Summer Happening Brings Artists To Campus To Collaborate And Discuss Dimensions Of Grief
An open dialogue about grief was the focus of an artistic workshop in May at the Texas A&M College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts.
“Outside the Circle: A Creative Exploration of Grief and Community” was this year’s Summer Happening, which invites artists for a week of creation and research, and was established by the Artists and Scholars in Residence committee.
Workshops and discussions were led by Dr. Will Daddario, mental health counselor and performance philosopher based in North Carolina; Dr. William Linthicum-Blackhorse, musician and composer based in South Dakota; and Dr. Joanne Zerdy, grief worker and herbalist based in North Carolina.
The event was an opportunity for guests to collaborate and discuss the dimensions of grief, according to Dr. James R. Ball III, associate dean for industry and community engagement, who leads the committee.
“I think the reflective component was perhaps the most apparent — sitting with the figure of grief for three days changes the context with which we approach our other artmaking and scholarship,” Ball said. “My hope is that participants in the Summer Happening always come away refreshed, reflective and brimming with new intellectual and creative possibilities.”
Guests participated in “The Great Circle” each morning in the courtyard of the Liberal Arts and Arts and Humanities Building, where Linthicum-Blackhorse played a ceremonial drum and sang traditional Native American music. In the afternoons, guests took part in workshops and drank herbal tea brewed by Linthicum-Blackhorse and Zerdy.
In a small-group discussion led by Zerdy and Daddario, participants assessed the embodiment of grief through music, drawings and the use of teas, plants and herbs. Zerdy said the goal was to help guests talk about grief in a supportive environment, emphasizing that “grief is an invitation to slow down.”
“We heard from attendees, ‘This feels good to pause,’ or ‘This is nice to drink tea and sit with someone,’” Zerdy said. “We know it’s very difficult to be encouraged to take those moments to pause, check in with yourself and feel grounded. We really have to make those spaces for ourselves individually and collectively.”
Daddario commended the Summer Happening program for connecting people from different backgrounds and disciplines, and stressed the importance of having opportunities to collaborate in academic settings.
“When you see a college like this that has a mix of backgrounds, the potential is amazing,” he said. “When you latch onto topics like grief — where everybody can come at from a different angle — you see how people’s disciplinary backgrounds shine individually. Then you see how they overlap in surprising ways. This opportunity for spontaneous collaboration is fantastic.”
The mission of the Artists and Scholars in Residence committee is to inspire artists, the university and the community by incubating new works, Ball said. By facilitating collaborations across disciplinary lines and integrating arts practice and research, the Summer Happening directly connected to this mission, he said.
“The premise is simple: What can we make and think by taking away the usual expectations for making work and teaching in the university?” Ball said.
This Summer Happening was vastly different from the first, Ball said. “Metabolism” featured guests collaborating to create artwork that was displayed in an exhibition. In contrast, “Outside the Circle” revolved around discussion and connection through grief.
“Instead, creativity fueled individual and collective reflective processes that will reverberate out into our scholarship and creative works,” Ball said. “I hope that the Summer Happening evolves to the point that our faculty and students recognize it as an essential moment to ‘reset’ in their work over the summer, to help them slow down and consider their practices anew.”
