Admission is free from a grant by the Thomas R. Schiff Foundation. A question-and-answer session will follow the keynote and conclude with a book signing by Lewis; books will be for sale at the event.
Marta Wojcik, Westcott executive director and curator, discovered Lewis through her book “The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Master,” and figured her for the right speaker to mark its anniversary and as a reflection of the other programs and initiatives the organization has added since.
“Westcott’s mission is not only to preserve and interpret Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House but also to serve as a catalyst for creativity, inspiration and experimentation. Bringing Sarah to our community was an amazing opportunity to live out our mission,” said Wojcik. “We consider it a great gift and opportunity for our regional community to explore the subject of creativity and the role of the arts in our democracy.”
Lewis is also noteworthy for her TED talk, “Embrace the Near Win,” with 3.1 million views, has delivered keynotes, talks and commencement addresses for many universities and organizations, founded a Vision & Justice book series and been published in high-profile publications including the New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and the New York Review of Books, and profiled in Vogue.
Closer to Westcott’s historical significance, prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Lewis was a curator at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern, London.
Joni Doherty, senior program officer for Democracy and the Arts at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, a Westcott regional partner, has heard Lewis speak and said after this lecture, attendees will engage with visual culture in ways that enrich their lives and inspire their democratic imagination.
Rodney Veal, a Westcott board member and the host of “The Art Show,” an award-winning series on ThinkTV will conduct the question-and-answer session. He read “The Rise” during a time of uncertainty, going through a life-altering career shift and the writing encouraged him to move forward and others may find a similar message through Lewis’s appearance.
“Reading ‘The Rise’ felt like someone whispering, ‘Keep going.’ Her book affirmed what I was already learning in real time: that the journey toward mastery isn’t about perfection, it’s about devotion, resilience and that deep, quiet belief that the work we are called to do truly matters,” said Veal.
For more information about the event, go to www.westcotthouse.org/events/westcott-lecture-sarah-lewis.
The Westcott House will have several other events tied into its 20th anniversary of the restoration including the Westcott Gala on Nov. 21 and holiday events in December.
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