Words Matter: Serigraphs, Songwriting + Storytelling

Tour & Workshop

Join Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) and the Center for Women and Gender Equity (CWGE) in exploring words and meanings accentuated through serigraphs, songwriting, and storytelling.

On Wednesday, Nov 1st, join us for a curator-led tour of exploring how words impacted Corita Kent’s serigraphs in the series “heroes & sheroes.” Following the tour, create songs and place words into music through a songwriting workshop with Laura Zucher.

On Wednesday, Nov 8th, learn more about "Hold it Lightly" through a tour exploring words and hand-lettering by artist Lisa Congdon. The tour will be followed by a song-writing workshop contextualizing these experiences with Laura. 

About Laura:

Singer-songwriter Laura Zucker wins audiences over with a hard-won perspective and a positive spin. The powerful imagery of her songs and stories ring so true you might think she’s read your diary – and you’ll find yourself humming her infectious melodies for days to come. She’s a three-time finalist in the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk competition in Texas, a Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist, Southwest Regional Folk Alliance Showcase Artist,  five-time winner of the West Coast Songwriters Association “Best Song of The Year”, and has received numerous accolades and awards from organizations around the world.

About Lisa: 

Illustrator and fine artist Lisa Congdon’s current body of work, Hold it Lightly, explores themes of joy, liberation, and radical inclusion displayed on printed matter featuring her bold, colorful illustrations and hand-lettering. Through her iconic hand-lettering, Congdon integrates messages into her work, which are both intentionally joyful and hopeful and, simultaneously unabashedly, outspoken and often subversive. Typically working in paint, Hold it Lightly represents the artist's first exhibit of printed matter. Congdon graduated from Saint Mary's College of California in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. 

About Corita:

Corita Kent (1918–1986) was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching and then heading the art department at Immaculate Heart College. During the course of her career, her artwork evolved from using figurative and religious imagery to incorporating advertising images and slogans, popular song lyrics, biblical verses, and literature. Throughout the ‘60s, her work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and social injustice. In 1968, she left the order and moved to Boston. After 1970, her work evolved into a sparser, introspective style, influenced by living in a new environment, a secular life, and her battles with cancer. She remained active in social causes until her death in 1986. At the time of her death, she had created almost 800 serigraph editions, thousands of watercolors, and innumerable public and private commissions.