How do cultures in crisis represent themselves through public art such as murals and graffiti? How is public art globally significant? The two presenters, the director of the Global Humanities Institute and an art professor and GHI traveler, recently traveled to El Salvador and observed closely the abundance of public art.
El Salvador has experienced the power of public art for generations, through political turmoil and civic tragedies. It continues to do so today, as it confronts detrimental migrations. After many years of economic hardship, Greece has seen a proliferation of public art and fiction that directly addresses the radical shifts in self-definition and cultural identity. The inevitable philosophical shift that has resulted from unemployment, loss of family resources, loss of self-governance, among other harsh realities, have rendered Greece a place of loss and mourning. These realities are reflected in the murals that appear throughout Athens and other larger cities. Crises in both El Salvador and Greece ask that we re-think the purpose of literature, art, religion, philosophy, history, the literary, and other aspects of the humanities on the ground. All of these hardships find expression in highly engaging art that we will share with participants. To come full circle, we will also show murals in DC and think about their function.
About the presentersRita S Kranidis
Rita Kranidis is Professor of English at Montgomery College in Maryland. She is also the Director of the Global Humanities Institute, a new entity at the College that is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has taught writing and literature courses for over 25 years and has dabbled in utopian matters for a long while. Her commitment to global humanities will take her and other Montogmery faculty to China, India, and El Salvador, where different notions of utopia may prevail…
Sarah Jorgensen
n/a