WinterFest 2026 Catalog
WinterFest 2026 Catalog
ALL SESSIONS WILL BE HELD VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM
Wednesdays, January 7, 14, 21, 28, 2026
First Session: 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. in Zoom
Second Session: 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Zoom
Third Session: 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. in Zoom
Click a course title to see the full description. Click the title again to close the description.
ALL SESSIONS WILL BE HELD VIRTUALLY VIA ZOOM
Bard LLI members and WinterFest presenters may invite individual guests. Members, presenters, and their guests are welcome at every presentation. The Bard community of faculty, staff, and students is also welcome.
WinterFest Registration: Registration is not required. LLI members will be sent a weekly Zoom invitation to attend presentations. Details on all presentations can also be viewed on ProClass.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Description: We often rely on our intuition to make decisions. In this presentation we explore the mathematics that describe the likelihood of events occurring using probability. We will compare answers based upon our intuition with the likelihood of events occurring based upon probability. Together, we will explore three well-known math problems: The Handshake Problem, The Birthday Paradox, and The Monty Hall Problem. Within the context of these three problems, we will consider and discuss probability versus intuition.
Presenter: Beth Goldberg (LLI) is a New York State Master Teacher Emeritus with a BA in mathematics from Wellesley College and an MBA from MIT. After approximately 20 years in banking, she relocated to the Hudson Valley and pursued a new career in education through Bard’s Master of Arts in Teaching program. Selected for NYS’s four-year Master Teacher program, she taught secondary school mathematics for nearly 20 years and served as math department chair until retiring in June 2024.
Producer: Anne Brueckner
Description: Discover why plein air painting is both a challenge and a joy. Review the history of landscape painting in the Hudson Valley from Indigenous art and artifacts, to the rise of the Hudson River School, and finally, to the work of contemporary artists still painting in our area. Students will view Barnett’s paintings and identify the location of local landmarks and views. Finally, the class will learn about the techniques of landscape painting, particularly those of plein air painting. She will review the necessary equipment, various mediums, how to choose a composition, and the pros and cons of working from a photograph.
Presenter: Elisabeth Barnett, an LLI member and a Hudson Valley native, lived in many other places before settling in Rhinebeck in 2006. She is a plein air painter, and also engages with other subject matter, aiming for a sweet spot between realism and abstraction. Barnett exhibits regularly at the Tivoli Artists Gallery and Art Gallery 71. She also facilitates the plein air painting group for the Red Hook Community Center.
Producer: Suzanne Holzberg
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Description: Unlike the other robber barons of the Gilded Age who used the Hudson Valley as a respite from the trials of New York City, the Astors were often born here, raised their families here, and were buried here. The Astor families were devoted to Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and its surrounding Hudson Valley lands, and helped shape their history and growth.
Presenter: Tom Mayer, MD, MBA, is a graduate of Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and has worked as a family physician, medical administrator, patient and physician trainer/educator, healthcare author, and consultant. Since moving to the Hudson Valley five years ago, he has developed an avid interest in the history of the prominent families of this area. Whether it was the Beekmans, Livingstons, or Astors, where they lived and what they did had a significant impact on the local area.
Producer: Anne Brueckner
Description: Bright, bold patterns distinguish Uzbek ikat (or resist-dyed) fabric. Equally brilliant designs typify traditional hand-embroidered suzanis or stitched panels. The inside story of these textile masterpieces will emerge through images from the ikat workshops and suzani collections of Uzbekistan. During her dozen trips to the region (most recently in November 2025), Cynthia LeCount Samaké has gained insight into the extremely complex ikat process, which involves the use of an astonishing 250-meter-long warp. We’ll look at both traditional and modern suzani varieties, as well as the fascinating ikat weaving with both hand and machine looms.
Presenter: Cynthia LeCount Samaké, MA, is a specialist in indigenous textiles and festival costumes. Through her textile tour company Behind the Scenes Adventures, she has led small groups of textile fanatics and friends all over the world for 25 years. With expert local guides, these trips explore the textile techniques and cultures of countries where textiles are particularly masterful or unusual. Field research in Peru and Bolivia resulted in her award-winning book Andean Folk Knitting: Traditions and Techniques from Peru and Bolivia.
Producer: Anne Brueckner
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Description: In 1906, America commenced a major railroad modernization project, driven by massive industrial era investment and development. A lasting symbol of this time in history remains today: the imposing coaling towers that pepper the country and that once held the coal that powered steam locomotives. Over the course of five years and 20,000 miles, photographer Jeff Brouws documented these towers. This lecture will examine their place in railroad history and as a photographic typology within Brouws’ larger body of work, as well as the history of photography. His book Silent Monoliths: The Coaling Tower Project will be available from the MIT Press in February 2026.
Presenters:
Jeff Brouws is a photographer, writer, and graphic designer. His work can be found in major museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, the Fogg Museum, and the Princeton University Art Museum.
Marcella Hackbardt is a writer, visual artist, curator, and professor of photography at Kenyon College. She has exhibited and lectured on contemporary photography and photo history nationally and internationally.
John P. Hankey served the B&O Railroad in various capacities, including locomotive engineer, company historian, and curator of the B&O Railroad Museum. He is a scholar in the field of railroad and industrial history, with over 100 articles to his credit. In 2020, he received the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Producer: Kathryn Clark
Description: A history of homegrown stuff! In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Poughkeepsie was a city of industry. Poughkeepsie was once a hub for manufacturing everything from cars to computers. This lecture covers many of the products that were once made there.
Presenter: Shannon Butler is the historian for the Poughkeepsie Public Library. She also served as the historian for the town of Hyde Park. Butler has worked at several historic sites, including Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites and Clermont State Historic Site. She has written two books, including Roosevelt Homes of the Hudson Valley: Hyde Park and Beyond. She co-hosts the historical podcast All My Favorite People Are Dead.
Producer: Leslie Weinstock
Description: The Friends of Historic Kingston is a volunteer membership organization founded in 1965 to support the preservation of their community’s historic and architecturally significant places. Their members were instrumental in saving Kingston City Hall and sponsoring the city’s historic districts. Join them for a presentation with Friends of Historic Kingston’s assistant director Dean Engle to learn more about the organization’s history and the legacy of Kingston’s preservation activists.
Presenters: Dean Engle is Friends of Historic Kingston’s assistant director and curator of the museum’s current gallery exhibit, Edward Budney: Photographer. He lives in midtown Kingston with his family.
Producer: Eleanor Wieder
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Description: Filmmaker, writer, and our Hudson Valley neighbor, Jon Bowermaster, has made films on every continent and, in recent years, up and down the Hudson River. Having just returned from his 20th trip to Antarctica, Jon shares notes from his most recent adventure, along with his brand-new film, The Keeper, a profile of Hudson Riverkeeper John Lipscomb, which was featured in the Woodstock Film Festival in October.
Presenter: Jon Bowermaster, writer, filmmaker, and adventurer, is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. He has written 11 books and directed/produced more than 30 documentary films, all with environmental backdrops. Jon has lived in the Hudson Valley for 37 years.
Producer: Anne Brueckner
Description: Kenneth Miller will share his knowledge of the history of sleep research based on the work of four outsider academics who took the study of sleep from a fringe discipline to mainstream obsession: Nathaniel Kleitman, Eugene Aserinsky, William Dement, and Mary Carskadon. Weaving together science and history, we will gain a deeper understanding of how sleep works and why it affects so much of our lives. There will be time for Q&A, so please consider your questions in advance.
Presenter: Kenneth Miller is an award-winning journalist who has reported on science, medicine, culture, criminal justice, religion, and the environment. He enjoys telling the stories of brilliant outsiders in fields like neurobiology, immunology, and cancer research who pursue extraordinary goals despite overwhelming odds. He received his MS in journalism from Columbia University. His work has appeared in Time, Life, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Discover, and Aeon. His book Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep was published in October 2023 by Hachette.
Producer: Dorothy Baran
Credits
Curriculum Committee
Mary McClellan, Chair
Kathryn Clark, Secretary
Dorothy Baran
Anne Brueckner
Barbara Danish
Fern Fleckman
Carmela Gersbeck
Suzanne Holzberg
Gary Miller
Chuck Mishaan
Margaret Moran
Janet Pincus
Cathy Reinis
Margaret Shuhala
L. Walker
Leslie Weinstock
Eleanor Wieder
Catalog Team
Ann Green, Co-Chair
Deborah Lanser, Co-Chair
Anne Brueckner
Susan Christoffersen
Mark Houghtaling
Susan Mermelstein
Margaret Shuhala
Karen Spinozzi
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