A Shaggy Dog Story: The Roland Batten Memorial Lecture 2012

Once again TruexCullins is pleased to be supporting the annual Roland Batten Memorial Lecture on Architecture and Design. This year's event will be held this Wednesday, October 17 at 6:00 pm at 301 Williams Hall on the University of Vermont Campus.  All are welcome to attend.

The guest speaker this year is Architect Louis Mannie Lionni, who will be giving a lecture on the story of our hometown of Burlington, Vermont.  "Heresies: Cultural Criticism in the Context of the Commercialization, Privatization and Militarization of a Small New England City.  A Shaggy Dog Story."

Louis Mannie Lionni is the Editor and Publisher of 05401, a small town magazine that is "committed to promoting an integrative, multidisciplinary dialogue in the public realm."

In Lionni's Own Words:

Architecture can be thought of as a sub-set of the great synthesizing categories: art, science, politics, sociology, philosophy. But architecture, in its built form, ultimately gives material being to all of these, and preserves and expresses their conflicts and contradictions over time.

Architectural criticism attempts to describe the relationship of the built environment to the existential environment. In formal terms ; in functional terms.

The subject of architectural criticism can range from the structure of poetry to the poetry of structure, from graphic design to urban and regional planning.

05401 ostensibly deals with architecture, planning, food and romance in Burlington, Vermont, on the east coast of Lake Champlain. The thing about it is that I often meet friends who tell me how much they enjoyed (liked) the most recent issue and then ask me without a trace of sarcasm what it’s about. I find that puzzling.

In any case, it would be irresponsible to overlook – in this context – the militarization of our environment, its privatization and commercialization, the F35 controversy and PlanBTV.

The lecture and reception are sponsored by the Roland Batten Memorial Fund, TruexCullins Architecture & Interior Design, and The University of Vermont’s Visiting Artists, Art Critics and Art Historian’s Lecture Series. The events are free and open to the public.

For more information call the UVM Art Department, 802-656-2014.