We invite you to reflect on Ellery and Dario’s conversation below.
Historically, artists, museums, and everyday people have used objects and materials to create meaningful artifacts that shape our understandings of war, death, and loss. Underlying those actions is an assumption that art and creativity are useful responses in the face of such trauma. But what, specifically, is the role of artists and museums in any era of catastrophic loss? How do artists and museums help us make sense of seemingly senseless suffering and grief? How has this legacy continued to today?
In this shared conversation, artist Dario Robleto and art historian Ellery Foutch will discuss their responses to the tragedies of September 11, 2001 and our current pandemic moment, sharing what their research and practices have revealed about the historical past and future paths of what we might call a "history of the creative response to loss."
Dario Robleto, A Sadness Silence Can't Touch, 2005
Image credit: Kevin Grady
Dario Robleto is an artist and writer living in Houston, Texas. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in prominent collections including the Harvard Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has held research fellowships at a range of cultural and scientific institutions, including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. He is currently serving as Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and the Block Museum of Art.
Ellery Foutch is an Assistant Professor in the American Studies department at Middlebury College, where she teaches classes on the art and material culture of the United States. Foutch received her PhD in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and has held postdoctoral teaching fellowships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Courtauld Institute of Art (London). She is a Sheldon Museum trustee.
Explore the rest of the “Elephant in the Room” series here.
The “Elephant in the Room” lecture series is presented with support from Vermont Humanities.
*This talk is co-sponsored by the following Middlebury College departments and programs: American Studies, Studio Art, History of Art and Architecture, Associate Dean for the Arts, and Middlebury College Museum of Art.
