Writer In Residence, Diana Whitney
Our first week of the spring trimester began appropriately with an all-school presentation of Thaw: A Conversation in Words and Imagery an installation created by artist and VA faculty Evie Lovett and local poet Diana Whitney.
Drawing inspiration from the Connecticut River the artists “share our points of intersection on the muse of the River, as friends and fellow artists. The project consists of encaustic paintings by Evie Lovett, poems by Diana Whitney, and a video installation created by Evie as a backdrop for a live poetry reading by Diana." The students thoroughly enjoyed the presentation which was followed by a week-long writer-in-residence visit with Diana. Dianna visited tenth grade English classes and met with select upperclassmen who are members of Write Club, a student-run creative writing collective. Under Diana’s mentorship students responded to writing prompts inviting them to think about a sense of place at home, school, and on the Saxtons River. Students found it exhilarating and inspiring to visit the river at a time when the ice and snow are still clinging in various formations. The project, Thaw, is appropriately named; Monday students were crunching snow beneath their feet, Wednesday, they balanced gingerly on frozen ground, Thursday the mud sucked their feet into the ground, and on Friday it rained lightly. By the end of the week, mother nature had produced spring, and the students had produced a number of poems.
Back
The show is on exhibition in Horowitz until May 10, at which time we will hold an artist reception that will include the work generated by VA students across disciplines and a student poetry reading. Thaw will be integrated into other academic disciplines throughout the Spring, so please watch for more student projects inspired by the exhibit and rivers in Vermont.
Vermont Academy is a coed college preparatory boarding and day school in southern Vermont, serving grades 9-12 plus a postgraduate year.
