LandEscapes Board

Nancy Manter,
artistic director

Lysbeth Ackerman

Nancy Bowen

Karen Davidson

Susan Lerner

Casey Mallinckrodt

Sam Shaw

Jody Silvio

Advisory Board:

Eduardo Bohorquez

Jennie Cline

Stephanie Cotsirillis

Niki Fox

Susan Dowlng Griffiths

Steve Kursch

Cynthia Livingston

Patricia Phillips

Carol Shutt

JULY 18, 2002 -- The Mount Desert Symposium in the Arts returns for its second go-round next week. The theme of this year’s LandEscapes 2002 symposium, is "Sensing Balance."
Founder and artistic director Nancy Manter again has gathered practitioners of the arts and sciences for an exploration of the relationship between the two disciplines. This year’s symposium will pay particular attention to how art and science relate to community and global issues.

Mount Desert Island artists, including filmmaker and COA instructor Nancy Andrews, poet and author Carl Little, and photographer Curtis Wells will gather with sculptors and writers, digital artists and painters, filmmakers and scientists, for five days of dialogues and workshops, beginning Monday, July 22.

Like last year, the symposium will play out—fast and loose—at sites around the island. Visiting artists, who are not paid for their participation, will stay with host volunteers. Most of the symposium’s five days of events are free. There are nominal charges for the workshops.
It is a process, said Ms. Manter, of the fluid, extemporaneous nature of the symposium.

"We don’t have a budget, or housing. We rely totally on generosity of the participants, volunteers."

Ms. Manter said the chance to spend several days on the island—at the height of midsummer— makes enticing the artists from away less than difficult. Many are return visitors Down East. At least two artists are from Maine.

Ms. Manter grew up in Veazie the child of a physician father and an artist mother. The exploration of connections between art and science comes naturally for her. Growing up, she said, the relationship between the disciplines "had perfect logic to me, the crossing between the two."
A part-time resident of Tremont for 15 years, Ms. Manter said she and her husband were drawn here by the diversity and vibrancy of the island’s cultural community. She mined that community for help creating the symposium. A board of directors for the 2002 symposium includes MDI residents Sam Shaw, Lysbeth Ackerman, Susan Lerner, Casey Mallinkrodt and Eduardo Borohquez.

"It’s about dialogue, conversing. Those boundaries [between art and science] are being broken down. The world is changing so quickly, everyone can use everybody" for insight, said Ms. Manter.

"There are some artists that are such formalists. All of these people are in some way dipping into the other field. I think that’s very interesting."

LandEscapes 2002 will kick off Monday, July 22 with keynote speaker Jane Alexander, the critically lauded actress and former chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Manter expects Ms. Alexander will discuss her work as an artist in the political world, the impact on funding for arts in the aftermath of September 2001 terrorist attacks. And, perhaps, her love of birds.

"She is a wonderful speaker. I kind of imagine her just sitting, having a conversation."

A panel discussion, "Sensing Balance," will be held Wednesday, July24 at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor. Panelists Joseph LeDoux, Greg Lock, Carl Little and Nancy Princethal will discuss the balancing acts in life and art—in terms of cognitive science, the concept of escape, the real verses the virtual, and the individual artist within a com-munity. The panel will be moderated by Patricia Phillips, dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at SIJNY New Paltz.

A closing night finale will include the exhibit "A Delicate Balance: New York and Maine Responds to 9/11" a collection of photographs of Maine and New York photographers Nancy Bowen, Lone Novak, Susannah Heller, Mimi Gross, Rebecca Howland and Curtis Wells. The artists captured with their lenses an array of responses m the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack, including spontaneous memorials in both Maine and New York

Ms Manter lives in New York City with her husband and two sons, two blocks from site of World Trade Center. After months of being barred from their apartment, said they now are back home in their TriBeCa neighborhood—with an ever-running air purifier. Ms. Manter, who commutes from NYC to teach painting and drawing at Princeton Univer-sity in New Jersey, said even as questions loomed about whether to remain in New York after the attacks, she and other residents were anxious to get back to their homes.

The events of September 11 undoubtedly will be a subject of the dialogue of the symposium, she said.

Ms. Manter and LandEscapes board of directors met in February, to choose the theme for the summer 2002 symposium. "Sensing Balance seemed like the right title—it’s a rippling effect, after 9-11."

After 10 months in New York, coming to Maine felt strange, Ms. Manter said. She has been touched by the openness and expressions of concern she has received. "It’s much more generous than I ever could have imagined," she said.

The events of the last year have changed our national landscape—its political, artistic, intellectual topographies, she said, and the community is ready for a lively, mutable dialogue.

"We need more things like this," she said of the symposium. "It’s about talking, showing. It’s like a potluck. Everybody brings something to the table."

Caitlin Tunney, Mount Desert Islander