christopher Columbus
 Ferdinand Columbus
 Fernando III of Castile
 Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen
 Alfonso X of Castile
 Pedro I of Castile
María Díaz de Padilla

Gallery

See also
 12 Treasures of Spain
 History of early modern period domes

References

Sources

External links

 Interactive 360° panorama from Plaza del Triunfo with Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo General de Indias (Java, highres, 0,9 MB)
 View of front from air and 41 photos (Google).
 Website with detailed information about Seville Cathedral
 Website showcasing sacred destinations including Seville Cathedral
 UNESCO list of World Heritage Monuments
 City Guide Website of Andalucia with information about Seville Cathedral
 Information on Seville_Cathedral
 Details of Seville Cathedral as a national monument of Spain
 Travel Guide information regarding Seville Cathedral
 Great Building Website with details about Seville Cathedral
 Images pertaining to Seville Cathedral
 Bluffton University images and details pertaining to Catedral de Sevilla

Roman Catholic churches completed in 1506
Cathedral
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Andalusia
World Heritage Sites in Spain
Conversion of non-Christian religious buildings and structures into churches
15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Spain
Former mosques in Spain
Gothic architecture in Andalusia
Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Seville
Buildings converted to Catholic church buildings

Seville Cathedral


S.L. Shneiderman (15 June 1906 – 8 October 1996) was a prominent Polish-American Jewish writer, journalist, translator and poet, who wrote in Yiddish and English.

As a journalist, he covered 1930s Paris and reported on the Spanish Civil War before immigrating to the United States in 1940. His works in Yiddish, Arthur Szyk (Tel-Aviv: Farlag Y.L. Perets, 1980); Tsvishn shrek un hofenung (Buenos Ayres: Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine, 1947); and Ven di Visl hot geredt Yidish (Tel Aviv: Y.L. Perets, 1970) were among the "1000 Essential Yiddish Books" noted by the Yiddish Book Center, a prominent American Jewish cultural organization and museum based in Amherst, MA. His English books include Between Fear and Hope (1947), The Warsaw Heresy (1959), and The River Remembers (1978).

Early life and career
Shneiderman was born as Szmuel Lejb Snzajderman (in Yiddish: Shemu'el-Leyb Shnayderman) in Kazimierz Dolny in Congress Poland in the Russian Empire.  Shneiderman grew up going to both a religious Jewish elementary school and a Polish middle school. He moved to Warsaw in 1925, to study literature and journalism at the Free Polish University (Pol. Wolna Wszechnica Polska). There, he wrote poems about poverty, unemployment, industrial expansion, the rejection of militarism, and an idealized, pastoral Polish village life. He published two books of poems, Gilderne Feigl (Eng: Golden Birds) in 1927 and Feyern in Shtot (Eng: Unrest in Town) in 1932. Some of these poems were reproduced and appeared in the leading Yiddish weekly in Warsaw at the time, Literarische Bletter (Eng: Literary Pages), edited by Nachman Mayzel.

His first few years in interwar Warsaw were marked by a renewal in Jewish creative culture and a flourishing Jewish avant-garde artistic movement. Shneiderman experimented with genres of Yiddish writing beyond poetry, interviewing Polish writers, translating poems and novels into Yiddish, and writing songs for the Yiddish theater.

He also took interest in cinema as a politically powerful art form. In September 1928, Shneiderman published two articles in the first issue of the (short-lived) first Yiddish journal devoted to cinema, Film Velt (Film World), published in Warsaw and edited by Saul Goskin and Mark Tannenbaum. In his first article, "Film has Deep Meaning," Shneiderman argued that movie making was an important form of cultural mass entertainment and emphasized the social significance of the cinema. His second essay, published under the pseudonym "Emil," "Behind the Scenes of In the Polish Woods," narrated the production of the eponymous movie based on the novel by Yosef Opatoshu.

In 1933, he married Eileen (Hala) Szymin, née Chaja, (1908–2004), the daughter of Regina and Benjamin Szymin, a major publisher of Hebrew and Yiddish books in Warsaw. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, her parents, who lived in Otwock, were imprisoned in the Otwock and Warsaw ghettos. They were both killed by the Nazis. Eileen was the older sister of David "CHIM" Seymour, Polish photojournalist and co-founder of Magnum Photos, famous for his photographs of the Spanish Civil War and of child war refugees after World War II. Eileen devoted herself to preserving and promoting CHIM's work after his death in 1956, including organizing a 1996 exhibit at the International Center of Photography, where she became an honorary trustee. Eileen was a partner in their travels and participated in researching and editing S.L. Shneiderman's writings in both Yiddish and English.

The couple moved to Paris in 1933, where he worked as a journalist and correspondent for various Polish and Yiddish daily newspapers. Under the influence of Egon Erwin Kisch, Shneiderman began to write prose. He published his first volume of reportages,  Zvishn Nalewkes un Eifel-Turm (Eng: Between Nalewsky and the Eiffel Tower) in 1935, with a foreword by Kisch, and in Polish Od Nalewek do Wieży Eiffla in 1936.

Between 1936 and 1938, Shneiderman reported on the Spanish Civil War and anti-fascist politics in Yiddish. He published his reportages in Krig in Shpanyen: Hinterland (Eng: The War in the Spanish Hinterland) in 1938, including his brother-in-law CHIM's photographs of the conflict. Some of the pieces Shneiderman published on the Spanish Civil war were later translated into Hebrew in Mandatory Palestine. His coverage earned him the moniker as the "first Yiddish war reporter." Translations recently appeared in Polish in 2021 and in Spanish in 2023. An English translation is forthcoming in 2024.

After the collapse of the Spanish Republic in 1939, Shneiderman spent six months in South Africa as part of a lecture tour, where he considered taking a permanent editorship for the Yiddish newspaper Afrikaner idishe tsaytung (Eng. African Jewish newspaper) in Johannesburg. Deciding to return to Paris, he stopped and visited Mandatory Palestine (later Israel) for the first time. Amid news of increasing German aggression in Central-Eastern Europe, S.L. Shneiderman and Eileen immigrated to the United States with their young daughter, Helen, in February 1940. After a six-day journey aboard the liner S. S. Manhattan and a week on Ellis Island, they arrived in New York City.

After World War II
Shneiderman was politically committed to modern Jewish nationalism, Jewish identity, Yiddish culture, and Holocaust memory.

After World War II, Shneiderman promoted the publication of Holocaust survivors' memoirs and testimonies, thereby contributing to making them available to a wider audience. In 1944, he edited the diary of Mary Berg, among the first eyewitness accounts of life and Nazi persecution in the Warsaw Ghetto. Written from the perspective of a teenage girl, Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary was published in English in 1945, and subsequently translated into Hebrew, Italian, and French. Although Mary Berg withdrew from public discussions, her story gained continued interest and was republished in subsequent editions, most recently by Oneworld Publications as The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto in 2009.

Shneiderman also edited and published the diary of Gemma LaGuardia Gluck, after encountering evidence on her arrest and incarceration as a political hostage while covering the 1961 Eichmann trial. Gemma LaGuardia Gluck was the sister of New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Upon visiting her in Queens, NY, Shneiderman discovered she had kept a handwritten journal of her time in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. S.L. Shneiderman edited the manuscript and published it in 1961 under the title My Story.

In 1946, Shneiderman visited the postwar ruins of Poland. Out of this trip came two travelogues, Zvishn Shrek un Hofenung (Eng: Between Fear and Hope), and Ven di Vaysl hot geredt Yidish (Eng: The River Remembers, or When the Vistula Spoke Yiddish) published in Yiddish in 1970 and in English in 1978, for which Shneiderman was awarded the Bergen Belsen Remembrance Award. The travelogues document Jewish shtetl life in Poland from the 11th century to the 1970s, and the destruction wrought by the Nazis and Polish Communist rule onto Jewish life.  Shneiderman's work illustrates the many traces of pre-war Jewish life in Poland. Stopping in Łódź shortly after the Kielce pogrom, Shneiderman described the familiarity and foreignness of postwar Polish-Jewish life: local Jewish communities, decimated during the war, had been replaced by almost 25,000 Jewish repatriates from Russia.

Shneiderman was heavily invested in writing about Poland, Polish Jewry, and the fate of Jewish culture in Poland. Throughout his life, he continued to write about postwar Poland, reviewing the 1956 Polish uprising in The Warsaw Heresy, published in 1959. That same year, he gave then-Vice President Richard Nixon a tour of the Warsaw Ghetto on his official visit to Poland. In 1966, Shneiderman wrote the narration of the film The Last Chapter, directed by Benjamin and Lawrence Rothman. The film depicts the thousand-year history of Jewish life in Poland, shtetl life, and the richness of religious and secular Polish-Jewish culture.

Shneiderman's later works continued to promote Jewish writers and artists. Shneiderman was president of the Yiddish P.E.N. in New York City, the Yiddish branch of the international writer's organization based in New York City. In 1968, he published a Yiddish biography of Ilya Ehrenburg (1891-1967), a Jewish Russian-language poet, novelist, and journalist whom he had met in interwar Paris and in Spain. In his biography, Shneiderman defended Ehrenburg from accusations of collaboration with Stalin in the destruction of Soviet Yiddish culture. In 1974, he edited a collection of original writings in Yiddish entitled Tsuzamen (Eng. Together). Shneiderman also promoted the candidacy of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer for the 1978 Nobel Prize.

S.L. and Eileen Shneiderman maintained close connections with Polish-Jewish artists, writing a critical essay about Marc Chagall's use of Christ imagery and work in cathedrals in France, celebrating the work of Chaim Goldberg, and publishing a 1980 book on the illustrator, miniaturist, and political cartoonist Arthur Szyk.

Shneiderman was a prolific writer and journalist, authoring hundreds of articles in the Yiddish and Anglophone Jewish press throughout his seventy-year career.  He was deeply involved in New York journalistic circles. In 1948, he was one of the founding members of the United Nations Correspondents Association. After World War II, he began reporting for the Israeli paper Davar. Despite identifying in his youth with the Left Marxist-Zionist movement Linke poalei tsiyon, his writing transcended both left and right blocs of the Labor Zionist political spectrum. Throughout his career, Shneiderman was a regular contributor to the Yiddish-language Morgn-zhurnal (Eng. Morning Journal) and the Tog-morgn-zhurnal (Day-Morning Journal). His articles in English were featured in a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, The National Jewish Monthly, The Reporter, Sunday Independent, McCall's, East Europe, Problems of Communism, The New York Times Book Review, Hadassah, Congress-Bi-Weekly, Midstream, ADL Bulletin, The American Zionist, Jewish Frontier, Jewish Digest, The Forward, Congress Monthly. He tackled diverse topics, ranging from Polish intellectuals and writers under Communist rule, to Yiddish in the USSR, and the portrait of Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukacs.

Legacy
S.L. Shneiderman is now the object of renewed scholarly interest, with the Association for Jewish Studies sponsoring an interdisciplinary panel and conversation series on Shneiderman's journalistic work, politics, and legacy in October 2022.

In 1988, S.L. and Eileen Shneiderman donated their personal archives to the Institute for Diaspora Research at Tel Aviv University. After S.L. Shneiderman's death on October 8, 1996, Eileen donated their collection of 395 Yiddish books signed by their authors to the University of Maryland's McKeldin Library. In 2001, Eileen Shneiderman published What Time is it on the Jewish Clock? (Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz Publishers, 2001), a retrospective on her husband's work. Eileen Shneiderman died on November 30, 2004. She and her late husband are buried together in Israel.

In March 2007, two of S.L. Shneiderman's books were reprinted with additional materials. The new edition of the diary of Mary Berg was prepared by Susan Lee Pentlin, professor at Central Missouri State University, and re-titled The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto. Gemma LaGuardia Gluck's diary was republished as Fiorello's Sister: Gemma LaGuardia Gluck's Story, in a newly expanded edition edited by Rochelle G. Saidel.

Shneiderman's coverage on the Spanish Civil War, originally published in Yiddish in 1938 as Krig in Shpanyen: Hinterland, was recently translated into Polish in 2021 and Spanish in 2023, with an English translation set for publication in 2024.

Notable Publications

 Shneiderman, S.L. Gilderne Feigl [Eng: Golden Birds]. 1927.
 Shneiderman, S.L. Feyern in Shtot [Eng: Unrest in Town]. 1932.
 Shneiderman, S.L. Krig in Shpanyen: Hinterland  [Eng. War in the Spanish Hinterlands]. Warsaw, Poland: Yiddish Universal Library, 1938.
 Mary Berg, Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary. Edited by S. L. Shneiderman. trans. Sylvia Glass. New York: L. B. Fischer, 1945. [Reprinted as The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto. Edited by Susan Lee Pentlin. London: Oneworld Publications, 2007.]
 Shneiderman, S.L. Zvishn Shrek un Hofenung [Eng. Between Fear and Hope]. Buenos Aires: Union Central Israelita Polaca, 1947.
 Shneiderman, S.L. The Warsaw Heresy. New York: Horizon Press, 1959.
 Gemma LaGuardia Gluck. My Story. Edited by S.L. Shneiderman. Philadelphia: D. McKay Co, 1961. [Republished as Fiorello's Sister: Gemma LaGuardia Gluck's Story. Edited by Rochelle G. Saidel. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2007]
 Shneiderman, S.L. Ilye Erenburg [Eng: Ilya Ehrenburg]. New York: Yidisher Kempfer, 1968.
 Shneiderman, S.L. Ṿen di Ṿisl hoṭ geredṭ Yidish (Eng. The River Remembers, or When the Vistula Spoke Yiddish). Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz, 1970.
 Shneiderman, S.L. ed. Tsuzamen [Eng. Together]. Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz, 1974.
 Schneiderman, S.L., "Chagall — Torn?" Midstream (June–July 1977): 49
 Shneiderman, S.L. Arthur Szyk. Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz, 1980.

Further references

 Engel, David (1996) observations by S. L. Shneiderman and Shimon Samet. Beyn shakhror l'brikha: nitsuley hashoah b'Polin v'hameavek al hanehgatem, 1944-1946. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.
 Estraikh, Gennady (2008) Yiddish in the Cold War. London: Legenda.
 Hoberman, J. (1991) Bridge of Light: Yiddish Films Between Two Worlds. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
 Klotz, Anne-Christin (2022) Gemeinsam gegen Deutschland: Warschaus jiddische Presse im Kampf gegen den Nationalsozialismus (1930–1941).
 Kozłowska, Magdalena, and Karolina Koprowska, eds. (2021) S. L. Sznajderman, Wojna w Hiszpanii. Reportaż z Głębi Kraju. trans. Magdalena Kozłowska. Warsaw: Czarne.
 Kugelmass, Jack (2014) Sifting the Ruins: Émigré Jewish Journalists' Return Visits to the Old Country, 1946-1948. David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan, The Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.
 Kugelmass, Jack (2019) Strange Encounters: Expat and Refugee Polish-Jewish Journalists in Poland and Germany Shortly After World War II. In Juden und Nichtjuden Nach der Shoah: Begegnungen in Deutschland (Europäisch-Jüdische Studien-Beiträge). eds. Stefanie Fischer, Nathanael Riemer and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum. pp. 31–47. Oldenberg: De Gruyter.
 Lansky, Aaron (2004) Outwitting History. New York City: Algonquin Books.
 Naggar, Carole (2022) David "Chim" Seymour: Searching for the Light, 1911-1956. Oldenbourg: De Gruyter.
 Sinkoff, Nancy (2024) "Biography as Hesped: Sh. L. Shneiderman's Homage to Ilya Ehrenburg." In A Jew in the Street: New Perspectives on European Jewish History, eds. Nancy Sinkoff, Howard Lupovitch, James Loeffler, and Jonathan Karp. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
 Wiesel, Elie (1996) Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea. London: Shocken.

References

Yiddish-language journalists
Yiddish-language literature
Polish-Jewish culture in the United States
Polish-Jewish culture in New York City
American journalists
Polish-American culture
1906 births
1996 deaths

S.L. Shneiderman