September 17, 2024
How can artists help enhance our understanding of the United States Constitution, its interpretations throughout history, and our own political participation?
Join Katherine Gressel, curator of the 2023 Picturing the Constitution exhibition at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, participating artist Bang Geul Han, and Supreme Court correspondent and political scientist Steven Mazie for a joint presentation and panel discussion focused on artists’ responses to the United States Constitution, including its origins, contents, and interpretations. All artists are engaged in interpreting the world around them. This panel will explore the value of creatively applying interpretive tools to the Constitution as a document of ever-evolving meaning.
Picturing the Constitution featured artists’ responses to the United States Constitution, including its origins, contents, and interpretations. Installations, workshops and performances in diverse media by 17 artists and art teams asked: to what extent do these founding documents still serve us (equitably)? What could we add or amend? The run-up to the 2024 presidential election offers an opportunity to reflect on the history and current state of democracy in America, our rights and responsibilities to our communities, and the role of artists in depicting and advancing these ideals. Together, the artists in Picturing the Constitution emphasize the importance of deep engagement with the imperfect documents that have shaped our past and present, including imagining a more perfect future.
This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Is is part of the Clarke Forum’s annual theme, Alternative Models.
About the Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Program: The annual program is endowed through the generosity of Winfield C. Cook, former Dickinson Trustee. Each year the Clarke Forum invites a prominent public figure to campus to speak on a contemporary issue related to the Constitution. The event celebrates the signing of the United States Constitution (September 17, 1787) and commemorates Dickinson’s connection to that document, through John Dickinson’s participation as an original signer. Previous speakers have included Kenneth Starr, Ira Glasser, Lowell Weicker, Marjorie Rendell, Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Ibram X. Kendi.
For more information, please visit: https://www.clarkeforum.org/tuesday-september-17-2024/
Further information
- Location: Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
- Time: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
- Cost: Free