14th Annual Gordon Parks Celebration

14th Annual Gordon Parks Celebration

Thursday, October 12th Schedule of Events
Photo Exhibit in the Lunt Lobby of the Fine Arts Center. the MPIX/CAPTURED IMAGES - sponsored photo contest will be on display with the theme of "What Makes Fort Scott Special to Me." Winners will be announced at  the Chamber Coffee at 8:00am.

8am-3pm: Registration open outside of Museum

8am-9am: Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Coffee at the Gordon Parks Museum

9am-11am: Showing of the Gordon Parks' film the Learning Tree in the Gordon Parks Museum FREE 

2pm-3:15pm: Guided Trolley Tour of Gordon Parks' Fort Scott. Meet at the entrance of the FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Centre. $7

7pm: "Celebration Tribute Dinner" (Doors open at 6pm) Join us for an evening of celebration, dinner, and special music. Presentation of the "Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award" to Bernadette Gray-Little. Liberty Theatre. $30 Please RSVP.

Friday, October 13 Schedule of Events
10am-4pm: Registration open outside of Museum.

9:05-10:30am: (short break at 9:50am) "A Conversation with Bernadette Gray-Little," Choice of Weapons Award honoree and former Chancellor of hte University of Kansas. FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Center/Theatre. FREE

11:05am-11:50am: "Back to Fort Scott in Word and Photos" This narrative and the accompanying photos were the basis for the "Back to Fort Scott" exhibit which opened at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in January 2014. Written by Parks for Life magazine, this narrative chronicle Parks' visit to Fort Scott in 1950. Reader will include college and community members. FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Centre/Theatre. FREE

12pm-1:15pm: Grab a sack lunch from the lobby ($7) and join us in the museum for PARKS POETRY OUT LOUD,  a reading/contest of selected poems of Gordon Parks'.

1:30pm-3pm: ROUNDTABLES -- Discussion of topics for adults and for students. Gordon Parks Museum. Topics include: "Poverty in Fort Scott KS" /"What is your Weapon of Choice & how do you use it?"/ "Protest Then and Now" /"Why do we keep Fighting?"

3pm-4:15pm: Guided Trolley Tour of Gordon Parks' Fort Scott. Meet at the entrance of the FSCC Ellis Fine Arts Centre. $7

Bernadette Gray-Little, former Chancellor of the University of Kansas, to receieve "Grodon Parks Choice of Weapons Award" at the 2017 Gordon Parks Celebration
 Bernadette Gray-Little, formerly Chancellor of the University of Kansas (2009-2017), will receive the “Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award” at the annual Gordon Parks Celebration this October 12-14, 2017, in Fort Scott, Kan.  The Gordon Parks Celebration, a component of the Gordon Parks Museum/Center, was created in 2004 by Fort Scott Community College to honor Fort Scott native Gordon Parks, noted photographer, writer, musician, and filmmaker.

At the culmination of the first year’s events, the Choice of Weapons Award was established in Parks’ honor to be given annually at the Celebration.  Named after his autobiography of the same name, the award seeks to honor a recipient in Gordon Parks’ name.  Previous recipients include actor and musician Avery Brooks; photographer Howard L. Bingham; Elizabeth Eckford and Ernest Green, two of the “Little Rock Nine;” Richard Roundtree, star of the Parks-directed film, “Shaft;” Nichelle Nichols of “Star Trek” fame; acclaimed actress Ruby Dee; photographer John Shearer; LIFE magazine photo editor Bobbi Burrows; Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum; musicians Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.; editor Genevieve Young; and filmmaker Kevin Willmott.

“We are honored to have Dr. Gray-Little as our award recipient,” said Jill Warford, Executive Director of the Museum.  “Her dedication to and accomplishments in education are outstanding.  Gordon Parks was a self-educated man who sought to learn every day of his life, so it is very appropriate to honor Dr. Gray-Little with this award.”

Arriving at the University of Kansas in 2009, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little transformed the university and its mission to lift students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities, and making discoveries that change the world. In her time at KU, she guided the university to unprecedented success, elevated the university’s national stature, and transformed the way KU serves the state and the world.

Under Chancellor Gray-Little’s leadership, the University of Kansas created KU’s first university-wide curriculum, which incorporates classes and experiences, making KU a leader among national peers.  In 2011, KU expanded the School of Medicine-Wichita campus from a two-year program to a four-year program and opened the new School of Medicine-Salina campus to train more healthcare professionals for rural Kansas communities. That same year, KU opened a new School of Pharmacy campus in Wichita, and the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center received national designation from the National Institute on Aging.

In 2012, the University of Kansas Cancer Center achieved National Cancer Institute designation, which was deemed the university’s most important priority in the years leading up to the application.  In 2014, the university secured $25 million in state funding for the new Health Education Building in Kansas City, which opened in summer 2017 and will enable KU to train more healthcare professionals each year. The university raised nearly $50 million in philanthropic support for the building.

Chancellor Gray-Little advanced the university’s mission to make discoveries by securing funding for the Foundation Distinguished Faculty Initiative², which brought 12 prominent scholars and researchers to KU to support strategic research priorities.

Projects of note during Chancellor Gray-Little’s term include the construction of Capitol Federal Hall, the Health Education Building, Self and Oswald Halls, the DeBruce Center, the Earth, Energy & Environment Center, and the Central District³ — a once-in-a-generation project that will fundamentally change the face of education and research at KU — as well as major renovations to Swarthout Recital Hall, the Spencer Museum of Art, and Jayhawk Boulevard.

Chancellor Gray-Little was instrumental to “Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas⁴,” KU Endowment’s $1.66 billion comprehensive fundraising campaign. In 2013, she was named to the boards of directors of the Association of American Universities and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. She has also served as a member of the board of the University Innovation Alliance, a consortium of 11 large public research universities committed to helping students from diverse backgrounds succeed in higher education and attain degrees.

Prior to arriving at KU, Gray-Little was executive vice chancellor and provost from 2006-09 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A professor of psychology, she rose to the post of UNC’s chief academic officer and earned a reputation as a champion for the highest quality educational experience for students and a strong advocate for faculty and for research.

A native of eastern North Carolina, Gray-Little received her bachelor’s degree from Marywood University in Scranton, Pa., and her master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from Saint Louis University. She earned a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Denmark. She also served as a Social Science Research Council Fellow and received a Ford Foundation Senior Scholar Fellowship through the National Research Council.  She and her husband, Shade Little, have two children and three grandchildren.

Bernadette Gray-Little will be honored at a dinner at the Liberty Theatre in Fort Scott on Thursday, October 12^th.   Ticket information and the full schedule is posted on the website gordonparkscenter.org.  For more information, email gordonparkscenter@fortscott.edu or by phone call 223-2700, ext. 5850.
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