Registration for Fall Term 2021 at the Creative Retirement Institute (CRI) of Edmonds College starts September 1, 2021

Registration for Fall Term 2021 at the Creative Retirement Institute (CRI) of Edmonds College starts September 1, 2021.

If you are not familiar with CRI, you have a new opportunity for a brain-tickling, delightful time. CRI is the lifelong learning program at Edmonds College that has been around for almost 30 years. It offers non-credit, college-level courses at a modest cost. There are no examinations or grades. Students come to classes for the enjoyment of learning. 

Each term a few hundred students enroll in 30 or so classes. Most students take two or more. Classes are currently taught using the Zoom platform.

The classes cover a broad spectrum of topics – from music to art to literature to science to current world issues. They are taught by individuals who are well versed in the topics that they teach. Many are retired college professors; many bring extensive personal and professional expertise to the topic. 

You can begin the term with music, end it with art, and enjoy numerous equally interesting courses in between. 

To whet your appetite, below is information about two of the courses happening this fall. The full list of classes and their descriptions can be found at HERE

Brent Jensen
Photo by Lisa Hagen Glynn

MILES AHEAD: THE JAZZ LEGACY OF MILES DAVIS. Taught by Brent Jensen. 

Miles Davis is perhaps the most influential musician in the history of Jazz. Over the course of a long career that began in 1945 and continued (with a brief, mysterious hiatus from 1975-81) until his death in 1991, 

Miles was a central figure in the development of cool jazz, hard bop, and fusion. 

This course will bring you video and audio examples of his music, as well as live musical demonstrations. 

Brent brings a rich history of experience in the world of jazz to the class. He served as the Director of Jazz Studies and Woodwinds at the College of Southern Idaho for 18 years. 

He wrote the textbook, Survey of Jazz Handbook, currently used at CSI and other colleges across the country. 

He is a professional jazz saxophonist who has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz artists.

Rijksmuseum
Photo by Timo Wielink on Unsplash

GREAT MUSEUMS OF AMSTERDAM. Taught by Rebecca Albiani. 

This course will begin with a visit to the Rijksmuseum, the world’s greatest repository of Dutch Golden Age art. 

The 17th-century Dutch Republic produced Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. 

The Rijksmuseum's Gallery of Honor showcases The Milkmaid, The Merry Toper, and The Night Watch. 

The Van Gogh Museum is an easy stroll from the Rijksmuseum. 

There one finds the world's largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh. Most were originally owned by his brother Theo and include masterpieces from every stage of van Gogh's brief but prolific career. 

Rebecca received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied art history and Italian. She earned a master’s degree in Art History at Stanford University and did research on 16th- century painting in Venice on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is a frequent and popular arts lecturer at the Frye Art Museum of Seattle and CRI.