Panel explores collaboration in the arts

A novelist, a painter, a filmmaker, and a poet all walk into a bar. Well, actually a bookstore, but you get the idea.

This Thursday, artists of all spots and stripes will flock to Bluestockings Bookstore to discuss cross-genre collaboration in today’s eclectic art scene. The discussion, entitled “Hang Together or Hang Apart? Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Arts in the Era of Mixed-Media,” is being hosted by Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. In accord with the theme of multi-genre collaboration, all the panelists are themselves artists in more than one medium, either in practice or in study.

Gideon Lester, a professor in Columbia’s graduate theater department and the former director of the American Repertory Theatre, will moderate the panel, which was put together by panel discussion manager Joshua Howes. The panel will be comprised of novelist Siri Hustvedt, artist Jon Kessler, poet/painter Marjorie Welish, filmmaker Michael Almereyda, novelist/poet Terese Svoboda, and writer Alix Ohlin.

According to Lester, “Collaboration is not exactly a new subject—artists have been collaborating and experimenting with other forms since art began, but it seems to be a subject of renewed interest in the art world and in schools like Columbia and NYU where they’re increasingly teaching classes in collaboration.”

The six panelists will begin by addressing the question of how artists can collaborate in today’s world of constantly evolving genres to excite a savvy, post-literate generation. From there, the discussion will segue into a free-form conversation with an open floor for questions and answers.

Lester says he foresees a lively and provocative dialogue emerging from such relevant, contemporary art topics and knowledgeable speakers.

“We have to keep refreshing the way we talk and think about art and how we produce it—a lot of the most stunning innovations in all fields of art-making have happened when artists have experimented in other disciplines or collaborated with artists in other forms,” Lester said.

“Artists aren’t rigid, and they don’t live in boxes, and this event is designed to celebrate their freedoms and curiosity and their love of experimentation,” he added.

The Journal’s editor in chief, Alexis Tonti, explained the Journal’s interest in community building and raising the profile of the arts in general through the promotion of thought and debate. She described the previous panel discussions that the Journal hosted as very successful, and Tonti has high hopes for this one as well.

“The Columbia Journal staff rotates every year. In the past, panels have focused exclusively on literary concerns and writing­—this is the first year of pushing into interdisciplinary terrain. We’re excited to be reaching a broader range of people,” Tonti said.

Like Lester, Tonti also anticipates the emergence of an interesting discussion from such a multifaceted panel.

“Joshua Howes is charged with finding the right people to talk with who all bring different points of view. We work hard to have diversity—novelists, photographers, films, poets, critics. Joshua went out of his way to curate a diverse group of people, and it’s really such an outstanding panel,” Tonti said.

“We’re excited to be expanding the topic of conversation, and we hope to see even more people there representing all sides of the creative community,” she added.

The event will take place on Thursday, December 10th at 7 pm at the Bluestockings Bookstore on 172 Allen Street (at Stanton). Admission is free.