Language of sculpture

In the framework of the “U.S. Art Residence” project Window o America Dnipropetrovsk center's staff prepared a session dedicated to the art of sculpture. The “Gabfest” Club members were familiarized with a row of American sculptors.
We started the presentation with the videos about the works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. During the three decades of a remarkable career, he redirected and invigorated the course of American sculpture away from a Neoclassical aesthetic to a lively, naturalistic style, while also ardently promoting the nationalistic concept of an American school of sculpture. The video about the “Robert Gould Shaw Memorial” (1884–97) for Boston impressed the group. It depicts a procession of African-American foot soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry with their commander Colonel Shaw on his horse with an angel of glory hovering above, a stunning synthesis of real and ideal. Other videos illustrated his monuments for New York and the project for “the most beautiful coin in the world” – the 20$ coin.
Another name introduced to the audience was that of Frederic Remington .His artistic career took an unexpected turn when he learned the basics of clay modeling from a fellow sculptor. Remington's “Broncho Buster” was an instant success, admired for its moment-in-time rendering of a cowboy astride a bucking horse. His talent for sculpture was matched by his technical derring-do and predilection for storytelling detail, resulting in some of the finest American small bronzes of the time. The abstract US sculpture was presented by the works of American sculptors with European roots – J. Lipchitz and O. Archipenko.
The second part of the session was dedicated to the group conversation about the sculptures of Dnipropetrovsk. The club members tried to tell our American guest Mr. Brian about the famous local monuments and their symbolism. The topic was challenging and educational to all participants.
Number of participants – 22 persons.

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Very positive meeting @ ATC

The "Window on America" center hosted American Teen Club members, Dnipropetrovsk teenagers, who are willing to improve their English language, get to know about the United States and have a good time. The meeting was lead by the FLEX alumni Darya Gerasymova'13 and Hanna Akastelova’13.

The session of the American Teen Club started with grammar exercises. The group tried their luck with on-line grammar tests.

The next activity offered by the moderators was an action game that allowed to activate the vocabulary and helped to improve communication in the group.

The successfully completed tests and exercises as a rule triggered joyful bursts of laughter. Besides the new knowledge the teenagers received a boost of positive emotions.

Number of participants – 12 persons.

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Groundhog Day

Within the framework of the “From mines to art heights” project the "Window on America" Center (Dnipropetrovsk , Ukraine) was visited by the group of National Mining University students majoring in IT studies. The group was accompanied by the English language lecturer - Mr. Brian Chung, the Fulbright academic exchange lecturer from New York.
The WOA Center premises were used as a site for an out-of-class training session. The freshmen continued to watch and discuss an American movie Groundhog Day (1993). The story tells about a weatherman who finds himself living the same day over and over again
Mr. Brian stopped the film on a regular basis to explain to the students American idioms and cultural phenomena presented in the movie. He also asked questions on the content of the film to check the students’ comprehension.
Number of participants – 7.

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Zodiac

The ‘Wednesday Movie Club’ was at Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Liliia, moderator of the Movie Club offered screening of the crime-drama film ‘Zodiac’ (2007) with Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo starring.
Plot: A San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer.
Director: David Fincher
Writers: James Vanderbilt (screenplay), Robert Graysmith (book)
Number of participants – 12.

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Presidents’ Day

This Saturday the official part of the Gabfest Club’s session (Window on America center Dnipropetreovsk, Ukraine) was dedicated to the President’s Day holiday in the USA. We decided to start the discussion with a slide show about the city of Washington – the capital of the USA.

The WOA’s Head Svitlana U. who has been to Washington city shared her the positive emotions about the trip to the USA. The Club members had to read and translate the text on the slides and comment the images on the slides. The focus of our discussion this time was on the architecture of the buildings and the interiors of the world-known sites – the White House, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court building.
Several books presented to the club members aroused a lot of interest. The WOA’s collection features books on many aspects of American presidency – today we introduced the books written by the President Barak Obama. To illustrate the “Audacity of Hope” book a video with the famous speech was presented to the group and discussed afterwards.
Once the official part was over the club members spent some time in a conversation about the Chinese New Year celebration. The club members were asked to tell about the animals that symbolize their year of birth and the practices consistent with the year sign. The new-comers were given the task to prepare introduction speeches for the next session.
Participants number – 23 persons.

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