Ars Poetica, “the Art of Poetry,” is not just the title of a crusty treatise about how to write a poem (composed by the Roman wordsmith Horace in 19 BCE). Word and image have been interacting since the dawn of civilization and continue their productive relationship today in a multitude of media. What began as Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese ideograms has burgeoned into a riot of color and form ranging from illustrated books and manuscripts to propaganda posters, Pop Art, comics and cartoons, even hyperlinks in cyberspace and multi-media extravaganzas autogenerated by AI. Each medium contains art and poetry all its own.
This two-day conference celebrates art, text, and context in many forms. The University of Vermont (UVM) and other Vermont authors and illustrators will discuss their collaborations on recently published books, including Dan Nott, Marek Bennett, and others. Artists and curators will articulate how text and image coproduce in their work through lectures, demonstrations, and special exhibitions at Silver Special Collections, Billings Library, the Fleming Museum, the Music Building Recital Hall, and a special performance held by the Lane Series. Faculty and student poets will perform recent work that explore the intersections of art and text.
The keynote address will be delivered by celebrated New Yorker cartoonist and best-selling author Harry Bliss.
Dates and Time:
March 31, 2023 from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and April 1, 2023 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM.
Registration Instructions:
Registration Link: https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=740157&#
You can register as an attendee for all sessions, or register for the keynote address only. Please view the schedule of events for the dates and times of each event as well as descriptions.
Location:
In-person at the University of Vermont (various locations on campus)
Price:
Free except for the Lane Series event and for parking if needed.
ARS POETICA IS SPONSORED BY
Mollie Davis Ruprecht Fund for the Visual Arts, Office of the Vice President for Research, College of Arts and Sciences, UVM Humanities Center, Vermont Humanities Council
Schedule:
FRIDAY, MARCH 31
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS/BILLINGS
8:00-9:00 Coffee, light catering, exhibition in Special Collections
9:00-9:15 Welcome and Introductory remarks: Art and Text through Time
Kelley Di Dio, Executive Director, School of the Arts and Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Art History
9:15-9:45 Power and the Limits of Language Mildred Beltre
Associate Professor of Studio Art
9:45-10:20 POEM: A Mashup (Fomite, 2022)
Mark Usher, Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, and Tom Motley, Manhattan School of Visual Arts
10:20-10:40 Break
10:40- 11:00 Possible Futures: Jane Kent and the Artist’s Book
Jane Kent, Professor of Studio Art
11:00-11:30 A Maker’s Guide to Crossing Boundaries
Luis Vivanco, Professor of Anthropology, and Prudence Doherty, Librarian, Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections
11:30-12:00 On Freedom and Unity: A Graphic Guide to Civics and Democracy in Vermont (Center for Cartoon Studies, 2022)
Christopher Ilstrup, Executive Director, Vermont Humanities Council, and Dan Nott, illustrator
12:00-12:30 On The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont (Vermont Folklife Center, 2021)
Andy Kolovos, Associate Director and Archivist, Vermont Folklife Center; Marek Bennet, illustrator; and Teresa Mares, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director for the Graduate Program in Food Systems
12:30-2:00 break for lunch
AFTERNOON SESSIONS AT THE FLEMING MUSEUM AND WILLIAMS HALL
2:00-3:00 Art/Text/Context Fleming Museum
Gallery talk by Curator Kristan Hanson
3:15-3:45 Situated Language: Local Constructions of Time, Space, and Action” curated by Jennifer Karsonn
Exhibition and gallery talk — Colburn Gallery, Williams Hall
Jenn Karson, Lecturer, Studio Art and Engineering
3:45-4:45 Reception (coffee, tea, cookies)
5:00 Keynote address: Drawing Laughs: Cartoons, Stories, and the Joys of Addiction
Harry Bliss, award-winning illustrator and New York Times bestselling author
301 Williams
Bat Boy: The Musical
MARCH 29-APRIL 1 at 7:30PM and APRIL 2 at 2:00PM, Royall Tyler Theatre
Written by Keythe Farley & Brian Flemming — Music & Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe Directed by Leila Teitelman (Program in Theatre and Dance, School of the Arts)
Based on a story in the tabloid The Weekly World News, Bat Boy: The Musical is a musical comedy/horror show about a half boy/half bat creature who is discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. The concept of Bat Boy was turned into a series cartoon,”The Adventures of Batboy,” by Peter Bagge, published in Weekly World News from 2005-7. This production contains strong language and graphic depictions that may not be suitable for all audiences.
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
UVM RECITAL HALL
9:00-10:00 coffee, light catering, workshops and hands-on in the lobby
10:00-10:30 Art, Text, Protest
Jen Berger, Lecturer, Studio Art
10:30-11:00 Interspecies and Random E-Poetry: From VeloCity to “Oleatory” Poems in the Time of Coronavirus
Tina Escaja, aka Alm@ Pérez, University Distinguished Professor of Spanish
11:30-12:00 Amuse Bouche:
UVM Poetry Sampler Stephen Cramer, Senior Lecturer, English
Jamie Griffith, Secondary Education/English, ‘23
Maria Hummel, Professor of English, Hanalei Clark, English, ‘24 Antonello Borra, Professor of Italian
12:00-1:30 LUNCH
(provided for speakers; Open places: Skinny Pancake, Redstone Market, Marché)
1:30-2:00 Digestif: UVM Poetry Sampler, cont.
Mark Usher, Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and Literature Esther Demag, English and History, ‘23
Tony Magistrale, Professor of English
Avery Kupferer, Secondary Education/English, ‘23
Dan Fogel, Professor of English
Molly McDonald, English, ‘23
2:00-2:30 Mini-Comics Workshop: Sources, Structure, Story Marek Bennett, Cartoonist
2:30-4:00 (in lobby): Comics/Chapbook-making workshops
Workshops and hands-on in the lobby with Pru Doherty (Special Collections) and Luis Vivanco (Chair and Professor of Anthropology), Tom Motley (Manhattan School of Visual Arts), Jen Berger (Lecturer, Studio Art). Coffee/cookies in lobby
7:30PM UVM Lane Series
Daniel Kahn and Jake Shulman-Ment UVM Recital Hall
Tickets: www.uvm.edu/laneseries
Detroit-born, Hamburg-based troubadour and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Kahn and New Yorker master fiddler Jake Shulman-Ment have been playing and traveling together for nearly twenty years. This performance is a rare opportunity to hear these incredible performers live on stage in support of their new recording.
Having worked in so many bands and projects (including Daniel’s revered Klezmer bands The Painted Bird and Brothers Nazaroff), they have finally joined up to record a true analog duo record: The Building & Other Songs. It is, says Kahn, “the most personal and intimate selection of songs I’ve ever recorded. And with Jake, it was like recording it with a brother.” The interpretations range from radical treatments of modern Yiddish songs such as Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman’s title track “Der Binyen / The Building” to new Yiddish translations of some of Kahn’s lyrical heroes: Cohen, Brecht, Springsteen, Guthrie, and Waits. Yiddish serves here as a kind of broken mirror, reflecting both despair and repair, exile and ecstasy, loss of trust and wanderlust. The title track is the key to it all: “Imagine your building / how it suddenly burns and falls / a tower of steel on foundations of straw / Why sit and sigh? / Let us dance a tango till the dawn, warming our souls by the burning of straw.