CHESTERTOWN, MD—John
Beardsley, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks and adjunct
professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University, will speak on “Art
in the Environment: Sketches from the Field,” Wednesday, October 17 at
Washington College. The illustrated talk, which is free and open to the public,
will begin at 5 p.m. in Decker Theater, Gibson Center for the Arts, on the College
campus, 300 Washington Avenue.
Beardsley holds
a PhD from the University of Virginia and has authored numerous books on
contemporary art and design. Two of his most recent works on landscape art and
architecture are Earthworks and Beyond:
Contemporary Art in the Landscape (fourth edition, 2006) and Gardens of Revelation: Environments by
Visionary Artists (1995). In addition, he edited Landscapebody dwelling: Charles Simonds at Dumbarton Oaks (2012), and
the proceedings from the 2010
symposium “Designing Wildlife Habitats.”
Trained as an art historian, Beardsley has organized exhibitions for numerous
museums, including the Hirshhorn and the Corcoran in Washington, D.C., and
Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts. In 1997, he was curator of the visual arts
project “Human Nature: Art and Landscape in Charleston and the Low Country” for
the Spoleto Festival U.S.A.
Dumbarton Oaks, a
historic estate house and gardens in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood is
home to Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Established
in 1969, the Garden and Landscape Studies program there supports
advanced scholarship in garden history, landscape architecture, and the study
of significant landscapes around the world.
In his role as
director, Beardsley oversees summer internships, a lecture series, a
publications program, an annual symposium, and a fellowship program. He also
conceives and manages a series of installations of contemporary art in the
institution’s historic gardens.
His visit to Washington College is sponsored by the
Department of Art and Art History and the Center for Environment & Society.
For more information contact Rachel Field rfield2@washcoll.edu or 410-810-7162. Click here to read an interview with Beardsley in the Chestertown Spy.
