top of page

Of Art and Artists

Devised by Cindy Polich

Of Art and Artists is a celebration of art and the artists who create it.  Using the poetry and words of Pulitzer-prize winning poet Amy Lowell combined with the music and artwork of several brilliant (and predominantly female) contemporary composers and artists, this production takes the audience on a journey exploring poetry, writing, music, theater, dance, visual art, nature, and the artists themselves.

 

This 75-minute performance is presented with no intermission.

~ April 2018 ~

Performing Arts of Minnesota Arts High School

7255 Flying Cloud Drive

Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344

REVIEW:  "Of Art and Artists is a dynamic, innovative, and interesting way of presenting poetry through multiple mediums. . .For a program focused primarily on a single poet from Brookline, Massachusetts, the musical and other variety is impressive."

~ Basil Considine - Twin Cities.Arts Reader

Amy Lowell

amy_lowell_605.jpg
Amy Lowell 2.jpg

By all accounts, Amy Lowell was a force.  But accounts differ on whether to view that as a compliment.  She was a poet – a prolific poet – publishing over 650 poems. She was privileged.  The Lowell family was among the wealthy Boston elite. Her father was a prominent Harvard-educated cotton manufacturer.  Her mother came from a similar old and established family, spoke seven languages, and played five musical instruments.  Their estate in Brookline, Sevenels, remained Amy’s home her entire life. Her brother became Harvard’s President (and even after finding her own success, she was quite often introduced as his sister).  

 

She had the wealth and intellect to do as she pleased, and she did.  She was large – in personality and size.  Standing only five feet and weighing 250 pounds, she smoked cigars, cursed, spoke her mind, and challenged convention in her own unique way.  She was an innovator.  She was a founding member of the “imagist” group of poets and embraced the freedom of poetry unconstrained by rhyme and meter.  She was a business woman, working tirelessly to promote her work.  She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1926.

 

Yet, Amy Lowell was ridiculed and maligned, especially by T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.  They called her the “demon saleswoman” and demeaned her as an inferior poet who made a spectacle of herself traveling the country giving lectures that were viewed more as entertainment.  Her critics (nearly all male) suggested that her admitted intelligence, personality and “thumping of her drum” allowed success despite her lack of “genius”.  Most predicted that her writings would soon be forgotten.

 

She never married, so was also disparaged as an obese, wounded, sex-starved, lovelorn spinster. It wasn’t until the 1980s that her biographers would openly disclose her full and loving partnership with Ada Russell, as well as the support and inspiration this relationship provided.

 

She was criticized for her “common” approach to poetry but was passionate about bringing poetry to a broad audience and making it relevant to their daily lives.  Of one lecture appearance she wrote: “Had I followed my inclination, I should have burst into tears when the audience stood up that night.  One goes on writing and writing and writing and wears one’s self out trying to give one’s visions to the world, but it is only occasionally that one realizes that other people have seen those visions and have understood what one was trying to do.”

Gallery
 
Photos by Jessica Holleque
063A5399.JPG
063A5386.JPG
063A5410.JPG
063A5524.JPG
063A5394.JPG
063A5409.JPG
063A5427.JPG
063A5406.JPG
063A5429.JPG
063A5476.JPG
063A5572.JPG
063A5497.JPG
Art&Artists_0171.jpg
Art&Artists_0106.jpg
Art&Artists_0105.jpg
Art&Artists_0196.jpg
Art&Artists_0170.jpg
Art&Artists_0169.jpg
Art&Artists_0134.jpg
Art&Artists_0187.jpg
Art&Artists_0152.jpg
Art&Artists_0109.jpg
Art&Artists_0145.jpg
Art&Artists_0115.jpg
Art&Artists_0121.jpg
Composers
mog-fry.png

Mog Fry

Beech Tree

HigdonCasualwMusic_download.jpg

Jennifer Higdon

Wissahickon PoeTrees: Clock

Libby Larsen 2.jpg

Libby Larsen

Jack's Valentine

Mazzoli.jpg

Missy Mazzoli

Vesper Sparrow

mazur_1.jpg

Marilyn Mazur

Junkyard Entrance

Event - Meredith Monk feature photo.png
Agnes-Obel-promo.jpg

   Meredith Monk                 Agnes Obel

    Windows in 7s                      Tokka

ben moore_music.jpg

Ben Moore

So Free Am I

Nkeiru Okoye.jpg

Nkeiru Okoye

Dancing Barefoot

in the Rain

sr-bio.jpg
Caroline Shaw.jpg
Image 2-5-19 at 3.57 PM.jpg

Steve Reich

Clapping Music

Caroline Shaw

Partita for Eight Voices:

Movement I. Allemande and

Movement II. Sarabande

Ivan Trevino

Empathy

Fullscreen capture 11242017 33209 PM.jpg

Harrison Wade

Eleonora Duse

and Summer

julia_wolfe_photo1_copyright_2009_peter_

Julia Wolfe

Earring

Artists

ida-bagus-alit1.jpg

Ida Bagus Alit

Friendship

IMG_3103.jpeg

Linda Carmel

Dancing Queens

iusa_400x400.39447922_2zkq.jpg

Aliaa Essam

Old Women in the Summer

389383_294130957288105_2136394170_n1.jpg

Sevada Grigoryan

Tonri Lavash

marietjie_5[1].jpg

Marietjie Henning

The Women's March

Terry Taylor.jpg

Terry Taylor

Rainbow on the Wall

Mila Supinskaya Glashenko

                   Alive

Performers

Jim Ahrens

Headshot 1 Bob Suh.jpg

Brianna Belland

fullsizeoutput_9b4.jpeg

Maggie Burr

Thomas Friebe

Zach Garcia

Daniel Greco

Anna Hashizume

Krin McMillen

IMG_4144.jpg

Erik Schee

headshot square.jpg

Christine Wade

Fullscreen capture 11242017 33209 PM.jpg

Harrison Wade

Production Team

Director:                     Lindsay Fitzgerald

Stage Manager:         Megan Gooden      Music Director:          Harrison Wade

Vocal Director:           Christine Wade

Choral Director:         Kellen McMillen

 

bottom of page