An exhibit curated by Debra Corrie ’92, visual and performing arts, featuring Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s cultural wealth and diversity, as seen through the lenses of 22 leading contemporary photographers from 13 countries, is currently on display at Dulles International Airport. The exhibit, The Big Picture: A Photography Exhibition in Celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the IDB Cultural Center, will be located at the Gateway Gallery through the end of October.

Corrie serves as art collection coordinator and registrar for the Inter-American Development Bank; the show is a collaboration between the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Airports Authority Arts Program.

“Through this exhibit, which is slated to be the most visited show in the IDB Cultural Center’s history, Dulles International Airport will become a museum of modern art for several months, giving countless travelers an opportunity to become acquainted with our peoples’ colorful and expressive heritage, traditions and imagery,” said Ivan Duque Marquez, chief of the IDB’s Culture, Creativity and Solidarity Division.

For more information about the show, click here.

A new Salon column by UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller responds to what Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom called “hit[ting] a reset button for the fall campaign.” Moving from the primary to the general election, Fehrnstrom remarked, “everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.”

Schaller argues that the Etch-a-Sketch metaphor is apt in that Romney aspires to “invite all center-right voters, be they hardcore conservatives or libertarian Republicans or fence-sitting moderates, to compose whatever sketch of him they find most appealing — and then vote, accordingly, for him.”

Instead of the presidential election, Schaller’s latest Baltimore Sun column focuses on Maryland’s 6th District, which he calls “the only consequential contest on the ballot.” He writes that the Western Maryland district was recently redrawn to include to include chunks of heavily Democratic Montgomery County, with the intent to unseat Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett. Bartlett will debate Democratic nominee John Delaney four times in the next two weeks.

Update (10/18/2012): See Schaller’s newest Salon column, responding to the presidential debate, “Cool cat Obama shows his claws.”

An exhibit curated by Debra Corrie ’92, visual and performing arts, featuring Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s cultural wealth and diversity, as seen through the lenses of 22 leading contemporary photographers from 13 countries, is currently on display at Dulles International Airport. The exhibit, The Big Picture: A Photography Exhibition in Celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the IDB Cultural Center, will be located at the Gateway Gallery through the end of October.

Corrie serves as art collection coordinator and registrar for the Inter-American Development Bank; the show is a collaboration between the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Airports Authority Arts Program.

“Through this exhibit, which is slated to be the most visited show in the IDB Cultural Center’s history, Dulles International Airport will become a museum of modern art for several months, giving countless travelers an opportunity to become acquainted with our peoples’ colorful and expressive heritage, traditions and imagery,” said Ivan Duque Marquez, chief of the IDB’s Culture, Creativity and Solidarity Division.

For more information about the show, click here.

An exhibit curated by Debra Corrie ’92, visual and performing arts, featuring Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s cultural wealth and diversity, as seen through the lenses of 22 leading contemporary photographers from 13 countries, is currently on display at Dulles International Airport. The exhibit, The Big Picture: A Photography Exhibition in Celebration of the 20^th Anniversary of the IDB Cultural Center, will be located at the Gateway Gallery through the end of October.

Corrie serves as art collection coordinator and registrar for the Inter-American Development Bank; the show is a collaboration between the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Airports Authority Arts Program.

“Through this exhibit, which is slated to be the most visited show in the IDB Cultural Center’s history, Dulles International Airport will become a museum of modern art for several months, giving countless travelers an opportunity to become acquainted with our peoples’ colorful and expressive heritage, traditions and imagery,” said Ivan Duque Marquez, chief of the IDB’s Culture, Creativity and Solidarity Division.

For more information about the show, click here.

ReSET is in search of the next UMBC Recycling Mascot for the upcoming Recyclemania 2013 competition. The selection process includes this written application and in-person interviews with the selection committee. All applicants must be UMBC students, possess and maintain at least 2.5 grade point average, and be in good disciplinary standing.

The UMBC Recycling Mascot attends athletic games and many recycling/sustainability events sponsored by The Retriever Sustainability Events Team (ReSET). The UMBC Recycling Mascot serves as an ambassador at community events and attends student activities as requested throughout the academic year. The selected performer will work with ReSET team members to fulfill appearance requests and maintain a constant presence of awareness of recycling on campus.

Secrecy is a major part of performing as the UMBC Recycling Mascot.  Applicants should start practicing this immediately. Tell no one that you are applying!

The selection committee will be looking for applicants with lots of great energy, positive attitude, ability to have an animated personality, and a desire to help the UMBC community increase its recycling rate. Please answer the following questions and return to recycle@umbc.edu . Aplication phase is still open . Apply now!   http://my.umbc.edu/groups/reset/documents/2774

To some, tonight’s presidential debate could be summed up by this tweet from film critic Bildge Ebiri:

OBAMA: ”I passed a law allowing women to get equal pay.”

ROMNEY: “I hired women once.”

STEIN: “I’m in jail.” 

The Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala, were arrested this afternoon after persistently attempting to enter the location of the third presidential debate at Hofstra University. No, they were not sign-wielding, chant-shouting activists — they were just two women who reasoned that, since they are appearing as candidates on 85% of state ballots next month, they should be able to participate in the debate process.

Courtesy of Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

However, the policeman at the scene reasoned that Stein and Honkala were disobedient protesters who should be arrested after ignoring instructions to remove themselves and stop blocking traffic.

Here is the video of the scene, recorded by The Long Island Report.

So, is this a complicated matter of unfairness in the American democracy, or is this a simple matter of civil disobedience and repercussion?

Stein called the debate a “mockery of democracy” because of the Commission on Presidential Debates’ unwillingness to let all the candidates speak.

She said during a quasi-press conference before her arrest, 

“If you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the electoral college by being on the ballot in enough states, then you deserve to be in the election and you deserve to be heard. The American people deserve to hear choices which are not bought and paid for by multinational corporations and Wall Street. This is why we are not hearing the critical issues in this debate.”

 The CPD  has a rule declaring that candidates “must have at least 15 percent support in public opinion based on the average of five national polls in order to participate.”

But this threshold is now making it virtually impossible for a third party candidate to join in the Presidential debates. Perhaps the standards of admition should be lowered to allow good people like Stein and Hokala on stage.

What do you think about these “debate crashers?”  Is the minimum public opinion poll percentage too high? Or, was the arrest of Stein and Honkala completely justified because of their deliberate disobedience with police officials?