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.
November 3 Imagine Character
Step into the world of 16th-century Bolognese Mannerist painter Lavinia Fontana as you imagine characters inspired by her symbol-filled portraits and more.
November 10 Discover Story
Pair paintings by the American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry with writings by the Gilded Age author Edith Wharton to discover rich narrative possibilities.
November 17 Capture Sensation
Inspired by 20th-century British artist Vanessa Bell’s A Conversation and the writings of her sister, Virginia Woolf, experiment with capturing the inner and outer life of characters.
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
General Information
