Kelley, Loring to discuss connections between art, environment in Portland
University of Maine marine geologist Joseph Kelley and 2017 honorary doctorate recipient Donna Loring will take part in a discussion that explores connections between art, environmental concerns and people’s relationship to the natural world at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26 in Osher Auditorium at Maine College of Art.
Kelley will discuss his research about Maine’s coastal ecosystems as sea levels change during the conversation titled “Elemental Intersections: Conversations on Art & Environment, Part III: Earth.”
Loring — founder and president of Seven Eagles Media Productions, author, Vietnam veteran and former Penobscot Nation representative to the Maine Legislature — will talk about Maine Native People’s relationship with the land and sea.
They will join artist Wayne Higby in the conversation. Higby will describe how the state’s shoreline inspired some of his early “Landscape Bowls.” In Higby’s vessels, as well as his many-story-tall installations, he meditates on connections and collisions of “earth, sky, time, light and space.”
Julie Burstein, creator of public radio’s “Studio 360,” will facilitate the discussion.
The Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts’ Environmental Intersections series has been organized in partnership with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant program. All talks are at fully accessible venues and sign language interpretation will be available.
The Maine College of Art is at 522 Congress St. in Portland. Funding for the series has been provided, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, visit the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts website or call 882.6075.