Contact: Cristal Logan
Director, Aspen Community Program
The Aspen Institute
Cristal.Logan@aspeninstitute.org
Tel. 970-544-7929
The Aspen Institute Hurst Lecture Series Features US Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Aspen, CO, August 6, 2014 –– The Aspen Institute is pleased to welcome US Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who will discuss the major fiscal challenges we face as a nation and offer his ideas for workable solutions. Senator Johnson will outline a 30-year budget projection and walk through a multi-faceted analysis of the nation’s current fiscal scenario.
The event will take place Tuesday August 12, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Paepcke Auditorium on the Institute’s Aspen Meadows campus in Aspen, CO. The Hurst Lecture Series is generously underwritten by the Hurst Family Foundation.
Tickets are $20 each and are on sale through Aspen Show Tickets at www.aspenshowtix.com, (970) 920-5770, or at the Wheeler Opera House. As full capacity audiences are expected for this series, early ticket purchasing is encouraged. Doors will open 45 minutes prior to the start of the event, and unclaimed tickets will be on sale at the door.
United States Senator Ron Johnson serves on the committees on the Budget, Commerce, Science and Transportation, Foreign Relations, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Sen. Johnson gained early acceptance to the University of Minnesota, so he skipped his senior year of high school and worked full time while obtaining his degree in business and accounting. In 1977, after graduating with a BSB-Accounting degree, he married his wife Jane, and started working as an accountant at Jostens. He also continued his education by enrolling in an MBA night program. In July of 1979, Sen. Johnson and Jane moved to Oshkosh to start a business with Jane’s brother. The company, PACUR, began producing plastic sheet for packaging and printing applications. Sen. Johnson has been building the same business for the last 31 years. From operating the equipment, to keeping the company books, and selling its products, Ron has been involved in every function of the business. It is this body of experience and private sector perspective that he now brings to the Senate. Sen. Johnson resides in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with his wife Jane. They have three children.
Upcoming Events at the Aspen Institute
Saturday, August 9
21st Annual Summer Celebration Conversation
Making History: A Retrospective on Presidential Leadership
Featuring presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and former White House advisor, speechwriter and author Richard N. Goodwin in conversation with Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson. Introduction by former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Conversation: Greenwald Pavilion 5:00-6:15 p.m.
Fee: $25. Tickets on sale at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Reception and Dinner: Doerr-Hosier Center, 6:30-9:30 pm; Tickets sold separately at (800) 410-3463.
Sunday, August 10
NEW VIEWS Documentaries & Dialogue
Ai Weiwei the Fake Case
A collaboration between the Aspen Institute Arts Program and Aspen Film
“Powerful. Moving. Absorbing. The world’s press turns off their cameras, but it is here that Andreas Johnsen’s film begins. Fascinating.”– Screen
Ai Weiwei The Fake Case reflects internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s battle against the gigantic lawsuit thrust upon him by the Chinese government in an effort to silence him. This is a humanizing portrait of a fearless provocateur willing to speak his truth by any artistic means necessary. (Directed by Andreas Johnsen, Denmark, 79 min. In English and Mandarin with Eng. subtitles)
An Xiao Mina, artist and Ai Weiwei expert, will be featured in a post screening conversation.
Fee: $20. Tickets on at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Paepcke Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.
Monday, August 11
Society of Fellows Discussion Reception: A Collector’s Journey
Featuring Leonard A. Lauder, who will highlight his decisions regarding his art collections and whether they are better in public or private hands. Mr. Lauder’s talk in Paepcke Auditorium is open to the public. Reception following is open only to the Society of Fellows and Aspen Community Donors.
Paepcke Auditorium, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Fee: $20. Tickets on sale at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Complimentary for Society of Fellows and Aspen Community Donors.
Thursday, August 14
McCloskey Speaker Series
The Past, Present and Future of Humor
This event features a conversation with Robert Mankoff, Cartoon Editor of The New Yorker. More than 950 of his cartoons have been published in the magazine including their best-selling cartoon (captioned “No, Thursday’s out. How about never – is never good for you?”). The line also serves as the title to his newest book, a memoir released in March 2014. Mankoff wrote The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance Your Creativity (2002) and edited The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker (Black Dog Leventhal), the best-selling coffee-table book featuring all 68,647 cartoons ever published in The New Yorker since its debut, in 1925. Moderated by Elliot Gerson.
Paepcke Auditorium, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Fee: $20. Tickets on sale at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Friday, August 15
Conversations with Scholars of the American Enterprise Institute
In Collaboration with the American Enterprise Institute
Join us for an afternoon of conversation featuring three distinguished scholars from the American Enterprise Institute. Each scholar will provide insight and analysis to three unique subjects. Karlyn Bowman, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute will speak on “80 Days and Counting to Election 2014: What to Watch.” Jim C. Capretta, visiting fellow at AEI will analyze the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act during the segment “The Key Features of a Better Plan than the ACA.” During the final segment, “Ocean of Risk: China’s Rise, Asia’s Dangers, and America’s Role” Michael Auslin, resident scholar and the director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute will discuss current relations between the U.S. and Asia.
Paepcke Auditorium, 1:30-4:00 p.m.
Fee: $20. Tickets on sale at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Complimentary for Society of Fellows and Aspen Community Donors.
Friday, August 15
Society of Fellows Fireside Chat and Reception
Transforming Lives with Literature
Join us for an inspiring discussion with Andrew Kaufman, award-winning teacher of Russian language, literature, and culture, and author of a new book Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times (Simon & Schuster, May 201) Dr. Andrew D. Kaufman holds a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Stanford University and has spent the last twenty years bringing alive the Russian classics to Americans young and old. An internationally recognized Tolstoy scholar, Dr. Kaufman has lectured at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and at the Leo Tolstoy Museum and Estate at Yasnaya Polyana.
Doerr-Hosier Center, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Doors open and reception begins at 5:30 p.m.; Presentation from 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Fee: $15; Tickets on sale at www.aspenshowtix.com.
Complimentary for Society of Fellows and Aspen Community Donors.
NOTE: Event details subject to change. For more information on Aspen Institute events open to the public, please contact Jillian Scott at (970) 544-7914 or Jillian.Scott@aspeninstitute.org, call the information hotline at (970) 544-7970, or visit the Institute’s website at www.aspeninstitute.org/aspenevents.
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Institute has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also maintains offices in New York City and has an international network of partners. For more info, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
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