Exploring Personal Narratives with Featured Artist Willem Volkersz

Saturday, October 26, 2024
1-day, 9am-12pm, ages 15+ max: 15-20
no fee

For the first hour, I will introduce the project, read a poem written in response to my 2015 exhibition Persistent Memories at the Yellowstone Art Museum and briefly discuss the narrative sculptures based on my boyhood in Amsterdam during World War II and my family’s emigration to the US when I was 14. I will circulate a book and a catalogue (The Story of In Memoriam and Persistent Memories) as examples of events which I used as sources for multimedia sculptures and installations.

I will then lead the group through the exhibition and discuss 5 sculptures, addressing the personal story each tells and the development of each sculpture (including ideas, choice of materials, construction, etc.). I will encourage group discussion, comments and questions and attendees are asked to take notes, make sketches and jot down ideas and responses in a sketchbook or notebook.

The attendees will then be asked to sit down and individually develop ideas, based on their own life experiences and personal memories, that they can express in any medium, such as a written story, a poem, a song, a painting or sculpture, etc. The participants will be asked to sketch or briefly describe their ideas in their notebooks. Possible topics include important childhood memories, a dramatic life event, a major move or career change, an unexpected life event, etc.

To complete the session and in a supportive environment, each participant will be asked to report their ideas back to the group and suggest ways they may explore these ideas in the future.

Willem Volkersz studied art and architecture at the University of Washington before earning an MFA in painting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. After teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute for 18 years, he went to Montana State University-Bozeman in 1986 to direct the School of Art and taught there until his retirement in 2001. His work has been featured in 46 solo exhibitions and in over 200 group shows in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, China, and Taiwan. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, grants from the Mellon Foundation and Gottlieb Foundation, and a 2020 Montana Governor’s Arts Award. He has been a visiting artist and lecturer at almost 100 institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.

Workshop offered as part of programming for:

Willem Volkersz: The View from Here | A 25-Year Retrospective, on view October 11th, 2024 - January 25th, 2025

Montana-based artist Willem Volkersz (b. 1939) is a significant contemporary artist known for his neon and paint-by-number-style installations. He was a pioneer in the use of neon in art and developed early and sustaining loves for photography, travel, American roadside culture, Americana, and Folk and Visionary Art. Volkersz came to the United States from Holland in 1953, after the devastation of World War II, and brought with him a rich history that is reflected in his works of art. Volkersz has often said that he has an immigrant’s fascination with America, and as a teenager, he began hitchhiking and driving throughout the American West, camera in hand. The artworks featured in The View from Here were produced over the past 25 years and draw upon the artist’s eight decades of life experience. They touch upon his early life in Holland under Nazi occupation, his immigration to America, and his current life in the Western United States. The artworks also suggest the ways these personal experiences and passions connect to wider social issues of enduring relevance for everyone.

Organized by the Missoula Art Museum, Montana.

Note: This exhibition contains neon lights which may affect those who are photosensitive.

Exploring Personal Narratives w/ Featured Artist Willem Volkersz