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WLA/WHS Scholarly Series: Connecticut Creativity: Vision + Imagination + Inspiration - Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Magdalen Livesey
Thursday, February 25, 2021
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Non-Library Locations
Event Details
The Story of Famous Artists School and its Connecticut Roots – Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Magdalen Livesey
In the 14th year of the collaboration between Wilton Library and the Wilton Historical Society, the scholarly lecture series will focus on the theme of “Creativity in Connecticut”. In this presentation, Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Magdalen Livesey will look at the lasting influence of the Famous Artists School and the artists who contributed to it on the world of illustration from the twentieth century until today.
Famous Artists School – “the art school for everyone, everywhere” – began in 1948 in Westport, then home to a number of well-known artists and illustrators. Al Dorne, a prolific illustrator, had the idea to create an art instruction program for distance learning based on the techniques and experience of other successful artists. Eleven artists, including Norman Rockwell and Stevan Dohanos, contributed material for the comprehensive courses.
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The curator of many exhibitions relating to the art of illustration, including Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms; Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World; Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs; and, The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator, she leads the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the first scholarly institute devoted to the study of illustration art. She has taught graduate students at the Maryland Institute College of art and worked previously at Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the Heckscher Museum of Art. “The Shifting Postwar Marketplace: Illustration in the United States and Canada, 1940-1970” in History of Illustration, and Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School are recent
publications.
Magdalen Livesey is a writer and freelance editor, and the co-author, with Stephanie Plunkett, of Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School. She and her husband, Robert Livesey, owned Famous Artists School from 1982 to 2016.
The remaining lectures are as follows:
March 11 – The World of Maurice Sendak: a Virtual Tour of the Maurice Sendak House and Studio – Lynn Caponera and Jonathan Weinberg Sendak
March 25 – The Greatest Showman – Fiction vs Fact! The REAL Story Behind the REEL Story! – Kathleen Maher
April 8 – Gillette and Holmes: Theatrical Innovation from Connecticut to London and Back Again – Emily Gifford
In the 14th year of the collaboration between Wilton Library and the Wilton Historical Society, the scholarly lecture series will focus on the theme of “Creativity in Connecticut”. In this presentation, Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Magdalen Livesey will look at the lasting influence of the Famous Artists School and the artists who contributed to it on the world of illustration from the twentieth century until today.
The program is sponsored by Dr. Mark and Linda Rubinstein. The moderator is Steve Hudspeth. Online registration is required in order to receive the Zoom invitation link; those on the "wait-list" will receive the YouTube live-stream link.
This program is being hosted by Wilton Library. No charge but a $10 donation to the hosting institution is suggested. Click here to donate.
Famous Artists School – “the art school for everyone, everywhere” – began in 1948 in Westport, then home to a number of well-known artists and illustrators. Al Dorne, a prolific illustrator, had the idea to create an art instruction program for distance learning based on the techniques and experience of other successful artists. Eleven artists, including Norman Rockwell and Stevan Dohanos, contributed material for the comprehensive courses.
Stephanie Haboush Plunkett is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum. The curator of many exhibitions relating to the art of illustration, including Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms; Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol; Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World; Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs; and, The Unknown Hopper: Edward Hopper as Illustrator, she leads the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the first scholarly institute devoted to the study of illustration art. She has taught graduate students at the Maryland Institute College of art and worked previously at Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and the Heckscher Museum of Art. “The Shifting Postwar Marketplace: Illustration in the United States and Canada, 1940-1970” in History of Illustration, and Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School are recent
publications.
Magdalen Livesey is a writer and freelance editor, and the co-author, with Stephanie Plunkett, of Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School. She and her husband, Robert Livesey, owned Famous Artists School from 1982 to 2016.
The remaining lectures are as follows:
March 11 – The World of Maurice Sendak: a Virtual Tour of the Maurice Sendak House and Studio – Lynn Caponera and Jonathan Weinberg Sendak
March 25 – The Greatest Showman – Fiction vs Fact! The REAL Story Behind the REEL Story! – Kathleen Maher
April 8 – Gillette and Holmes: Theatrical Innovation from Connecticut to London and Back Again – Emily Gifford
Event Type(s): Online Event
Age Group(s): Adults
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