Wednesdays with Jay Craven: Art & Imagination

BMAC is pleased to present Wednesdays with Jay Craven, a series of four evenings with filmmaker and Marlboro College professor Jay Craven. The series gets underway Wednesday, November 16 at 7 p.m. with a talk by Craven entitled Art & Imagination. Subsequent presentations include Place-Based Comedy (Wednesday, November 30 at 7 p.m.), a screening of Craven’s 2007 film Disappearances (Wednesday, January 18 at 7 p.m.), and a staged reading of his screenplay based on Howard Frank Mosher’s novel, Northern Borders (Wednesday, February 15 at 7 p.m.). Craven plans to produce Northern Borders in and around Marlboro, Vermont, through a filmmaking collaboration involving 10 professionals and 25 college students.

Craven’s November 16 talk entitled Art & Imagination will focus on the role of imagination in the arts and as an integral component of successful education and social development. “We underestimate the importance of imagination in every aspect of our society,” said Craven. “In fact, I’m persuaded by the ideas expressed by philosopher Mark Johnson in his book, In the Body of the Mind, where he asserts that “without imagination, nothing in the world would be meaningful.” Using this idea as a starting point, Craven will extend a conversation that explores various facets of imagination and reflects on how it functions within and outside the arts.

On Wednesday, November 30, Craven will give a presentation on place-based comedy that includes screenings of excerpts from his 2004 comedy TV series, Windy Acres, the Marlboro College student-made series, Marble Hill, and Craven’s Queen City Radio Hour of Vermont-based comedy sketches performed for broadcast. “Comedy is different things to different people,” says Craven. “Some people like Woody Allen, while others hate him but love Jim Carrey. The question I’ll explore is how place-based comedy draws on local situations, attitudes, and even taboos–and how it works or doesn’t work to enhance an understanding and connection to place.” Attendees will have an opportunity to imagine comedy situations and characters of their own.

Wednesdays with Jay Craven is part of a larger collaboration underway this winter between BMAC and Marlboro College. It includes the exhibit Four Eyes: Art From Potash Hill, featuring work by Marlboro College visual arts faculty members Martina Lantin, Cathy Osman, Tim Segar, and John Willis; as well as presentations by Marlboro College faculty members Jerry Levy (November 12) and Felicity Ratte (January 26).

Admission: $6 for adults; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; free for BMAC members and Marlboro College students, faculty, and staff.

Jay Craven is an award-winning producer, independent film writer/director, and community arts activist. His feature films include Disappearances (with Kris Kristofferson, Genevieve Bujold, Charlie McDermott), A Stranger in the Kingdom (with Ernie Hudson, David Lansbury, Martin Sheen), The Year That Trembled (with Fred Willard, Jonathan Brandis, Marin Hinkle, Martin Mull), and Where the Rivers Flow North (with Rip Torn, Tantoo Cardinal, Michael J. Fox). Craven has also made six documentaries and the public television comedy series, Windy Acres, winner of two New England Emmys.

Craven is the recipient of the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. His films have been licensed in 43 countries and have played more than 50 international film festivals including Sundance, South By Southwest, and AFI: Fest. They have sold more than 300,000 DVDs, played TV outlets including Showtime, Starz, PBS, Sundance Channel, and Disney Channel, and they have been licensed in 43 countries. Special screenings include the Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, the American Film Institute, Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard Film Archives, George Eastman House, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Jerusalem Cinematheque, Cinémathèque Française, the Constitutional Court of Johannesburg, and La Cinemateca Nacional de Venezuela. His most recent film, Disappearances, was selected by the American Film Institute, President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts as one of seven U.S. films to travel internationally through the AFI’s first-ever international cultural exchange program, AFI: Project 20/20. Craven also directs the film studies program at Marlboro College.