ONLINE SYMPOSIUM: Enchanted: Mythology and Fairy Tales - Keynote Program

Saturday, October 23, from 10am to 12:30pm
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Opening Remarks:
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, Deputy Director/Chief Curator
Real and Imagined: Fantastical Rockwell

An ardent and perceptive observer, Norman Rockwell was a persuasive visual commentator whose realist paintings for popular periodicals inspired belief by millions in the innate goodness of humanity and the achievability of the American dream. Rockwell also inspired our love of fantasy in ways that he may not have fully perceived; his carefully constructed artworks for The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines, and for hundreds of twentieth century advertisers and products, are the work of a consummate mythmaker who understood his audience’s deepest desires and spoke to them from the heart. Art critic Peter Schjeldahl once noted that Rockwell’s “precisely observed facts squared with deeply serious hopes”[i] constituted “as accurate a graph as we have of what being American—a fictive condition, always,” could feel like.
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is Deputy Director/Chief Curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum. She currently leads the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies and has organized many illustration-based exhibitions. Her most recent publication is Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School: Classic Techniques and Expert Tips from the Golden Age of Illustration.
 Artist Panel One: The Fairy Tale in Fantasy Art

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Annie Stegg Gerard
Ruth Sanderson
Charles Vess

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Many of today’s popular fairy tales first appeared in collections published by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen. The stories, however, evolved from folklore passed down for many generations. Master artists Annie Stegg Gerard, Ruth Sanderson, Charles Vess will discuss the portrayals of fairy tales in their art, and the antagonists who manifest themselves as tricksters, evil stepmothers, and other beings with fantastical abilities and powers.
 
Artist Panel Two: The Making of Myth

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Victo Ngai
Justin Gerard
Iain McCaig

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Greco-Roman sculptures of mythological figures carved thousands of years ago express the power of the gods and of the myths themselves. These ancient tales have been favorite subjects of poets, storytellers, sculptors, painters, and illustrators throughout history and into modern times. Our panelists will discuss their interest in mythology and approaches to portraying capricious gods and other figures who entice humans to perform impossible tasks.
Price: One admission price for the entire Symposium.

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$15 members
$20 non-members