Expanding Boundaries Through Conversation
The Lunder Institute Summer Think Tank brings together artists and others in the field of American art
In a noisy world that has no shortage of talking heads, bluster, debate, and argument, there is often a crucial piece missing from the soundscape: conversation.
The art of conversation is exactly what Erica Wall, director of the Lunder Institute for American Art, brings to the forefront. For the second summer in a row, the Lunder Institute Summer Think Tank has invited artists, scholars, museum professionals, and other culture-bearers to come to Colby and engage in dialogue with a goal of raising pressing questions in the field of American art, building relationships, and advancing new ideas.
“The idea around the summer think tanks is that we really do a deep dive and focus,” Wall said. “It gives them an opportunity to explore different directions through coming together and discussing what is most relevant, whether those be challenges or accomplishments, and be in conversation about their experiences and perspective and role within the field of American art.”
Last summer, the think tank centered around Black art, artists, and experience. This year, it centered on Indigenous art, with around 40 artists and others from many tribes and nations invited to Waterville to share their voices over eight weeks beginning in June.
“We are specifically committed to strengthening our relationships and work with the Wabanaki community, and one of the primary ways we did that this summer was through inclusion of many Wabanaki artists and community members in our think tank cohorts,” Wall said.
Next year, the focus of the think tank will be on performance art within American art.
Recordings of the conversations are being archived through the Colby Libraries’ Digital Initiatives Division. In the spring, Wall said, they will be available for students and researchers to access through JSTOR, the nonprofit digital library of academic journals and scholarly content.
The conversations, and the recorded archives, are providing the Lunder Institute for American Art another way to expand the boundaries of the field. Oftentimes, artists and others “work in silos,” Wall said, and they don’t always know who can be a collaborator or advisor. She hopes the recorded conversations will serve as a resource for young artists or others searching for a path forward.
“The way of the artist is not straight. It is very windy, and for every artist, there’s a different experience,” she said. “It’s amazing to be in conversation with all of these people. They’re very thoughtful and very honest. And you could tell that people understand the purpose is to benefit others. And I think that’s a big motivation.”
Supper Club at the Greene Block + Studios
On a hot summer evening, a convivial group gathered around a long, rectangular table in the street-level space of the Greene Block + Studios in downtown Waterville. It was one of the weekly Supper Club events, intended to be a time for Lunder Institute Summer Think Tank participants and guests to gather, break bread, and talk more informally over meals thoughtfully prepared by a member of the institute’s chef-in-residence program.
The chefs are invited to visit the Colby Museum of Art and “mine the collection” for inspiration, Wall said. For this particular dinner, Chef Louis Pickens of Black Betty’s Bistro, a catering kitchen and restaurant in Portland, Maine, found himself drawn to Citadel, a painting by Navajo (Diné) artist Tony Abeyta that depicts adobe structures nestled together on a New Mexico hillside with ominous-looking clouds rolling in the background overhead.
“It’s such a beautiful painting,” Pickens said as the diners gathered around the table. “And the thing about it that really resonates with me is that it’s like it’s moving. Even though it’s just a painting, it has motion to it. And also, I have to say, growing up in the South it kind of reminds me of what the clouds would do before a tornado. … You understand that nature has its own set of rules. Some lovely, some beautiful, and some rather destructive at times. With that in mind, I felt the need to make some comfort food.”
As people tucked in with gusto to a menu of heirloom tomato salad, mac and cheese, bison, collard greens, and more, they laughed and talked comfortably. They didn’t come across as folks who might have been strangers just a few days before, and that’s by design. Every week, the participants arrive on Monday evening, when they dine together and meet each other. They begin their conversations the next day and continue through Thursday for about three hours each day.
“It’s really an intense nine hours of talking,” Wall said. “The idea is that it’s a safe, fertile space for them to generate conversation that’s organic.”
By the midweek Supper Club, the artists often seem like old friends.
“I think we’re really breaking down the monolith of what certain communities are made into,” Wall said. “We might have folks who are university professors. We might have folks who are dealing with land repatriation. It’s interdisciplinary. We try to really invite a breadth of folks to come together. At the core, it’s really meant to bring together people and for them to share their own personal experience and perspective for the purpose of a greater understanding.”
