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March 16, 2009
Your guide to Emory’s free side

By Leslie King

Open your calendar. Close your wallet. Emory’s campus is a goldmine of free opportunities for fun and entertainment. The best place to start is the Events at Emory calendar at www.emory.edu/home/events/.

Emory arts
Pay $7.50 for a movie or even matinee prices? Don’t do it. There’s an abundance of movies screened on campus at White Hall, the Harland Cinema and other locales. Film Studies’ Annie Hall confirms their no-cost admission: “I’m happy to say yes!”

Admission to the Carlos Museum “is absolutely free to Emory staff, faculty and students,” says communications director Priyanka Sinha. “Also, most of our events are free, too.” There are exhibits from the permanent collection and special exhibits such as the current “Harry Burton Photographs and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun.” Your door to fascinating finds in the ancient world is www.carlos.emory.edu/calendar.

There’s always a visual treat with ongoing and opening art exhibitions at the Visual Arts Gallery, the Woodruff Library’s Schatten Gallery and other campus spaces. John August Swanson, the artist whose work is on permanent display in Candler School of Theology, comes to campus for a series of events beginning March 24 (see story).

This month brings the opportunity to hear Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee and Distinguished Writer in Residence Salman Rushdie read early letters of playwright Samuel Beckett. Plus, there’s a Creativity Conversation with Albee.

In March alone, there are three different dance performances, including ones by a company that incorporates dancers of all abilities; one celebrating women’s history month; and one doing the tango. Free music performances feature the Emory Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble and the Gamelan Ensemble from Java.

In April, poet and writer and former faculty member Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award and two Pen Faulkner awards, returns to campus for a reading.

The arts calendar at www.arts.emory.edu is a good place to find what’s on and where.

Emory athletics
Other Atlanta “birds” — like the Thrashers and the Hawks — will charge you to come to their games.
You can see a rousing good contest on campus with Emory’s Eagles. Home games, matches and meets in a variety of sports take place every week throughout the semester, and all events are free.

For schedules, opponents and more, visit www.go.emory.edu.

Emory outdoors
Emory’s beautiful campus hosts a variety of one-time and ongoing events. Wonderful Wednesdays, a tradition revived and run by the students, are held on Asbury Circle and explore wide-ranging themes, often with food, advocacy and art.

On the nearby Cox Hall bridge is the Farmers’ Market, which restarts March 24 after being on hiatus since Thanksgiving. It’s a chance to browse among the set-ups of locally grown and produced food, goods and flowers.

Lullwater Preserve, with its entrance off Clifton Road, is a respite of nature from the urban environment and a place for a pre-pollen, pre-mosquito picnic right now.

This year’s Employee Coun-cil charge, “Experience Emory,” gave council president Matt Engelhardt some perspective into the free offerings on campus.

“I was surprised at the volume” of things do to, free and otherwise, he said, noting all of “the art exhibits, lectures and speaker series offered at Emory.”