Creative Writing Inspired by the Hermitage
(9 weeks or pay per session)
Instructed by Lynn Bryant
January 22 - March 26
Saturdays, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Join writer Lynn Bryant, MFA, to explore various forms of creative writing through guided essays, short stories, poems, and much more all inspired by the 5,000 years of history highlighted at the Hermitage. Explore the permanent collection, changing exhibitions, the architecture, and 12 acres of grounds of the Hermitage and use these elements as your perfect muse in this 9-week series designed to build a strong foundation in creative writing. Previous experience is not required. Join one session or attend all 9! Registration for each session is required seven days before that session takes place. Session details listed below.
$105 for members (9 week series)
$125 for non-members (9 week series)
Per session: $15 members/$25 non-members
Register for the 9 Week Series
Session 1: The Creative Process
Saturday, January 22, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Use selected works of art in the Hermitage collection as a springboard to tap into your worn creativity. Find your muse, establish a relationship and write the stories only you can tell.
$15 members/$25 non-members
Register for this Session
Session 2: The Five Senses
Saturday, January 29, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Sensory details lie at the heart of imaginative writing. Artists use color, composition and texture to appeal to the senses. Explore these visual elements to formulate words which can evoke images. Conjure the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and tactile experiences to make your writing vivid.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 3: Descriptive Details
Saturday, February 5, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Participants will study selected works of art in the Hermitage collection, identifying the meaning the artist has created in the background, foreground, symbolism, objects, and characters within the world represented. Select details—the building blocks—to create a solid, believable world.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 4: Cast of Characters
Saturday, February 12, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Many paintings have a protagonist, an antagonist, a lost soul, or an ordinary or extraordinary character who desires something of his or her world. Participants will get to know the people in selected works of art, and examine the way the artist has told their story. Create character studies and profiles, then use these people and personas in your writing. It is quite alright to bring your own characters along, we’ll find their place in the world.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 5: Point of View
Saturday, February 26, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
What did the artist of a specific painting want you to know about the subject? Are you looking at his or her opinion, or that of the subject whose portrait we see, or the philosophy a sponsor or government official wanted to propagate? Participants will discuss the vantage point of selected works, the voice of the artist—and the storyteller, the intended listener, the degree of distance or closeness. Deciding, determining, and manipulating point of view is one of the most important considerations you can make in your writing.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 6: Dialogue
Saturday, March 5, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Once you can slip into the point of view of your character, he or she might start speaking to you, sharing dialogue, whispering secrets that might reveal his or her thoughts and longings. Your character will describe his or her next move. The artwork you will use as your inspiration might not have sound, but upon close examination, use of your imagination, and period research, you will find clues to your characters voice, diction, the rhythm and cadence of their speech. Most importantly you will learn to record what your characters are saying to move your story forward.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 7: The Poetry of the Hermitage
Saturday, March 12, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Every feature of many of the bronze statues in the Hermitage collection suggests the thought, dream, and purpose of the subject, catching his or her precise moment in time. Every single word, especially in poetry, should carry its weight in capturing the thrust and rhythm of your poem or prose. Explore the importance of using language to make your work pulse with the moment, concepts, and meaning you are writing about.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 8: Setting/Mood/Tone
Saturday, March 19, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Discuss the place and period in which a painting, sculpture, or object was created. Where does your story or drama or essay take place? What is the tone and attitude, the social and political climate, the setting, the period, the weather, the time of day? You will explore the background to your characters’ foreground.
$15 members/$25 non-members
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Session 9: Plot/Narrative Structure
Saturday, March 26, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Participants will discuss the significance of several works of art. Does the artist convey the height of the action in the painting, or the series of events leading to climactic occurrence, or the beginning? Perhaps the artist plays on your knowledge of an event, such as the Immaculate Conception of Mary. You will study and apply various forms and concepts of shaping stories and moving them toward meaning.
$15 members/$25 non-members
Register for this Session |
