NYU Explores "The Yaddo Effect"

Marcelle Clements

Saratoga Springs, NY (November 3, 2008) – When Yaddo welcomed its first guests in 1926, it was hailed by The New York Times as "a new and unique experiment which has no parallel in the world of arts". Now New York University is hosting a series of evenings exploring the impact of that unique experiment and its resonance in contemporary arts and letters under the general theme of "Yaddo: Cultural Conversations about American Culture, Arts, and Social Policy".

First up in the three-part series is "Cultural Phantasms: Thoughts on Hi, Lo, and Hi-Lo Culture," scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 12, with novelist and journalist Marcelle Clements serving as moderator for a lively discussion that will be introduced by Matthew S. Santirocco, NYU's Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science, and Yaddo President Elaina Richardson.

Panelists for this inaugural program in the series are:

Terry Adkins, a sculptor whose work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum. He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, has been a guest artist at Yaddo, and is a Member of The Corporation of Yaddo.
Lisa Cortes, a member of the original creative team of Def Jam Records, the company that launched political hip-hop. She is now a film producer (Shadowboxer, The Woodsman) and is a Member of The Corporation of Yaddo.
David Gates, a critic (The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek) and novelist (Jernigan, Preston Falls, The Wonders of the Invisible World). He teaches in the graduate writing program at Bennington College.
Richard Locke, Director of the nonfiction program at Columbia University. His criticism and essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and The Atlantic. He has been a senior editor at Simon & Schuster, deputy editor of The New York Times Book Review, and editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair.

There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion following the panel conversation, and a reception will follow the program. Seating is first-come-first-served.

This series is scheduled in conjunction with the Yaddo archive exhibition "Yaddo: Making American Culture" on view at The New York Public Library through February 15, 2009. All programs in the series will be held on the New York University campus in Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center for Arts and Science, Room 102, 100 Washington Square East, New York City. Further conversations in the series include:

"From Patronage to Social Policy: Who supports the Arts?" 7 p.m. Thursday, December 4, 2008

"Art and Social Conflict: Culture Wars from 1930 to the Present" 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 4, 2009

A concurrent exhibition at NYU's Tamiment Library on "Art and Politics" runs through February 28, 2009 in the Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor, New York City.