Payback: Margaret Atwood Collaboration

During the beginning of fall semester Elizabeth Bugaighis and Ken Burak talked about a possible interdisciplinary activity that students could do to be more immersed in the Margaret Atwood events happening in the spring semester. After further talks,

Ken Burak, Bruce, and I decided we could do something on the book and movie called “Payback.” The book focused on debt in different meanings. Ken and I thought this would be a great topic to showcase in collaborative classroom talks and artwork. Over the course of the fall semester we had Ken’s students and my students get together to talk about the book and how it effects each of them. We then had a showing on the movie “Payback.” The art students developed artwork from these ideas and showcased them during the event in the spring semester. All of our students were then invited to a private event with Margaret. This was a great experience for not only the students, but an opportunity for our faculty to really interact in different environments.

My fine art students took it one step further and developed interactive artwork installations including a popup show at ArtsQuest in the spring. This was a public show called “Payback” a tribute to Margaret Atwood. This was a huge success for them in a public space.