Fath Auditorium
FREE for Memb
ers\, $20 general public\, $5 students.
Reservations required.
Author\, scholar and educator\, Olivia Sagan (Professor and Head of Division Psychology\, Sociology and Education at Queen Margaret U niversity\, Edinburgh) takes us on a tour of her lifelong passion for art and its interface with mental health. Olivia’s semi-autobiographical pre sentation builds on “Graceful Mysteries” her essay for the exhibition cat alogue Creating Connecti ons: Self-Taught Artists in the Rosenthal Collection. It explore s her research into the art-making process and why we continue to be fasc inated by questions about the art-making process and mental well-being.\n
Drawing on Olivia’s narrative research with artists who are self-t aught\, survivors\, and/or living with long-term mental illness\, Mysteri ous Grace draws on theories of creativity\; non-verbal narrative and re-s cripting\; and reparation and the power of connection. It also critiques the persistent inequities in access to art making and encounters. The tal k ends by asking the audience to consider the mystery inherent in art\, a nd all that we don’t know about the grace of it.
\nAbout th e Guest Speaker:
\nOlivia Sagan completed her undergraduat e degree in Fine Art (back in the twentieth century). While she prepared for her final exhibition\, a multi-media exploration of violence against women\, illness grabbed her and gave her a thorough shakedown. The silver lining: she learned a few things about the interface of illness and maki ng—and unmaking— that gave her a sneak preview into the psychology of the se.
\nOlivia completed a Master's Degree in Psychoanalytic Studies in 2000 while teaching and researching in a psychiatric institution. Ther e\, she watched and wondered at the disruptions of learning when the mind dysfunctions\, closes\, or opens in divergent and unpredictable ways. Fo llowing her graduate studies\, Olivia trained as a counselor\, and began her journey listening to people’s stories—and their silences—when those s tories could not be told or even remembered. She gained registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and\, f ascinated and troubled by the “reluctant narrative” of people whose words did not come easily\, she began PhD studies at University College London (UCL).
\nOlivia’s PhD was a semi-autoethnographic\, longitudinal p sychosocial study of the ways in which mentally ill adults with low level s of education and articulation undertook to write autobiographically in a community setting. The output in 2008\, was awarded the Institute of Ed ucation prize for Best Doctoral Research and lit the fuse for the researc h that followed\, watching people make the unspeakable speakable\, in wor d or image.
\nOlivia’s research today is principally focused on l strategies \, including art making\, that people develop over time and through which they confront\, negotiate\, and make meaning of illness. She gained chartership as a psychologist in 2010 (CP sychol) and became an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Socie ty (AFBPsS) in 2014. Today\, Olivia is Professor of Psychology at Queen M argaret University\, Edinburgh\, and lives in rural Scotland with her unt rainable dog Lupin.
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\nImage credit: Bill Traylor (American\, circa 1853–1949)\, Exciting Event in Blue: Four Wild Men\, Ba rking Dog\, Perched Bird\, and Construction\, circa 1939–42\, tempera\, graphite pencil\, and ink (or waterco lor) on thin cardboard\, 14 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. (37.8 x 35.2 cm)\, Collectio n of Richard Rosenthal\, © Bill Traylor Family Trust.
\nIf you have questions about this lecture\, please email lectures@cincyart.org. If you need acc essibility accommodations for this program or event\, please email access @cincyart.org. Please contact us in advance to ensure accommodations can be made.
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