Polar Paradoxes: Unlocking Creativity from the Ends of the Earth

Maine writer, Cynthia Reeves, and artists, Justin Levesque and Sherre Wilson-Liljegren, focus their work on the polar regions. We’ve traveled together and separately to the Arctic and Antarctica to experience this particularly fraught landscape firsthand. We’ve thought deeply about how best to capture the dialectic of ideas presented by the polar regions—the tension between witnessing the sublime in the natural world and the damage wrought by human encroachment on once-pristine landscapes, and the way those concepts are mediated to audiences.

This program will be part presentation/part conversation, engaging the audience in a discussion about how the use of place in art, in particular the polar regions, can inspire change and participation. We will present writings, paintings, photos, and film clips that depict a wide range of responses—our own and others—to encounters with the Arctic and Antarctica. In an interactive mode, we will present a visual prompt and encourage the audience to respond either in writing or by sketching.

Our goal is to open up new worlds to “armchair travelers,” generate discussion about the opportunities and difficulties we face together in preserving these sublime landscapes, and inspire fellow writers and visual artists in using place effectively in their work.

Biographies and other pertinent information can be found at our websites:

· Cynthia Reeves—cynthiareeveswriter.com

· Justin Levesque—onedynamicsystem.com

· Sherre Wilson-Liljegren—sherrewilsonliljegren-wxmd.squarespace.com