Dunkerley Dialogue with Tenzin Phuntsog and Mary Kate Donovan

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces the next event in its Dunkerley Dialogue series will be Thursday, October 19, at 7:30 pm, featuring artist Tenzin Phuntsog and Skidmore College Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of Media and Film Studies Mary Kate Donovan.

Phuntsog, whose work is on view in the exhibition Forms of Awakening: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection of Himalayan Art, has gained international recognition for both his visual art and films. The Tibetan-American artist’s film Pure Land, in which a son travels through dramatic Montanan landscapes to try to capture images that resemble his mother’s homeland, has been shown at Microscope Gallery, New York City; the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands; and the European Media Arts Festival in Osnabrück, Germany. It is now on view at the Tang.

Donovan, Skidmore College Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of Media and Film Studies, will be in conversation with the artist. Donovan teaches courses on Spanish literature, cinema, and visual culture. Her research focuses on race, migration, and popular culture in modern and contemporary Spain. The program will take place in the exhibition and will include ASL interpretation by Liz Beauregard.

Dunkerley Dialogues pair Skidmore professors with artists in a conversation format, which is often a catalyst for new connections and understandings across disciplines, and can spark new ideas for all participants. Dunkerley Dialogues are made possible by a generous gift from Michele Dunkerley ’80.

In addition to Phuntsog’s work on view in Forms of Awakening: Selections from the Jack Shear Collection of Himalayan Art, four of his films—A Singing Blade, 2014; Film Poem II, 2013;
Four Rivers, 2010; and Hug, 2023—will be screened as part of the Tang series Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video on Monday, October 16, at 6 pm.

Both the Dunkerley Dialogue and the screening are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or tang@skidmore.edu, or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu.