Discover how visual art can inspire creative writing and how writing can offer a powerful way to experience art. Join Mary Hall Surface, the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s popular Writing Salon, for three online workshops that explore essential elements of writing and styles through close looking, word-sketching, and imaginative response to prompts.
The sessions spotlight a diverse range of visual art chosen to inspire writers of all experience levels to deepen their process and practice. Each workshop has a limited enrollment to maximize interaction among the instructor and students.
Please Note: Individual sessions are available for individual purchase.
NOV 2 Character: Discover Dimensions
Take inspiration from the self portrait of 19th-century French artist Suzanne Valadon to imagine and write multi-dimensional characters.
NOV 9 Setting: Explore Place and Time
Step inside 20th-century photographer Berenice Abbott’s Pennsylvania Station to explore how setting can generate plot, character, and theme.
NOV 16 Story: Imagine Possibilities
Dive into 20th-century artist Edward Hopper’s People in the Sun to construct multiple narratives from a single source.
Surface is a teaching artist, playwright, and theatre director and producer. She presents workshops nationwide in creative writing and drama as a Kennedy Center teaching artist and was a faculty member at Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom.
3 sessions
Photo caption (upper right): Mary Hall Surface in front of Edward Hopper’s 1939 painting "Cape Cod Evening", National Gallery of Art
Patron Information
- If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
- Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
- Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of each session. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of each session, please email Customer Service for assistance.
- View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.
