By the numbers
The David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project
Princeton NJ — The David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project, established in 2003, each year awards grants to support campus initiatives that involve magic in the broadest sense.
The Magic Project was created by Lynn Shostack in memory of her late husband, David Gardner, a 1969 Princeton graduate. Gardner, who died in 2001, had been interested in magic since his childhood. He was among the youngest dues-paying members of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and performed regularly in his hometown of Cleveland.
At Princeton, Gardner continued putting on magic shows for fellow students and community members while earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. After graduation, he went on to success in the business of venture capital and commercial real estate — while continuing to pursue his interest in magic.
The internal review and allocation process for awards from the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project is administered by the Council of the Humanities. Grants range from $3,000 to $30,000, and have gone to a wide range of recipients this year, including:
• The University Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections to make its extensive collection of Islamic manuscripts more accessible to patrons and scholars through cataloging and digitization.
• The Department of Religion for a course offered during the fall semester, “Magic, Skepticism and American Religion.”
• The Department of Art and Archaeology for a two-day symposium last fall titled “Dark Rooms: Photography and Invisibility.”
• The Program in Theater and Dance to support last month’s production of Vaslav Nijinsky’s ballet, “L’Après-midi d’un Faune” or “The Afternoon of a Faun.”
• The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures for a lecture series this spring, “Magic in the Culture of Russia’s Silver Age,” offered in connection with the University Art Museum exhibition, “Mir Iskusstva: Russia’s Age of Elegance.”
• The Princeton Atelier for a production of Euripides’ “Alcestis,” a comedy-drama of marital love and self-sacrifice. Actress Maria Tucci, dancer Allegra Kent and classicist Daniel Mendelsohn will collaborate with a student ensemble of actors, singers and dancers in the production this spring.
• The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology for “Fire in Avian Diversity,” a research project undertaken by professor David Wilcove and graduate student Nathan Gregory.
Sources: Princeton Alumni Weekly, Sept. 15, 2004, and Council of the Humanities