Past Events
January 2021
Friday, January 29, noon, via Zoom
Sustainability Showcase Series Lecture: Looking at the Land
Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Poet and Liberal Arts Professor of English
Christopher Reed, Distinguished Professor of English, Visual Culture, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Art History
Penn State’s Sustainability Institute and the Student Council of Sustainability Leaders host this introduction to Field Language: The Paintings and Poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer. Exhibition curators Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Christopher Reed will explore the exhibition’s implications for agricultural practice, soil conservation, agrarian heritage, and broader issues of land use and identity in Pennsylvania.
Click here to watch the recorded talk.
Sunday, January 31, 4:30 p.m., via Zoom
Museum Conversations: Words and Paint
Join Field Language guest curators Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Christopher Reed for an in-depth look at the paintings and poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer as they share their personal and scholarly journeys creating the Field Language exhibition, its multiauthor companion catalogue, and Jane’s latest collection of poems.
Click here to watch the recorded talk on Youtube.
February 2021
Tuesday, February 16, 6:00 p.m., via Zoom
Lecture – Impossible Interviews: Artists Alma Thomas and Warren Rohrer in Conversation
Jonathan Frederick Walz, Ph.D., Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of American Art, The Columbus Museum
Inspired by Miguel Covarrubias’s “Impossible Interviews” for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, this talk brings together the lives of two artists who were contemporaries but who never met in person. Walz will highlight the similarities and differences between Alma Thomas and Warren Rohrer, including their shared position on the margins of the 1970s art world. There will be ample time for questions and answers. Jonathan Frederick Walz, an expert on American modernism, is co-organizing a major traveling exhibition, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful, which will open in 2021.
Click here to watch the recorded talk.
Thursday, February 18, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., via Zoom
Art After Hours: Love Is Love
Enjoy an artistic exploration of love in all its forms and expressions–romantic, platonic, familial, gay, straight, and possibly even the “puppy” variety. Art After Hours is the Palmer’s popular evening program designed by students, for students and features a variety of museum experiences, such as student-led discussions, innovative tours, art-related games, and creative making activities.
Check the Palmer website at https://palmermuseum.psu.edu/events for Zoom information.
March 2021
Thursday, March 18, 6:00 p.m., via Zoom
Lecture: “Tracking the Amish Quilt”: Warren and Jane Rohrer’s Search for a Usable Past
Quilt historian Janneken Smucker teaches history at West Chester University in Philadelphia and is the author of Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon. In this illustrated lecture she will examine the history of Amish quilts, their embrace by collectors and the art world, and the critical role they played in the paintings and poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer.
Click here to watch the recorded talk.
Wednesday, March 24, 4:00 p.m., via Zoom
Museum Conversation: Warren Rohrer and Mark Making
Nancy Locke, Associate Professor of Art History
Christopher Campbell, Artist
Hosted by Christopher Reed, Distinguished Professor of English and Visual Culture
Art historian Nancy Locke will discuss Warren Rohrer’s work in the context of modernist abstraction. Artist Christopher Campbell will join the conversation, providing insights about Rohrer’s quiet, painstaking approach to mark making and its rootedness in the agricultural landscape.
Click here to watch the recorded talk.
April 2021
Thursday, April 1, 4:30 p.m.
Museum Conversation and Poetry Reading: Truths of a Woman’s Life
Join Penn State English Professors Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Shara McCallum for an intimate look at the biography and craft of Jane Rohrer, the Field Language poet whose words often revealed complex relationships through everyday life.
Click here to watch the recorded talk.