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 a course of 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. The course has a limited enrollment to maximize interaction among the instructor and students.
July 7 Dialogue: Spoken and Unspoken
Give voice to the characters in 20th-century American artist Mary Cassatt’s The Boating Party as you experiment with crafting effective dialogue.
July 14 Impact: Tone and Mood
Create atmosphere and evoke emotion in your writing, inspired by works by 20th-century French artist Henri Matisse, including Open Window, Collioure.
July 21 Memoir: Setting and Identity
Take inspiration for memoir writing from 20th-century Catalan artist Joan Miró’s painted visual memoir, The Farm.
Surface is a teaching artist, playwright, theater director, and museum educator. She presents workshops nationwide in creative writing and drama as a Kennedy Center teaching artist, is a Chautauqua Institution Writer-in-Residence, and was a faculty member at Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom.
3 sessions
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