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.
March 3 First Person: Monologues and More
Give voice to the figures in The Mother and Sister of the Artist and to the painting’s creator, 19th-century French artist Berthe Morisot.
March 10 Collage and Poetry
Experience how the layers of contemporary Columbian-born artist María Berrío’s collage, A Sunburst Restrained, can inspire multiple forms of poetry.
March 17 Place and Perspective
Explore the impact of place on a writer's perspective, inspired by 20th century African American artist Lois Mailou Jones’ The Green Door.
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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