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. This program will give students the opportunity to shape stone into sculpture, and words into finely crafted prose and poetry. 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, creative writing, with an eye toward how we locate ourselves in the natural and historical landscape. 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 and creative writing.

In writing workshops, we will read and study works of selected authors, write, and practice peer critique. Students will learn basic graphic design principles and skills that allow them to experiment with the visual, spatial form of their writing; this work will culminate in the production of a bound anthology of student writing. In the sculpture studio, students will draw, work with stones as found objects, learn basic stone carving methods, and consider alternative ways to use stone expressively.

The program goals are for students to advance expressive skills with words and images and to make and explore potent connections between stones and words, sculpture and writing, history and landscape.