Up for Discussion: “Awe”

NEW QUARTERLY SERIES BEGINS WITH “AWE”

Join us for quarterly talks from local experts & small-group conversations intended to provide intellectual stimulation and enrichment available in a convivial environment to as diverse (in gender, age, race, socioeconomic background) an audience of thoughtful, curious people as we can reach in Addison County with the desired result of enhancing connections throughout the community.

Awe Now: asks the question – When was the last time you felt awe–the kind that brings you up short, stops you in your tracks, and leaves you slack-jawed with wonder? Is awe a universal feeling, or is it highly personal? Awe is certainly having a “moment.” A 2023 book by psychologist Dacher Keltner got lots of people talking about awe, as have recent journal
articles and podcasts.

In September of 2024, the exhibit “An Invitation to Awe” will open at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. It’s being curated by Katy Smith Abbott, Associate Professor of Art History at the college, in collaboration with students and colleagues from across campus. One of those colleagues is musician, composer, and Assistant Professor of Music, Matthew Evan Taylor. In this first gathering of the Up for Discussion salon series, Matthew will join Katy for a conversation about where he finds awe now, and how experiences of awe can change with time, age, and experience.

In collaboration with the Vermont Bookshop Middlebury, Art History Professor Katy Smith-Abbot and musician Matthew Evan Taylor kick off this first installment of a salon-style series featuring round-table conversations about literature, art, film, and contemporary issues.

This series is free thanks to a generous grant from Vermont Humanities.

Cash bar.