MFA in Applied Craft and Design Lecture: Ellen Dissayanake

Ellen Dissanayake is an independent scholar, author, and lecturer, whose writings about the arts synthesize many disciplines and draw upon 15 years of living and working in non-Western countries. Her Darwinian viewpoint provides a broader understanding of the arts than is customary in most theoretical approaches: the arts are integral to human nature and they evolved to help individuals adapt to their physical and social environments. She is the author of three books: What Is Art For?, Homo Aestheticus, and Art and Intimacy, as well as over 70 scholarly and popular articles. Her articles on craft themes have appeared in American Craft, the NCECA Journal (1995), the Glass Art Society Journal (1996), Surface Design Journal, a Haystack Institute Monograph (2000), and The Nature of Craft and the Penland Experience (2004). Currently, she is Affiliate Professor in the School of Music at the University of Washington, Seattle.