Leading Artists and Writers to Headline New Summer Salons Series at Provincetown’s Renowned Fine Arts Work Center
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Tracy K. Smith, Catherine Opie, Helen Molesworth, Sarah Schulman, and Major Jackson among the guests leading a series of intimate conversations and workshops beginning May 31st
Provincetown, MA (May 20, 2024) – Poets Tracy K. Smith, Major Jackson, Jane Hirshfield, and Roger Reeves, along with curator Helen Molesworth, photographer and artist Catherine Opie, author Sarah Schulman, and journalist Peter Slevin, are set to headline a series of intimate weekend conversations and workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center this summer.
The Summer Salons events aim to foster a dynamic exchange of ideas by bringing together two prominent figures from the arts and culture sphere to the Work Center. Scheduled over four weekends spanning from early June to early September, the series offers a rare chance for audiences in Provincetown and beyond to directly connect with some of today’s most influential creative minds.
The weekends will commence on Friday evenings with a reception, leading into a free-flowing, unmoderated conversation between the two featured guests, followed by an audience Q&A session. For those unable to attend in person, the Friday Night conversations will be live-streamed. On Saturday afternoons, one of the featured guests will facilitate a 10-person workshop in the Work Center’s Stanley Kunitz Common Room, and the other featured guest will conduct a larger workshop via Zoom.
All event ticket sales proceeds will support the Fine Arts Work Center’s commitment to providing free arts and culture events for the Outer Cape Cod community throughout the year. These events, including FAWC Fridays, Fellow Fridays, free nightly talks by artists during the summer, and exhibitions, have solidified the Work Center’s reputation as a dynamic cultural hub, lauded as a community “anchor” by The Provincetown Independent. Ticket prices start at $100 (general) and $50 (students/teachers) for Friday night conversations and $150 (general) and $75 (students/teachers) for workshops. Tickets and workshop registrations can be purchased here.
“We are thrilled to welcome these leading lights to Provincetown, and we are grateful for their support in furthering the Work Center’s mission,” said the Work Center’s executive director Sharon Polli. “By attending these events, guests will not only enrich their own lives but also contribute to the vitality and accessibility of arts and culture in Provincetown for all.”
The Summer Salons Schedule:
Poet Tracy K. Smith with Poet Roger Reeves
Friday, May 31, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM – Salon Conversation
Saturday, June 1, 2024, 2 – 4 PM – In-person workshop with Tracy K. Smith and virtual workshop with Roger Reeves
From 2017 to 2019, Tracy K. Smith served as the twenty-second Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the author of five acclaimed poetry collections, including Life on Mars, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her memoir, Ordinary Light, was a finalist for the National Book Award. From 2017 to 2019, she served as the twenty-second Poet Laureate of the United States.
Roger Reeves is the author of Best Barbarian, a finalist for the National Book Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner. His newest book is Dark Days: Fugitive Essays.
Curator and Writer Helen Molesworth with Fine Art Photographer Catherine Opie
Friday, June 7, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM – Salon Conversation
Saturday, June 8, 2024, 2 – 4 PM – In-person workshop with Catherine Opie and virtual workshop with Helen Molesworth
Catherine Opie is one of the most important photographers of her generation. She was a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow recipient and the Robert Mapplethorpe Resident in Photography at the American Academy in Rome for 2021
Helen Molesworth is a writer, podcaster, and curator. In 2023 Phaidon published Open Questions, Thirty Years of Writing About Art, an anthology of her essays. Her podcasts include Death of an Artist, the inaugural season of Recording Artists with The Getty, and DIALOGUES.
Writer Sarah Schulman with Journalist Peter Slevin
Friday, June 28, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM – Salon Conversation
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 2 – 4 PM – In-person workshop with Sarah Schulman and virtual workshop with Peter Slevin
Sarah Schulman is a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter, and AIDS historian. The author of Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York 1987 – 1993, she holds an endowed chair in creative writing at Northwestern University and is on the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Peter Slevin is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, where he focuses on politics. As The Miami Herald’s European correspondent, he covered the 1989 revolutions in Central Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He spent a decade on the national staff of The Washington Post, writing about foreign policy and, later, politics, including the 2008 Obama campaign. His book – Michelle Obama: A Life – was a finalist for the PEN America biography prize.
Poet Major Jackson with Poet Jane Hirshfield
Friday, September 6, 2024, 6 – 7:30 PM – Salon Conversation
Saturday, September 7, 2024, 2 – 4 PM – In-person workshop with Major Jackson and virtual workshop with Jane Hirshfield
A Fine Art Work Center Trustee, member of the Writing Committee, and Fellow (2000-2001 ), Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems. He serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review and host of the poetry podcast The Slowdown.
Jane Hirshfield’s ten poetry books include the newly published The Asking: New & Selected Poems, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award; and After, named a “best book of 2006” by The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and England’s Financial Times.
About The Fine Arts Work Center
The Fine Arts Work Center is an international home for artists and writers in Provincetown, Massachusetts — the country’s most enduring artists’ community. Founded in 1968 by a group of luminary creators including Stanley Kunitz, Robert Motherwell, Josephine and Salvatore Del Deo, and Hudson and Ione Walker, the Work Center has given artists and writers the space and time to pursue their work within a community of peers for more than half a century. The artist-led Work Center supports emerging artists and writers through its world-renowned Fellowship program, and also offers summer workshops and year-round virtual learning opportunities to advance creative practice. Fine Arts Work Center Fellows who have arrived in Provincetown as emerging writers have gone on to win Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, MacArthur Fellowships, and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Visual Arts Fellows have presented their work at the Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and at other venues around the globe. The Fine Arts Work Center supports artistic freedom, nurtures creative connections, and makes possible artistic achievements important to the larger culture. For more information, visit https://fawc.org/press-center/.
