Playwright Michael Dinwiddie delivered a lecture to the University of Iowa community in the Creative Matters series on February 19, 2021. Below are stories, text, photos, and other materials chronicling and related to the visit.

Michael D. Dinwiddie is a playwright and associate professor in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and a Walt Disney Fellowship at Touchstone Pictures, among others.  In 2018 Michael was inducted into the College of Fellows at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Castoff Treasures: the Artist/Scholar Model in the 21^st Century

Scholars share knowledge and explore new ways of thinking through books, articles, lectures, and monographs. Artists likewise illuminate pathways into our humanity with the visual and performing arts. What is the artist/scholar model and where was it developed? Is such a configuration necessary in modern society? What is lost or gained with a bifurcation of these roles? And how does the artist/scholar model help us discern value and worth in social action and activism?

Resources:

1. John Singer Sargent and Thomas McKeller: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/arts/design/john-singer-sargent-drawings-gardner-museum.html
2. John Outerbridge, 87, Cultural Artist, is Dead – NYTimes 1/7/21: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/arts/john-outterbridge-dead.html
3. Bill Arnett, 81, Collector and Promoter of Little-Known Black Art, Dies at 81 – NYTimes 8/25/20: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/arts/bill-arnett-collector-and-promoter-of-little-known-black-art-dies-at-81.html
4. Deb Willis & Hank Willis Thomas: https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=1PZwo3rovz5eyz1pflyLcf7W2QSk7YHUw&export=download
5. Shaun Leonardo: https://elcleonardo.com/
6. Iowa Scholar – James Hatch (historian of African American theatre)/filmmaker and co-creator of the Hatch Billops Collection: https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/02/er_hatch_memorial/campus.html
7. Voxman Music Hall Sculpture and clip on Richard Hunt – the scholar/artist model https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=NHwZviCqaiM
8. The Gee’s Bend Quilters – video: https://youtu.be/4ppajoOX29o
9. The Oracles of Iowa City Mural Installation Survey for Community Input: http://www.publicspaceone.com/oracles-ic-survey

Creative Matters is an initiative of the UI Arts Advancement Committee and is sponsored by the UI Office of the Vice President for Research.

All events are free and open to the public.

The Office of the Vice President for Research provides resources and support to researchers and scholars at the University of Iowa and to businesses across Iowa with the goal of forging new frontiers of discovery and innovation and promoting a culture of creativity that benefits the campus, the state, and the world.

More at https://research.uiowa.edu, and on Twitter: @DaretoDiscover.