Jen Bervin Mixes Poetry with Cutting-Edge Silk Technology

The Block Museum of Art and Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities are pleased to announce a Winter 2018 artist residency with Jen Bervin, an artist and poet whose research-driven works explore the intersection of traditional craft and cutting-edge technology.

Bervin’s visit marks the first artist-in-residence collaboration between the Block and Kaplan and is part of the museum’s commitment to fostering public practice projects with artists—art that is collaborative, process-based, participatory, and often involves people as the medium or material of the work.

Bervin’s campus engagement activities will include a rich array of programs and learning opportunities. Her residency will culminate in Read with the Spine: Experiences & Experiments in Northwestern Libraries Collections, an interdisciplinary writing workshop for faculty and students using the Library’s collections. The workshop is being developed and led by Bervin; the Block Museum’s Susy Bielak, the Susan and Stephen Wilson Associate Director of Engagement/Curator of Public Practice; Martin Antonetti, the Library’s Director of Distinctive Collections; and a team of the Libraries’ curators and conservators.