All upcoming Daytime programs

Sammy Davis Jr. was a prodigy in vaudeville, trailblazer in desegregating Las Vegas, and global superstar who shone in Hollywood and on Broadway. Performer and educator Aaron Reeder examines how Davis’s artistry intersected with questions of race, religion, and identity in 20th-century America and the contradictions of fame that defined his career. Reeder explores Davis’ life and legacy through rare recordings, archival images, and performance excerpts.

Georgia O’Keeffe, a pioneering American modernist, became renowned for her bold paintings of flowers, bones, New York skyscrapers, and the New Mexico desert. Her partnership with photographer Alfred Stieglitz helped shape her artistic identity and public recognition. Art historian Joseph Paul Cassar follows her path from early training to her breakthrough at Gallery 291, her Lake George period, travels to Palo Duro Canyon and Hawaii, and her final move to New Mexico, offering a critical study of her major works and legacy. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

The first decade of American TV comedy—from the late 1940s to the late 1950s—produced a remarkable range of live comedy and variety shows, filmed sitcoms, and late-night talk programs. Pioneering performers and creators such as Sid Caesar, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, and Steve Allen helped shape a new visual language of comedy that influenced television for the next 60 years. As he shares dozens of clips, media historian Brian Rose examines why this era may have produced more laughter than any other period in television history.

In a fascinating four-part series, curators and historians from the National Air and Space Museum trace the history of flight, from humanity’s early aspirations for aerial transit, to 12 breathtaking seconds at Kitty Hawk, to the advances that came with global combat, and how jet engines and digital technology are opening a new future for aviation. This session focuses on commercial aviation.

Artemisia Gentileschi was a pioneering 17th-century Baroque artist, celebrated for her dramatic and emotionally charged paintings that often depict powerful women at the center of action. Overcoming significant personal adversity, she carved out a remarkable place for herself in the male-dominated art world. As she declared, “I’ll show you what a woman can do…you will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman.” Art historian Elaine Ruffolo explores Gentileschi’s compelling life story, artistic innovations, and enduring legacy in the history of art. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Few days in ancient history can be reconstructed in nearly hour-by-hour detail, but the Battle of Salamis in September 480 B.C.E. is one of them. Professor emeritus of classics Robert Garland recounts this consequential clash between the Greeks and the Persian Empire, often called “the battle that saved Western civilization.” The Greek victory against a much larger Persian navy was a lasting reminder of how strategy can overcome overwhelming power and how hubris invites defeat.

In a fascinating four-part series, curators and historians from the National Air and Space Museum trace the history of flight, from humanity’s early aspirations for aerial transit, to 12 breathtaking seconds at Kitty Hawk, to the advances that came with global combat, and how jet engines and digital technology are opening a new future for aviation. This session focuses on flight in the digital age.

European classical composers developed a brief but passionate fascination with American jazz in the early 20th century. In a four-session course, pianist and speaker Rachel Franklin uses live demonstrations and archival film to trace jazz’s roots and its electrifying impact on Paris before and after World War I, inspiring Ravel, Milhaud, and Stravinsky. She follows jazz’s role as a symbol of freedom for Shostakovich, Krenek, and Walton, concluding in the U.S. with Copland, Gershwin, and others who were inspired by jazz while struggling to come to terms with its identity as a complex, home-grown African American artform.

For at least 4,000 years, humans have treated horses as objects. But people have rarely considered the horse as a subject—an animal with a heart and mind that requires understanding. Janet L. Jones, a neuroscientist and horse trainer, offers a surprising overview of equine perception, memory, attention, and emotion so that participants can begin to understand who horses really are.

In this final lecture in his series on iconography, art historian Noah Charney focuses attention on works that reveal their secrets only to the initiated. He traces the hidden messages, social satire, and political subtext embedded in The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough, and Giovanni Bellini’s enigmatic Sacred Allegory. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)