— Jan 21, 11:22 AM — 

PNCA and Lewis & Clark College Welcome Author Lewis Hyde

Influential author Lewis Hyde delivers the lecture “The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good,” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 3 at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

The Gift, Lewis Hyde’s groundbreaking study of creativity, explores the meaning of art in a market-driven society. Hyde asks questions central to the lives of artists as well as teachers and others who serve the public good: How do we discover work that satisfies beyond financial compensation? What are our norms for reciprocity and how do gifts create bonds in communities? Hyde’s current project extends these questions to the realm of the “cultural commons” – “that vast store of unowned ideas, inventions, and works of art we have inherited from the past, and that we continue to create.” As we debate “intellectual property,” cultural “piracy,” and what counts as shared “cultural literacy,” these issues take on renewed urgency.

Hyde is also the author of Trickster Makes This World, which uses a group of ancient myths to argue for the kind of disruptive intelligence all cultures need if they are to remain lively, flexible, and open to change. A MacArthur Fellow, Hyde teaches during the fall semesters at Kenyon College, where he is the Richard L. Thomas Professor of Creative Writing.

The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good
Wednesday, February 3, 6:30 p.m.
PNCA Main Campus Building, Swigert Commons, 1241 N.W. Johnson St.
The lecture is co-presented by PNCA and Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling Center for Community Engagement. For more information on this event, visit the PNCA web calendar.

And don’t miss a second lecture by Hyde at Lewis & Clark College:

The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good with Lewis Hyde
Thursday, February 4, 4 p.m.
Lewis & Clark College, Templeton Campus Center, Council Chambers

Read a New York Times profile of Lewis Hyde.
Read the New York Times article “Advantage Google” by Hyde.

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