92NY Roundtable Launches The America at 250 Series

Image Courtesy of 92NY / Roundtable

FEATURING A WIDE RANGE OF ONLINE CLASSES AND A MARCH 31 SYMPOSIUM AT 92NY

Topics Include The Declaration of Independence, Iconic American Painters, George Washington, The First Amendment, The Great American Songbook, Quintessential American Novels, and More

Little-known stories about the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s founding. The protest music of Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, and others. Washington crossing the Delaware. John Singer Sargent and the emergence of American painters. Deep dives into the great American songbook, the First Amendment – and five books that tell the story of America.

Those are just some of the topics featured in Roundtable’s year-long America at 250  series of online classes which explores the history and identity of the country through its art, ideas and political life.

Roundtable, the online classroom of The 92nd Street Y, New York, draws on a wide range of experts and educators to teach online classes. America at 250 will feature author and historian Russell Shorto, constitutional law scholar Geoffrey Stone, Kermit Roosevelt (great-great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt), University of London professor Sarah Churchwell, award-winning composer-lyricist Edward Barnes, and Smithsonian presenter Aneta Georgievska-Shine, among others.

Online classes in the series include: The World in 1776, Art and the American Revolution, Great American Plays, Reading Moby-Dick, A History of America First, American Landscape Painting, Making the American Image of Power, and Ideas of Liberty: From Founding Framers to Refugee Philosophers, among others.

The March 31 America at 250 (in-person) symposium at the 92nd Street Y centers on three topics: art, literature and music. Over the course of a day, three instructors will deliver lectures about the relationship between the arts and American identity in moments of national change. Lectures include: The History of the U.S. in Five Books; Three Visions of America in Song; and American Artists on the Global Stage.

Registration for all classes and the symposium is available on Roundtable’s website. Additional classes will be added.

“With America at 250, we wanted to step back and ask how the country we live in today came to be,” said Roundtable CEO Rolando Nuñez Baza. “This milestone gives us a moment to explore the history and identity of a nation through its art, ideas, and political life. Rather than telling a single story, these classes approach America as an ongoing conversation — shaped by debate, creativity, conflict, and change across centuries.”