Ithaca College

The Handwerker Gallery is pleased to be hosting the first installation of our Tuesday Salon series with "Happiness: Is it Overrated?," moderated by Cory Brown of the Department of Writing.  This event will take place at the gallery (first floor, Gannett Center) on Tuesday, September 4, at 4.00 p.m..

The Pursuit of Happiness: it’s a right guaranteed to us by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence. But is happiness a choice? Can we choose to be happy any more than we can choose to be rich, healthy, or born in a certain country?

In answering these questions, Cory Brown, professor of writing, first digresses, “Before the Renaissance [about 1300–1600], happiness was simply the absence of misery... If you weren’t starving or destitute, you were, by default, happy, and you could thank your lucky stars.”  He goes on to answer this question with another, “The modern spirit of humanism that puts us at the center of the universe opens our horizons,” said Brown. “But it also leads us to ask, ‘If I’m so special, how come I’m not richer? If I’m so unique, why don’t I have a bigger house?’”

Please join us in hot pursuit of answers to these questions and more!

For more information on this topic, check out the ICView article, "The Pursuit of Happiness," by Keith Davis, featuring interviews with professors Cory Brown, Elia Kacapyr, and Dick Schissel.   

Gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.; Thursday, 10.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.; and weekends, noon to 5.00 p.m.. The gallery is closed to the public on Tuesdays unless otherwise specified for an event but can accommodate group or class visits by appointment.

For further information or individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations contact Mara Baldwin at mbaldwin@ithaca.edu or 607.274.3548. Please make requests for accommodations as far in advance as possible.