University to help celebrate Jamestown's 400th

America’s 400th anniversary is upon us, and the University of Richmond will participate in the celebration. Jamestown 2007 honors the establishment of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Va., and across the nation, and particularly within Virginia, there will be activities, events and celebrations beginning in 2006 and lasting through 2007.

The University is sponsoring a number of events. “Together, they form a varied palette of art exhibits, historical artifacts, period music, academic reflection on leadership during the period of discovery, and more,” said John McCulla, director of  community relations, who is helping to coordinate campus events. 

The School of Law is organizing the Rule of Law Summit April 11–13, 2007, which will bring together several U.S. Supreme Court justices and their counterparts, lords of law from the House of Lords in the United Kingdom. They will explore the antecedents of the American legal system, the indispensable role of the rule of law in successful democracies, and current international judicial and legal issues.

In addition, “We are building a small Web site to highlight our participation in the Jamestown 2007 celebration and events that the public can enjoy on our campus,” said McCulla.

“We also are assembling Dan Roberts’ ‘A Moment in Time’ offerings related to the formation of America and will be offering them as an educational resource to students of democracy, far and wide.”

The University is an official statewide partner of Jamestown 2007’s group of organizations celebrating and promoting the anniversary. 

Jamestown 2007 events at Richmond

In addition to the Rule of Law conference, the University is sponsoring a variety of other events and exhibitions. Among them:

• The Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center will offer “News of the Colonies: Prints, Maps, and Perceptions of the New World,” Jan. 23–April 28. Exhibits will reveal the initial observations of explorers and settlers and the role they played in developing European ideas about the region and its native people. In conjunction with the exhibit, the music department will present “Music of Home: English Songs and Madrigals from the Time of the Jamestown Colonists,” Jan. 22, 7 p.m., Camp Concert Hall, free. 
• The Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art will present “A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie,” Feb. 3–May 18. The Henrietta Marie, a 1699 English slave ship, is believed to be the world’s largest source of tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade. The artifacts call attention to the fact that the first slaves in the new world were at Jamestown. Richmond trustee Guy Ross, working with Kathy Panoff of the Modlin Center and Richard Waller of University Museums, was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to the University. It opens Feb. 2, 7 p.m., and will include music, a lecture and a reception; open to the public, free.
• The Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature will feature “Native Plants of Virginia,” Feb. 28–June 24. The exhibit includes pen-and-ink drawings by Lara Call Gastinger for the “Flora of Virginia” project (a manual of more than 3,700 native and naturalized plants) and selections from the University’s herbarium. Highlighted are species that were native to Virginia and introduced to Europe in the 17th century; free.
• The Jepson School of Leadership Studies will host a conference of scholars next September to discuss “The Leadership of Discovery.”  The resulting papers will be published in a special issue of Jepson Studies in Leadership. 
• Schola Cantorum, led by Associate Professor of Music Jeffrey Riehl, will produce a “Lessons and Carols” radio program for broadcast in December 2007. The program depicts the settlement of Jamestown as a turning point told in five imaginary chapters, by century, from 1607–2007. Schola Cantorum will perform music from the London of Shakespeare’s time to the Appalachians, spirituals of the Deep South, Puritan New England, the ancient Huron tribe, the land of the Rio Grande and the present. The program will be broadcast over 100 public radio stations in the United States and International Public Radio.
• The University is home to the award-winning radio program “A Moment In Time,” featuring Dan Roberts, associate professor of liberal arts. The nationally syndicated program offers short, informative “time capsules” of history.  Roberts has produced an extensive series focused on events leading up to the establishment of Jamestown, illuminating the challenges and triumphs involved in settlement.

More information about Jamestown 2007 celebrations is available at several Web sites:

• The official homepage of America’s 400th anniversary
• Virginia’s 400th anniversary coordinating organization, which lists events, calendars, educational resources and sponsors
• The Richmond region’s coordinating organization, which contains information on regional events, sponsors and activities
• The Virginia Tourism site, which includes information about anniversary celebrations around the commonwealth 

For more information about on-campus events, contact McCulla at 287-1973 or jmccull2@richmond.edu.