The In-Between Workshop Series

Fee: $30 members/ $40 Not-yet members
Artists/Instructors: Julie Kirsch, Eli Finnegan, Rick Feero, and Cole Pawlowski

No previous experience is necessary, and participants are integral to the process. This is the third of the In-Between 3-part Series.

The In-Between is a series of three workshops/sessions. Participants experience the theme of the in-between through sound, performance, and language. Different teams of diverse creative artists host each session. Participants register for each session separately.

Register Here

The In-Between: Speaking in Figures

A metaphor, from the ancient Greek, “to bear or carry,” invites us to make unexpected connections between hope and birds, clouds and loneliness, brains and funerals, and the like. Our words can carry us across a threshold from one mind to another, allowing us to feel seen and understood—to feel “at home” in another’s language and to invite others into our own. They can enrich our interior lives and transform our interactions with others, opening us to new experiences not only of this recognition of “home” but also of transformative wonder and awe.

At the same time, words can fail us in response to tragedy, epiphany, or love. There may be some experiences that metaphor cannot bear. In fact, we will often acknowledge the gravity or immensity of some event by calling it unspeakable or saying we have no words. On such occasions, visual art and music can help us bear that weight, allowing us to make sense of ourselves, others, and our world.

This session celebrates words and their role in shaping our reality. Through reading, writing, and looking activities, participants will develop an expansive and nuanced palette of words to navigate the glorious in-betweennesses of their interior and external worlds. We will invite participants to dwell with us in the in-between—a liminal space of encounters with visual art, poetry, mystery, and play. 

About The In-Between Series

The In-Between is a series of 3 interactive sessions inspired by and engaging with the work of Charles Burchfield and other artists in the BPAC collection. We invite you to join us in exploring the myriad possibilities of the state or condition of “in-betweenness.” In each of these three sessions, participants will focus on a particular dimension of the in-between: in Session One, on sound and silence; in Session Two, on performance and identity; in Session Three, on language, looking, and consciousness. Together, we will investigate various manifestations of ambiguity, contradiction, and the unexpected. No experience or expertise is necessary to participate.

To experience the in-between is to become engaged in a constant process of becoming. The in-between is the contact zone, a space untethered from borders. It is between sound and silence; between here and elsewhere; between interior and exterior; between self and other; between past, present, and future; between memory and dream; between thought and emotion; between absence and presence; between languages; between colors; between senses; between “either” and “or”; between the familiar and the strange. An encounter with the in-between takes us wholly by surprise. It shakes us off our course; it shifts something deep inside of us, something fueled by equal parts wonder, bewilderment, terror, and delight. We are inexorably transformed, moment by moment, and the transformation never ends.

In The In-Between Sessions, we will attempt to plunge participants into this transformative state, using a variety of means, methods, and perspectives to invoke the unexpected and provoke inspiration. Through encounters with works by Charles Burchfield and experiments with sound, performance, looking, sketching, and writing, we will journey together to discover a deeper awareness of the powerful role that in-betweenness plays in our lives.

About the Instructors

Julie Kirsch is a professor of philosophy at D’Youville University in Buffalo, NY. She is co-author of Bioethics: Philosophical and Religious Perspectives (with Dr. Walter Sisto) and co-editor of Third-Person Self-Knowledge, Self-Interpretation, and Narrative (with Dr. Patrizia Pedrini). She teaches courses in ethics, bioethics, philosophy of art, and philosophy of mind. Her current research explores self-knowledge, emotion, memory, and problems in the philosophy of art. In addition to her work in philosophy, she is a visual artist and explores philosophical themes, particularly those surrounding the mind and human condition, in her drawings and paintings.

Eli Finnegan is a filmmaker, writer, and mixed-media artist whose work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally and won awards at festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She is an Associate Professor of English at D’Youville College, where she teaches courses in literature, film and media studies, visual studies, creative writing, and consciousness studies. Eli has published articles and book chapters on film, literature, and television; her scholarship explores questions of knowledge and representation, as well as the intersections of language, body, image, and ethics. Her films and writing combine narrative, experimental, and documentary forms to tell stories that seek to expand what narrative is and does. Currently, she is working on a novel based loosely on Aeschylus’s Oresteia.

Rick Feero is a docent at the Burchfield Penny Art Center and a recently retired adjunct at the University of Buffalo.  In addition to teaching literature classes, he taught English Composition and supervised the program’s computer classrooms.  His main areas of interest are American religious thought, the Bible as literature, and literary theory.  He is finding a place as an artist, experimenting with watercolor, sketching, and collaging. 

Cole Pawlowski is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose creative practice exists at the intersection of digital art, painting, and photography.  Themes central to his work include balance, mindfulness, and interconnectedness.  Deeply rooted in his passion for psychology, his work investigates how our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions shape our internal and external worlds.  Pawlowski’s art emphasizes the importance of presence, inviting the viewer to pause, reflect, and reconnect with themselves. Pawlowski earned his Master of Education in School Counseling and his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University at Buffalo.  He has been included in more than 85 exhibitions, including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, UB Art Galleries, and many others.