Photo by Nicole Nagamatsu
On April 9, Lewis & Clark’s annual Festival of Scholars and Artists (FoSA) celebrated the intellectual and artistic achievements of LC students. Hosted entirely over Zoom for a second consecutive year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival showcased the work of over 80 Pioneers from over 15 departments and programs.
Associate Professor of French and member of the FoSA Coordinating Committee Isabelle DeMarte sang praises of the student participants.
“I love the inspiration and excitement that pervades the day,” DeMarte said. “It’s pretty amazing to see how professional our students are in terms of sharing their skills, their scholarship and their research.”
Margarete Maneker ’21, Ashley O’Leary ’22, Lily Schaffer ’23 and Olivia Weiss ’23 participated in this year’s FoSA. After taking Associate Professor of History and Department Chair Maureen Healy’s Holocaust in Comparative Perspectives class, they conducted an independent study of Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Laws.
In lieu of an in-person exhibit, the group curated a virtual “story map” with political cartoons, paintings, advertisements and other visual media. Starting May 5, the “story map” will be available on the Watzek Library homepage.
According to DeMarte, the online studio art gallery was another highlight of this remarkable day on Palatine Hill. DeMarte noted the artists’ emphasis on care and social justice movements, as well as their interdisciplinary approaches.
“That round table may have gathered magic from every corner of the campus,” DeMarte said. “It was a wonderful encapsulation of the year and all the talent that’s at Lewis & Clark.”
Artists who create in other formats, including theater, dance and music, shared their skills with the LC community as well. Music major Graham Ring ’21 gave attendees a sneak peek of his senior composition recital, which includes computer-generated speaking voices vocoded over a sample of a dental robot malfunctioning. He said that the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted his creative process, as he had initially planned to have 12 to 20 musicians perform together live.
“I had to scrap my entire recital,” Ring said. “I decided to take a new approach and that was to embrace the isolation we live in and create a musical experience that’s about an individual rather than a group.”
Dancer Liza Clairagneau ’21 also found that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the choreography for their haunting and atmospheric piece, “Of Monstrosities.”
“I wasn’t planning on doing a solo,” Clairagneau said.
They also noted the unexpected need to choreograph for a camera rather than a live audience. Centered around the individual, their final piece explores “all the ways in which we’ve internalized harm” due to colonialism and racial prejudices.
Echoing the community’s enthusiasm about FoSA, James F. Miller Professor of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy Nicholas D. Smith shared an unexpected benefit of the virtual celebration.
“Everybody complains about Zoom, and I will be at the front of that line,” Smith said. “But the one thing is, when you have a program like this, students with parents who aren’t going to be able to drive to Portland can just get online. Seeing the parents in the audience … I love that.”
Smith plans to retire at the end of the semester and looks back on FoSA with fond memories.
“This was a very taxing, in many ways, thing to do, but it really has been great fun,” Smith said. “I was delighted to be a part of it.”
Behind the scenes, Ben Bovich ’21 helped professors find common threads among student presenters and group them together in panels.
He encourages LC students to get involved with FoSA’s Coordinating Committee in years to come.
“It may seem daunting to work with the staff, but it is really rewarding and fun to get to know them and be a part of a LC ritual like FoSA,” Bovich said via email.
For a digital showcase of FoSA’s performances and presentations, visit https://festivalofscholars.watzekdi.net/. Pioneers can also book an appointment to see the “Blissters” exhibit in person at the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art. Go to www.lclark.edu/hoffman_gallery/ to schedule a visit.
Correction (April 26, 2021): An earlier version of this article mistakenly used she/her pronouns to refer to Liza Clairagneau ’21. Clairagneau uses they/them pronouns. All quotes have been updated accordingly.
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