UPDATE: The Close Looking discussion at the Rose Art Museum originally scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 26 at 3:30 p.m. is postponed until Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 3:30 p.m. due to inclement weather. The article has been updated to reflect this change.Brandeis isn't just a home for students; it also houses countless pieces of stunning and thought-provoking art and documents that give hints of a past we can only imagine.

For example, Brandeis' own Rose Art Museum has works from artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections contains letters written by people like Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt as well as important religious artifacts such as the Book of Hours. While Brandeis is a relatively young school, it is already a home to many important and revelatory pieces.

With that in mind, on Feb. 2 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. will be the first of four showings of some of the pieces within the University walls. Director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities Prof. Ramie Targoff (ENG) and Special Collections Librarian at the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Sarah Shoemaker, were involved in the inception of the event.

In an interview with the Justice, Dabney Hailey, director of academic programs at the Rose Art Museum, who also was a part of the beginnings of the series, explained just how the event came to be: "Ramie, as director of the new Humanities Center, wanted to find ways to focus cross-disciplinary conversations on Brandeis' great collections. Sarah and I were eager to share our brilliant collections with the community, in particular through discussions featuring the extraordinary and varied faculty here at the University. The series really celebrates the best of Brandeis."

After debating which pieces should be showcased, Hailey, Shoemaker and Targoff decided on two paintings and two literary manuscripts.

The piece that will be shown tomorrow is "Painting for the Czech Bride," a painting by Natalie Frank, who will be at the Rose on April 7. The painting explores the "themes of power and terror," according to the Rose's website. Considering that this is a cross-disciplinary event, two Brandeis faculty members will host and lead a discussion on each of the pieces. The first pair will be Profs. Ellen Schattschneider (ANTH) and David Sherman (ENG).

The next three showings will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 16, March 9 and April 27. The next piece will be a 1623 Folio of Shakespeare's works, which is but one artifact of many the University has of Shakespeare's; besides the 1623 Folio, there are his second and fourth folios, along with numerous first editions of his works and criticisms and commentaries on those works that date back to before the 1800s.

The third event will be centered on Modernist painter Marsden Hartley's "Musical Theme (Oriental Symphony)." Hartley himself, in a letter to a friend, described the painting as a "conclave of universal elements confiding in one another," which goes to show the painting's accessibility in being included it in an interdisciplinary format.

The last piece that will be featured is Joseph Heller's original manuscript of Catch-22, which he donated to Brandeis in 1964.

Hailey hopes that the series will inspire "complex and exciting conversations" and expects it to simply be entertaining. "There's nothing like a prolonged, engaged look at an original work of art: It's a physical, emotional and intellectual experience. I hope students will take advantage of this opportunity to look openly and deeply alongside their professors and friends, who I expect will represent a range of perspectives."

As for the future, Hailey said that both she, Shoemaker and Targoff hope to keep the series running throughout future semesters, which won't be much of a problem, considering Brandeis owns over 10,000 rare books and over 7,000 pieces of art. If you can't make it to any of the exhibits, just stop by the Rose for a "little time away from the intensity of classes and papers. There's nothing like spending time with some magnificent paintings to soothe the mind and get one's creative juices flowing," says Hailey.