News

On Thursday, September 26th, Anna Ridler visits Purdue Galleries to speak about her art. The artist and researcher has exhibited at Ars Electronica, Impakt and the Barbican Centre, Ridler has earned degrees from the Royal College of Art, Oxford University and University of Arts London. She answered some questions for WBAA's John Clare recently about Dreaming, Automated at Ringel Gallery.

Melanie Marnich’s play These Shining Lives depicts the true story of the battle fought by four female factory workers against an employer whose work is making them sick.

In the 1920s, the Radium Dial Company hired thousands of female workers at three plants around the country. Their job was to paint a radium-laced, glow-in-the-dark substance onto the dials of clocks and watches. The women were never warned about the harmful effects of the radioactive element, and many later died from radium poisoning.

In the limited amount of ancient history we have, many women have been swept under the rug. It's difficult for historians to really know much about ancient women, as little could be written about them. In the book Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World, author Emma Southon  looks at one of the few Ancient Roman women that was written about. A mother of an emperor and eventual empress, Southen argues that historians may have it wrong about Agrippina. West Lafayette Public Library Director Nick Schenkel has the review.

Not to mix literary metaphors, but since Crawfordsville won the Stellar Communities competition a few years ago, the Ben-Hur building has been a bit of a white whale for Mayor Todd Barton. It was sold as a cornerstone of the way Crawfordsville would look when the Stellar projects were complete – but it’s been plagued by delays and confusion ever since.

Now the state has given another $100,000 for the building’s renovation, so will that kickstart development? We put that question to Mayor Barton today, on Ask The Mayor.

Friday marks the opening of Downton Abbey the movie. WBAA's John Clare had a chance to speak with composer John Lunn about the new score.