The connections between artistic expression and activism may not be self-evident but are worth examining. This relationship between art and social change will be discussed by Art Historian and Professor of Visual Arts and Environmental Studies at Harvard University Carrie Lambert-Beatty on Wednesday, February 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Beam Classroom in the Visual Arts Center.
Lambert-Beatty will deliver the lecture, "Just Art," which examines how activism is expressed through art. She will explore the importance of visual and performance art in sending powerful social messages.
Lambert-Beatty will focus on the female's right to choose and how civil liberties and art can overlap.
She will discuss how certain organizations, such as the non-profit-group Women on Waves are active in supporting abortion rights and preventing dangerous abortions and unwanted pregnancies.
The organization also uses art and advertising campaigns as mechanisms to make communities across the world aware of the importance of human rights today.
Lambert-Beatty received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and has since published in various journals about performance art, post-modern dance, and minimalism. In her research, she pays particular attention to art since the 1960s.
Lambert-Beatty has served as managing editor of October magazine and has also been a fellow at both the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program and the Getty Research Institute.
Her most recent writings on the choreography and film-making of Yvonne Rainer will be published in Signs in 2008.
The lecture is one of many events included in "Visual Culture in the 21st Century," a year-long series of talks and interdisciplinary courses at Bowdoin that aim at embracing art and culture.
This cultural program was created in honor of the re-opening of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and includes lectures and performances by national and international scholars to discuss the power of art in informing societies.
Other events of interest include a performance by world-renowned lutenist Hopkinson Smith, and discussions about Chinese art and calligraphy, public art, and archaeology. These talks will be given by various artists and university professors.