Programming Archive

This was the lead of the story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on January 6, 2009:
The Worcester Center for Crafts, one of the city’s oldest cultural institutions, has suspended daily operations and may have to close permanently if it cannot raise $1 million by the
end of the month.
And this was the headline of the story in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette more than 11 months later on November 25, 2009: Craft Center comeback: With help from WSC, staff and volunteers, Festival of Crafts returns for 40th year.
The main savior, according to this T&G story, was Worcester State College, which entered into an alliance with the 154-year-old Craft Center last June.
The agreement included $250,000 a year to rent studio space for college students at the center and a large loan to clear the center's crippling debt.

But the saving graces of a century and a half of community goodwill and a dedicated cadre of staff, students and volunteers can't be discounted. More than a hundred volunteers have stepped forward to help the Craft Center pull off the festival on the weekend of November 28 and 29.

My guest, Carol Donnelly, is interim director of the Worcester Center for Crafts.

Guest:Philip Pomper, Wesleyan University History Professor and Author.
Date; Sunday February 28

The gripping untold story of a terrorist leader whose death would
catapult his brother—Lenin—to revolution.In 1886, Alexander Ulyanov, a
brilliant biology student, joined a small group of students at St.
Petersburg University to plot the assassination of Russia’s tsar. Known
as “Second First March” for the date of their action, this group failed
disastrously in their mission, and its leaders, Alexander included,
were executed. History has largely forgotten Alexander, but for the
most important consequence of his execution: his younger brother,
Vladimir, went on to lead the October Revolution of 1917 and head the
new Soviet government under his revolutionary pseudonym “Lenin.”

Dogtown is a New England “ghost town” nestled in the center of the island of Cape Ann. It is a dramatic example of a terminal moraine, the former abode of several people thought of as witches, a place where American modernist Marsden Hartley painted some of his finest works, and the scene of a recent horrific violent murder. “There is something different about Dogtown” as one Gloucester resident put it. It is a place both beloved for it’s lonely natural beauty and feared for its eerie sense of gloom and foreboding. Writer ELYSSA EAST started out to write about Harley’s experiences in Dogtown and soon got swept up in the weird and wild history of this very unusual spot. Her book DOGTOWN: DEATH AND ENCHANTMENT IN A NEW ENGLAND GHOST TOWN is a complex book.  It is by turns a chilling murder mystery, a wildly arcane New England history, an investigation on how a strange geographic location can inspire artists, and a sensitive portrait of one of New England’s great coastal communities. If you are interested in New England history, don’t miss this show.

Randy and Lisa Lynch came to wine through their travels in Italy, where the fruit of the vine is typically a complement to a meal-not the centerpiece. When their growing passion for fine food and wine led them to plant acreage in Napa Valley, Randy and Lisa decided to create a red wine that would easily find a place at the dinner table. Maximus, named after the wine-loving, 2nd century Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus, became their initial bottling. That was the beginning of Bennett Lane Winery. Randy is also a huge jazz fan. 
For more information you can go to: www.bennettlane.com