June 3, 2021
NORTH ADAMS, MASS.—From Tuesday, June 1 to Thursday, June 17, 2021, the MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities (MCLA-IAH) will host its annual Summer Symposium, a series of four events on the theme of accountability.
The series will close on June 17 from 2-4 p.m. EST with an experiential poetry workshop offered by The Mastheads, led by architect Tessa Kelly and poet Sarah Trudgeon. The workshop will launch INSCAPES, a yearlong regional campaign designed to highlight the creativity of all residents across the Berkshires through public poetry prompts and text-based art installations.
Following the workshop, any Berkshire resident can engage with the poetry prompt and enter an original poem on the INSCAPES website. The prompt asks: What defines the Berkshires for those who live here? Entrants should write a couplet (a 2-line poem) about a specific place in Berkshire County. From the poems submitted on the website, 3 to 6 will be selected and featured on billboards designed by The Mastheads and installed throughout the Berkshires. Others will be included in an original video to be screened outdoors at the Pittsfield Common on Saturday, July 24 before a live screening of “Tanglewood in the City.”
Closing out the campaign in Fall 2021, The Mastheads will facilitate an INSCAPES poetry workshop with MCLA students and install their work on Mastheads-designed flags around the MCLA campus.
Registration for the June 17 kickoff poetry workshop can be accessed here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqdemorjguGdDR2MWRxU4aU92-zrayydmR%20
To submit your own INSCAPE visit: www.themastheads.org/inscapes
About MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities (MCLA-IAH)
The MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities (MCLA-IAH) is a grant-funded initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Institute works to strategically promote equity-centered change on campus and in the community by (1) expanding access to area arts and humanities resources, (2) catalyzing opportunities for interdisciplinary engagements, and (3) advancing experiential teaching and learning practices in higher education. For more, go to:
https://mcla.instructure.com/courses/2283576.
About The Mastheads
The Mastheads is a public arts and humanities project in Pittsfield, Massachusetts that seeks to connect residents to the literary history of the region, create a forum for thinking about place, and support the production of new creative work. Founded in 2016, its projects include architectural studios, a writers’ residency, community poetry-writing workshops, public text installation, and free humanities programming. For more, go to: www.themastheads.org.
