The spring Arts and Humanities Symposium at Hope College will explore “Music, Arts and Placemaking” on Friday, Feb. 19, continuing discussion started during the biennial event’s fall installment.
The presentations will feature scholars from multiple disciplines discussing how public spaces can help to build community in their design and purpose, with a focus on art and museums in particular. The symposium will feature three talks and responses beginning every hour starting at 1 p.m. in Cook Auditorium of the college’s De Pree Art Center and Gallery, followed immediately by an artist’s talk and opening reception for the exhibition “Katie Wynne: Work Day.”
The public is invited to all of the events. Admission is free.
The purpose of the Arts & Humanities symposium is to bring to important and timely topics an interdisciplinary conversation that displays the academic disciplines at their best. Each academic discipline equips its practitioners with particular skills and training that, when juxtaposed to other disciplines, can provide the best solutions to the problems society faces.
This year’s fall and spring events have been scheduled in celebration of the opening of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts and the Kruizenga Art Museum at the beginning of the school year. The fall symposium, held on Friday, Oct. 23, focused on music and placemaking.
The activities on Friday, Feb. 19, will begin at 1 p.m. with “Building Art Engagement at Grand Valley State University,” which will examine the growth of GVSU and its art collection, reflecting on the university’s learning goals and community. The presentation will be by Grand Valley staff members Henry Matthews, director of galleries and collections; Nathan Kemler, curator of collections management; and Stacey Tvedton, program coordinator. The response will be by Julia Randel, associate professor of music and chair of the Department of Music at Hope.
At 2 p.m., Anna Kell, assistant professor of art and art history at Bucknell University, will present “Domestic Tension: When Home Meets the Institution,” discussing her paintings and installations. The response will be by Anne Heath, associate professor of art and art history at Hope.
At 3 p.m., James Cogswell, who is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan, will present “Cosmogonic Tattoos: Epistemic Limits and the Will to Adorn.” He will explore the insights and possibilities stemming from the use of digital technologies to establish links between two geographically and academically separated collecting institutions. The response will be by Gerald Griffin, assistant professor of psychology and biology at Hope.
Katie Wynne will speak at 4 p.m., with an opening reception for “Work Day” following from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Through mixed media sculpture and installation, Wynne displaces and redefines familiar objects in an escape attempt from the ordinary, exploring life at its most imprudent and most tender. Following the opening, the gallery will be open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition will continue through Thursday, March 17.
The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 275 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets.