Gayle Beebe presides over his first Commencement at Westmont as president of the college Saturday, May 3, at 10 a.m. President emeritus David K. Winter formally introduced Beebe to the college at last year’s service. The registrar’s office reports 310 students will be participating in the ceremonies, 109 graduating with honors.
Philip Ficsor and Emma Lou Diemer unveil the world premiere of Diemer’s “Suite for Violin and Piano” Wednesday, May 7, at 11 a.m. in the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu Street. The free concert is presented by the Santa Barbara Music Club.
World-renowned bassist Robert Black will perform and discuss his work in Westmont’s Deane Chapel on Saturday, April 26, at 2 p.m. The free concert, presented by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB in collaboration with Iridian Arts, is open to the public.
Westmont has created a new endowed faculty chair in the visual arts through the financial support of several friends of the college. The endowment, named the R. Anthony Askew chair, will support a new full-time professor who will also direct Reynolds Gallery.
More than 530 people came to hear former presidential candidate Steve Forbes speak at a breakfast at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort celebrating the inauguration of Westmont’s eighth president, Gayle Beebe. Forbes spoke about “America’s Economy and the Global Imperative,” declaring that the world is in the midst of a Golden Age. The breakfast kicked off a day of events.
“Never before in human history have so many advanced financially,” Forbes says. “Despite the recent hits on the stock market, it’s still 60 percent higher than it was five years ago.”
Westmont’s annual Fringe Festival, a week-long gala of contemporary theater and dance, returns to campus Tuesday, April 15 through Saturday, April 19. Seventeen original productions by students and faculty fill four performance bills. The public is invited to nightly performances in and around Porter Theatre Tuesday through Friday at 7 and 9 p.m., and a marathon performance Saturday beginning at 4 p.m.