The 2008 Sedona Lecture Series explores the far reaches of the Colorado Plateau, taking the audience from archaeology to geology, to fine art, and finally on to storytelling to explore the fabric and texture of this great region’s sciences and arts. The multifaceted experience of a longtime Southwestern archaeologist, a scientist who has been to Antarctica 30 times, a painter who has focused for 50 years on this area, and one of the Colorado Plateau’s best-known authors will fill these four evenings with extraordinarily unique thoughts and images. The series is presented by the Sedona Muses and the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. All four lectures start at 7 p.m. at the Church of the Red Rocks in Sedona.
January 14
Pueblo Social History: Upstreaming into the Past
by Dr. John Ware, Southwestern archaeologist, Executive Director of the Amerind Foundation, and author of Pueblo Culture: The Present as Key to the Past
The Pueblo Indians of the northern Southwest have shared more than a century of scrutiny by anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians attempting to sort out and explain their convergent histories. Ware explains upstreaming to trace the Pueblo people in the archaeological record.
February 11
Geologic Connections between Arizona and Antarctica
by Wayne Ranney, geologist, 30-time Antarctica visitor, and author of CarvingGrand Canyon
Although Arizona and Antarctica might seem worlds apart today, geologists are coming to understand their geologic connection. The drifting continents have aligned themselves with seemingly far-flung neighbors at times in the past. Ranney gives an interesting account of the connections that exist between these two desert landscapes.
March 10
Dry Lakes and Dunes
by Joella Jean Mahoney, a 50-year painter of the Colorado Plateau
Mahoney explores themes in her Southwest landscape paintings and explains how motif occurs in a painter’s work. She talks about art process and the functions of art. Mahoney also gives recognition to the huge contribution by Mary Russell Farrell Colton and Mary Elizabeth Colter to what we understand as Southwestern aesthetic.
April 14
The Incredible Canyon
by Scott Thybony, author of soon-to-be-published Incredible Grand Canyon
A light take on the hard facts, Thybony tells bits of lore which have slipped through the cracks and classic stories covering canyon characters, tall tales trimmed down to size, a few scandals, a little romance, some grand schemes gone awry, and a few cliffhangers thrown in. Geared for both canyon junkies and first-timers.
All lectures are held at the Church of the Red Rocks, 54 Bowstring Drive in Sedona.Proceeds from the Sedona Lecture Series benefit the Museum of Northern Arizona. Tickets for each lecture are $6 for Museum and Muses members and $7 for nonmembers, or $20 members and $25 nonmembers for the four-lecture series. Tickets are available the night of the lecture at the door. Advance tickets can be obtained at 928/774-5213 from the Museum of Northern Arizona or in Sedona at 928/282-8437.