Cultural Conversations
A View from Washington
Featuring ABC Newsman Sam Donaldson
Working together, the Alliance for the Arts and the Edison College Foundation introduce Cultural Conversations. This ongoing program’s goal is to raise money for youth scholarships for both organizations and provide an enlightening experience to our community.
The first speaker in this new series will be A View from Washington presented by Mr. Sam Donaldson on Thursday, October 18, 2007, at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.
For ticket information, please click here to be directed to the Barbara B. Mann website, or call 239.481.4849.
Click here to read Sam Donalson's bio.
The Alliance and Edison College are making a commitment to bring Lee County nationally known lecturers who inform, motivate, and educate. Future speakers sought will be professionals who can share their experience and achievements in art, education, business, history, and culture. “We believe that in our cultural climate, topics like the news, current events, and politics become subject matter for all the arts and are certainly relevant to education,” said Event Chairwoman and president of the Alliance for the Arts Board of Directors Deirdre Mann.
Artist of the Year Angel award winner and News Press Cartoonist Doug Macgregor agrees. In a recent edition of the News Press in his column “Macgregor’s Boulevard,” he makes the case both for artistic expression and civic education. Macgregor wrote about an inspirational American History teacher he had in high school, Mr. Weckel.
"Little did I know how much an effect his class would play in my life,” he reflects. “Current events have remained a passionate part of my career as I start my 28th year as an editorial cartoonist. The seeds for satire and humor were sewn in his class back in 1970 and thank goodness they have never left."
Perhaps a twist of serendipity, in 1980, Doug MacGregor was part of a “Nightline ABC” story on political cartoonists, and guess who did the interview…Sam Donaldson himself.
Sam Donaldson is a 40-year ABC News veteran who has served two appointments as Chief White House correspondent for ABC News from January 1998 to August 1999 and from 1977-1989, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Among the many television news programs he has co-anchored at ABC are PrimeTime Live, This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts, and World News Sunday. He has also hosted a radio program: The Sam Donaldson Show - Live In America, and a webcast: SamDonaldson@abcnews.com, the first regularly scheduled Internet Webcast produced by a television network.
Currently Mr. Donaldson appears on ABC News Now, the ABC News digital network. His daily half-hour show Politics Live is an unscripted dialogue with numerous guests and commentators discussing the top political news stories of the day. The show also features a “Stump Sam” segment, where viewers can submit political trivia questions to quiz Mr. Donaldson.
Across his broad career, Mr. Donaldson has interviewed former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, George Bush, and Bill Clinton along with such diverse personalities as Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell and the first prime time interviews with George W. Bush when he ran for Governor of Texas and when he ran for president, actor Sean Connery, comedian Janeane Garofalo, tech company CEO Jeff Bezos, and sports great Willie Mays.
Tickets to the Thursday, October 18, 2007 event beginning at 7:00PM will be $45, $55, and $75 each.
Click here to download the event information card.
Cultural Conversations: A View from Washington is at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall on the Edison College Campus.
