Written in Stone

Few things are as durable as stone or as evanescent as words, yet both are elemental raw materials for human expression and history. We shape stone to give shelter, to express meaning, and to mark places and pasts. We shape words to speak, to envision, and to evoke our personal and communal stories. We shape the past itself with words and images, to describe who we are and to proclaim our value to others. This program will give students the opportunity to shape stone into sculpture, words into poetry, and experience into history. We will explore the potential of each of these expressive forms, and the process and craft of each.

Our program work will center on workshops in sculpture, poetry, and the environmental history of our local and regional landscapes. Readings, lectures, seminars and writing assignments will give technical, historical and cultural contexts to our efforts. During program field trips, we will consider landscapes as both material and inspiration for sculpture, poetry and historical memory. In the sculpture studio, students will draw, work with stones as found objects, and learn basic stone carving methods, and consider alternative ways to use stone expressively. In poetry workshops, students will read and study works of selected poets, write poems, and read and respond to each other's works. Lectures, readings, seminars and expository writing will explore historical, cultural and personal dimensions of landscape. The program goals are for students to advance their expressive skills with words and images, and to make and explore potent connections between stones and words, sculpture and poetry, history and landscape.