News

Naropa University Announces Two Initiatives
in Support of Its Special Collections Preservation Projects

Receives the Only "Save America's Treasures" Federal Grant Awarded in Colorado
For Historic Special Collection in Literature

Forms Partnership with Yesod Foundation to Preserve
the Works Of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

BOULDER, Colo. (January 21, 2004) - Naropa University today announced two important initiatives supporting its work to preserve special collections in literature and spiritual studies for greater public accessibility and use by scholars. Naropa University received a $100,000 "Save America's Treasures" federal grant in support of preservation of its special audio archive collection in the literary arts. The university has also formed a partnership with Yesod Foundation to preserve the legacy of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, whose works are integral to the deepening and strengthening of Jewish spirituality. Both of these initiatives support Naropa University's goal of making important, unique and original source works in 20th and 21st century literature, culture and spirituality more broadly available.

Naropa University President Thomas B. Coburn stated, "Both of these special collection preservation initiatives reflect Naropa University's unique contributions to modern culture and support its aspiration to nurture the creative arts and promote the study of world wisdom traditions for greater understanding of ourselves and of how we engage with our world. They are a cornerstone in our becoming a premier center for facilitating broad public access to and scholarly research on some of the most profound trends affecting our lives and the communities in which we live."

The "Save America's Treasures" federal grant to Naropa University is one of 63 projects in 29 states and the District of Columbia to be awarded and the only such grant awarded in Colorado. The grant will be used in support of Naropa University's preservation of its unique collection of audio recordings of American literary figures. One of the leading collections of its kind in the United States, this archive represents 30 years of American literature and cultural criticism that is renewed and revitalized each year by the poets and writers who participate in Naropa University's Summer Writing Program.

Naropa University is working with nationally recognized experts in digital audio preservation and access and library cataloging to provide an index of the archive's holdings to thousands of libraries throughout the United States. The ultimate goal is to provide public access to thousands of hours of performances, lectures and seminars via the web. The university also plans to generate curriculum packets for public school teachers in collaboration with Teachers and Writers, a New York-based organization that places writers in the public schools.

With the "Save America's Treasures" federal award, grant funds given for preservation and public dissemination of this unique collection total $340,000. Other grants have been received from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The collection includes the Beat writers Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder and Diane diPrima; the San Francisco Renaissance writers Robert Duncan and Robin Blaser; the Black Mountain School writers Robert Creeley and Ed Dorn; the Black Arts Movement writers Amiri Baraka and Lorenzo Thomas; the New York School poets John Ashberry, Kenward Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Anne Waldman and Bernadette Mayer; the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets Charles Bernstein and Lyn Hejinian; and more than two generations of their poetic descendants. These groups transformed American literature in the post-World War II period and had an impact on U.S. society arguably unequaled by any arts movement of the past.

Naropa University's partnership with Yesod Foundation is a milestone in its goal of preserving and disseminating the works of spiritual leaders having a profound influence on American life and religious traditions. Yesod Foundation's mission is to bring the deep wisdom of the Jewish tradition to contemporary culture and to advance a viable and vibrant Jewish spirituality. Integral to this mission is the Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi archive project to preserve and make publicly available more than 50 years of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi's teachings on the restoration and renewal of the deepest levels of Jewish and world spirituality and mediation.

Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi, a professor of religious studies at Naropa University who has also been on the faculty of Temple and other universities, has been a major presence in 20th century religion. Drawing on his deep roots in spiritual mysticism and Jewish practice, as well as a vast wisdom that branches out to cover most of the world's religious traditions and modern ideas such as multiculturalism, feminism and ecology, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi has dedicated himself to creating a spiritual framework, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, that honors the integrity of Jewish tradition, while infusing it with new life, through renewing and broadening the accessibility of the mystical dimensions of Judaism.

The goal of the Naropa University and Yesod Foundation partnership is to complete the work of preserving the legacy and archive of Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi. This archive project will gather, edit, catalog and label hundreds of articles and translations, thousands of photographs, over 2000 cassette tapes and nearly 500 video tapes with the objective of making these resources widely available to any who would access Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi's work for their own personal and spiritual development.

Naropa University is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian liberal arts institution whose core mission is contemplative education. Contemplative education is an approach to learning that integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, creating and implementing a new paradigm in higher education. This model seeks to help students know themselves deeply so that they can engage constructively in a world of individuals who are not like themselves. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental studies, psychology, religious studies, and creation spirituality. It offers BA, BFA, MA, MFA, MDiv and MLA degrees, as well as professional development training and classes for the community through its School of Extended Studies. In addition, the university runs study abroad programs in Sikkim, the Czech Republic, South India, Bali and Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.naropa.edu.

Contact:
Jane Rubinstein
Director, Marketing & Communications
Naropa University
Tel: 303-245-4643
Email: jrubinstein@naropa.edu