MEDIA ADVISORY

[For space reasons, the following program isn't open to the general
public.  Reporters wishing to attend the Rotunda program should
contact Joe Rinkevich at (804) 979-3226 or by email at
jpr7e@virginia.edu.]


     WHALES' SONGS, ARCTIC LIGHTS
WILL BE PART OF ROTUNDA DOME ROOM PROGRAM

	Scott McVay, an internationally known naturalist and
authority on the life of whales and whales' songs, will make a
unique presentation in the Rotunda Dome Room at the University of
Virginia from 6-7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13.

	As part of U.Va. architecture dean William A. McDonough's
ongoing series of invitations to leading environmentalists to come
here to make "Declarations of Interdependence" about the
inter-connectedness of humankind and nature, McVay will present a
special program:  "Biophilia:  an exploration of our affinity with
the natural world inspired by the whale's song."

	The program will begin with images of the Northern Lights
projected onto the dome's interior surface while recordings are
played of the mysterious songs arctic whales sing when viewing the
lights in the arctic night.  McVay, executive director of the New
Jersey-based Geraldine Dodge Foundation, has written widely about
the life of whales and has led many expeditions to record songs and
observe whales.  On Wednesday, Feb. 14, he will lecture in
McDonough's popular "Environmental Choices" class at 1 p.m. in Old
Cabell Hall Auditorium.

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February 6, 1996