MORE THAN A MUSE

Designed by our Chief Storyteller Juliana Roth, this online writers workshop series explores themes of our November 2021 exhibition “Josephine Nivison Hopper: Edward’s Muse” which brings the art and life of Josephine Nivison Hopper (1883-1968) into the spotlight. Students will delve into topics that broaden not only Jo Nivison Hopper's legacy, but also the skills of participating writers.

Roth will meet virtually with students over three online courses (Tuesdays, 7- 9 pm est: December 14, 2021, January 18, 2022, and February 15, 2022).  Join us to come to a deeper relationship with art, restorative history, and creativity!

Sign up for all three sessions at a discounted price, below (3 Sessions $50), or sign up for each session to your liking (one session, $20 each). Scroll down for more info. 

Tuesday, DECember 14, 2021
7-9 PM EST (virtual)
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MORE THAN A MUSE

In this course, students will discover their personal muse. They will be assigned pre-workshop activities to collect and document their inspirations. These muses might include friends, family, and partners as well as objects or other artists. We will then meet for a generative writing and workshop session in which we will discuss the power at play when a muse is chosen and what we can do as artists to be both respectful of our creative expression and the autonomy of our subject.
Edward Hopper, Jo Painting, 1936, Oil on canvas, 18 3/16 x 16 3/16 inches (46.2 x 41.1 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest

Tuesday, January 18, 2022
7-9 PM EST (virtual)

​EARLY JO

This course begins with a brief history of Jo Nivison’s early life as a student and artist. We follow her throughout young adulthood and into her coming into her own as a painter. Using objects from Jo’s archive, we will then turn our attention inward and examine our own early life. What were our early inspirations? What themes have continued in our work, whether as writers or artists or in different disciplines?
Josephine Nivison Hopper, Self-Portrait, n.d., Watercolor on paper, 28 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches (71.8 x 56.5 cm), Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack, NY; The Sanborn Josephine Nivison Hopper Collection

Tuesday, FeBRUARY 15, 2021
7-9 PM EST (virtual)
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​SEEING DOUBLE

Beginning with a brief look into the marriage of Edward Hopper and Jo Nivison and a discussion of the historical context of their union, we will examine the objects in our archive that give insight into their shared process. We will look side-by-side at paintings composed together, often of the same subject, but interpret the stylistic variations. Students will then be asked to generate writing in different genres on a single theme, offering them an exercise in the expansiveness of artistic interpretation.
Page from Exhibition Catalogue, "Josephine Nivison Hopper, Edward's Muse" with essay by Elizabeth Thompson Colleary, and published by Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center 2021

Sign up for all three sessions at a discounted price, below (3 Sessions $50), or sign up for each session to your liking (one session, $20 each). 

Choose all 3, or just one session:
Leader/Writer: JULIANA ROTH 
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Roth is the creator of the narrative web series, The University, which won Best Web/Pilot at the Los Angeles Film Awards, Juliana is a 2021 Stowe Story Labs Maven Media Fellowship Finalist and is developing several new independent projects for film and tv. Her poetry, fiction, and essays appear in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Breakwater Review, Irish Pages, among others. In 2020, she was selected as a VIDA Fellow with Sundress Publications and was shortlisted by Rob Doyle for the Red Line Book Festival’s TU Dublin Short Story Competition. She serves as Chief Storyteller for the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, teaches creative writing in art spaces and university settings, and is a member Playwright/Actor with WCT Theatre.​