Viewing events for February 4, 2012

Feb. 5 Ivy Hall Lecture Series: Anne Leader, Professor of Art History at SCAD Atlanta Sunday, 3 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. SCAD Professor of Art History Anne Leader will speak about her new book, "The Badia of Florence: Art and Observance in a Renaissance Monastery." The book examines the Santa Maria di Firenze, known familiarly as the abbey, or Badia, of Florence during a crucial period of reform and rebirth. Interdisciplinary in approach, it explores the renovated Badia as an integral part of the spiritual, political, and social life of Early Renaissance Florence, as crucial to the broader program to disseminate the Benedictine Observance throughout Italy, and as fundamental to refashioning Benedictine corporate identity. The Florentine Badia is significant not only for its role in Florence's civic life and urban development, but also because its cloister survives as the earliest monastic commission to display the new architectural language of Brunelleschi and the revolutionary artistic vocabulary of Masaccio and Fra Angelico. By interweaving discussion of Renaissance art, architecture, monasticism, patronage, and Florentine social and political history, it provides a greater understanding of this fascinating monument and expands our knowledge of religious life, artistic patronage and workshop practice in Early Renaissance Italy. A book signing is available after the event with the purchase of a book. For more information, call Lee Barry Todd at 404.253.3324.

Feb. 6 The Publishing Process: Student Workshop featuring literary agent Rebecca Oliver Monday, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. Rebecca Oliver, literary agent with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, will speak to SCAD Atlanta writing students about the publishing process. This workshop is limited to 20 students, and registration is required. For more information, or to register, contact Lee Barry Todd at 404.253.3324.

Feb. 9 Ivy Hall Writers Roundtable: Pearl Cleage Thursday, 5 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. The Ivy Hall Writers Roundtable is a quarterly program featuring professionals in the writing industry. This program is open to SCAD Atlanta writing students, and limited to 20 students. Register in advance with Lee Barry Todd at 404.253.3324. Students must come prepared with questions and discussion topics. The speaker for the winter quarter Writers Roundtable is Pearl Cleage, an Atlanta based writer whose work has won commercial acceptance and critical praise in several genres. An award winning playwright whose "Flyin' West" was the most produced new play in the country in 1994, Pearl is also a bestselling author whose first novel, "What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day," was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Her subsequent novels have been consistent best sellers and perennial book club favorites. "I Wish I Had A Red Dress," her second novel, won multiple book club awards in 2001. "Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do," was a Good Morning America!" book club pick in 2003, and "Babylon Sisters" made the ESSENCE magazine best seller list in 2005. Her most recent novel, "Baby Brother's Blues," was the first pick of the new ESSENCE Book Club and an NAACP Image Award winner for fiction in 2007.

Feb. 24 Ivy Hall Writers Series: Susan Rebecca White Friday, 6:30 p.m., SCAD Atlanta, Welcome Center, second floor, 1600 Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, Ga. Born and raised in Atlanta, Susan Rebecca White graduated from Brown University and received a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University, where she was awarded a teaching fellowship and the James Purdy Prize for outstanding fiction. Her debut novel, "Bound South," a Southern Independent Booksellers Association bestseller, was shortlisted for the Townsend Prize in fiction. White's second novel, "A Soft Place to Land," was greeted with critical acclaim from the Atlanta Journal Constitution to Vanity Fair magazine, which listed it as "essential reading." Susan has taught creative writing at public and private high schools, and has also taught writing at Hollins University and Emory University. She will be the visiting author at SCAD Atlanta in winter 2012. She is working on her third novel, set in café society in New York City in the 1940's. Admission to the Ivy Hall Writers Series is $15 per person. Admission is free for SCAD students, professors and staff with a valid ID. A book signing is available after the event with the purchase of a book. For more information, call Lee Barry Todd at 404.253.3324. Read the press release.

Feb. 29 SCAD Atlanta Book Club Wednesday, 1 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. The Book Club is open to all SCAD students. Shuttle transportation from main campus will be provided. Students will discuss "Bound South" by author Susan Rebecca White, SCAD visiting author, and a speaker in the Ivy Hall Writers Series on Feb. 24. Contact Karen Adkins in student services for more information.

March 2 Just Write It! Student Reading and Reception Friday, 5:30 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. The winners of the 2012 Just Write It! Competition will present their work at Ivy Hall on Friday, March 2. Students, professors, staff, family and friends are encouraged to attend the reading and reception. This competition is open to all SCAD students. For information about submissions to Just Write It!, contact Professor Catherine Ramsdell.

March 7 Ivy Hall Writers Series: Alexandra Styron Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Ivy Hall, 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., N.E., Atlanta, Ga. Styron wrote "Reading my Father" and "All the Finest Girls." She is a graduate of Barnard College and the M.F.A. program at Columbia University. The New Yorker, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal featured Styron. She teaches memoir writing in the M.F.A. program at Hunter College. Admission to the Ivy Hall Writers Series is $15 per person. Admission is free for SCAD students, professors and staff with a valid ID. A book signing is available after the event with the purchase of a book. For more information, call Lee Barry Todd at 404.253.3324. Read the press release.