Art and Book: Against the Odds

Art and Book Symposium, Dunedin School of Art, Riego Street, P152, Friday 17 October 8.30-3.30 and Saturday 18 October  9.00-3.15.

The opening event will be a keynote address by the graphic artist and publisher Sarah Maxey at 7 pm, Thursday 16th in the Dunningham Suite, Dunedin Public Library.

All events are free of charge to members of the public.

The annual symposium of the Otago Polytechnic’s Dunedin School of Art is this year exploring the connections between art and book, both culturally and historically, from a variety of perspectives. It is joining the Otago Centre for the Book at the University of Otago to explore the future of the book in the light of the revolution in IT and publishing.

Organiser and senior lecturer in Art History and Theory, Peter Stupples, says ‘We started in 2009 exploring Art and Science, followed by Art and Law, Art and Medicine, Art and Food and, last year Art and Money.’ This year, joining forces with the Otago Centre for the Book, the symposium will cover two days, with the opening event held the day before with a keynote address by Sarah Maxey.

A range of national and international speakers are taking part in the event, which is free and open to all. They include Monica Lausch and Rodney Swan from Sydney, Judith Poirier from Canada and Tim Hossler from the United States.

Topics covered range from Tolkien and his illustrators to designing and making the world’s first three-D book.

The symposium also includes Tourtime – an opportunity to visit many of the places in Dunedin associated with books, as part of Dunedin’s campaign to be awarded the status of UNESCO City of Literature.

The symposium is accompanied by a week-long exhibition at the Dunedin School of Art Gallery featuring the works of some of the speakers as well as other American, Canadian and Australian artists. The exhibition runs from 13-20 October.

Both the symposium and the exhibition are part of the Arts Festival Dunedin.

Further details can be found on the website artandbook.org