Yale Norfolk School of Art Summer 2022 Lecture Series: The Shape of Empathy
May 21– July 1, 2022
February 15, 2022: Student deadline to submit application materials
Norfolk, CT
For summer 2022 the Yale Norfolk School of Art will offer a thematic program, made possible by Norfolk Foundation, Inc., called “The Shape of Empathy” that will include a series of lectures covering divergent topics. The roster of speakers will influence the students’ summer dialogue in a structured way, culminating in an online video archive of these interactions. Yale Norfolk seeks to engage with the Norfolk residential community and also with a broader public to build a more diverse audience during the summer period.
Yale Norfolk’s co-directors, Byron Kim and Lisa Sigal chose the subject “The Shape of Empathy” for the summer of 2020, which was regrettably canceled a second time for Summer 2021. Since the theme remains relevant to the state of our lives in 2022, five artists and scholars from the 2020 session will be invited again, and additional lecturers will be added to the series. Speakers will address diverse attitudes toward empathy and multiple perspectives in order to unpack the ways in which we might better understand each other. We anticipate conversations about ascribing meaning onto works of art along with questions like, is it ok for an artwork to lack empathy? And how best to discuss the shape of our empathy toward the planet on which we live?
The resident faculty for 2022 will be Byron Kim and Lisa Sigal and four Teaching Fellows, selected from graduates of Yale’s esteemed MFA program. This summer Yale Norfolk School of Art is moving forward with plans to accommodate 22 students. We’re especially eager to welcome students to work in the newly renovated Art Barn studio spaces. In addition to the Norfolk Summer course schedule, students will investigate “The Shape of Empathy,” the theme of the summer’s lecture series, with visiting scholars and artists who will engage the students in a wide range of vibrant topics. Students follow a curriculum of Yale College art courses including Critical Studies, Advanced Image Making and Senior Studio. Students work in individual studio spaces and have access to digital printers, computers, along with some traditional printmaking facilities.