| The Shaw Memorial, Boston Common, in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| Each year at Wellesley College,
a work of art, or small body of works, is selected to serve as
the focus of community attention through a sequence of activities,
performances, and discussions. The purpose of the Common Texts
Project is to bring all constituencies of the college community
together—faculty, staff, and students—in a shared experience
of enjoyment and heightened understanding of an extraordinary work
of the imagination. The Common Texts Project is supported by a generous gift from Naida S. Wharton ‘80, offered in memory of two of her teachers at Wellesley, Robert Garis and Arthur Gold. Robert Garis taught at Wellesley from 1951 to 1994 and was Katherine Lee Bates Professor of English. He died in January 2001. Arthur Gold was Professor of English and taught at Wellesley from 1962 until his death in 1988. Bob Garis and Arthur Gold were dedicated citizens of the college and teachers and readers of exceptional force and penetration. For both of them, the experience and appreciation of works of art were central and teachable facts of life, and it is fitting to honor them with a project that regularly refocuses the entire college community’s attention on the living power of art. |
