Community & Arts in Brief: Banned Books Week at Whiting; Lew Watters’ photo class coming up; VTica workshop

The Whiting Library is commemorating Banned Books Week through Saturday, Oct. 6.  This national event is sponsored by the American Library Association and many other organizations that champion the freedom to read. The Whiting will be highlighting books that have been challenged and/or banned in the United States through the years. There’s a rotating display of banned/challenged books as well as interactive informational materials. More information about Banned Books Week can be found at: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek. The Whiting Library, located at 117 Main St., is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Lew Watters offers photography class

Chester photographer Lew Watters is again teaching a fun and informative class at the River Valley Technical Center in Springfield beginning Tuesday, Oct. 9. Having More Fun and Getting Better Pictures with your Digital SLR Camera will be held 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Oct. 9, Oct. 11, Oct. 16 and Oct. 18, with a field trip from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13 for a photo shoot to Saint-Gaudens NHS in Cornish, NH, to apply learned techniques.

Students will learn how to take control of their digital single lens camera by using selected manual settings, including aperture mode to set f-stop, ISO and color balance to capture stunning images using available light. Cropping, sharpening and light adjusting will be covered along with file formats and sizes for printing and for the Internet. Classroom instruction will be utilized for photo editing using Adobe Photoshop. Enrolled students are eligible for substantial student discounts on Adobe software. Cost is $120.

Students who have taken this class come away with a knowledge and familiarity using some of the advanced features found on their digital SLR camera.

A basic familiarity and comfort with computers is required. Click here for the RVTC website for details and registration forms, , and the park website shows the possibilities. You may also contact Lew Watters at 802-875-2114.

Exploring archetypal journeys with author Elayne Clift

Elayne Clift, a Vermont Humanities Council scholar, will explore archetypal journeys from King Arthur to Harriet Tubman to Harry Potter and many more, full of adventure, fraught with risk and ultimately rich with reward. As they seek to find meaning in a complex world, each of these characters is changed forever by his experience, which is peopled with mentors, villains, jesters and other archetypes. The workshop will explore our own archetypal journeys.

Minimum enrollment is six and the cost is $35.

You can register online at VTica.org or call Vermont Institute of Contemporary Arts at 802-875-1018. Clift is a writer and journalist whose work appears in numerous publications internationally. A regular columnist for the Keene Sentinel and a book reviewer for The New York Journal of Books, she has just published her first novel, Hester’s Daughters, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. For more information, please visit www.elayneclift.com.