Fiona Shen

We are thrilled to announce that Chapman University and Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences have been awarded a $5,000 Humanities for All Quick Grant from California Humanities for “Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop and exhibition guide for exhibition ‘Body of the World: The California Landscapes of Inna Jane Ray.'” This grant will support a series of public programs designed to foster empathy with California’s landscape, its human and animal inhabitants, and ultimately for the self.

Humanities For All Project Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally-developed projects that respond to the needs, interests, and concerns of Californians, provide accessible learning experiences for the public, and promote understanding among our state’s diverse population.

The project, a partnership between the Escalette Permanent Art Collection and the Hilbert Museum of California Art, will feature an ekphrastic poetry workshop and an exhibition guide. The programming will draw on an exhibition of paintings, poetry, and writings by Californian artist and poet Inna Jane Ray (1949-2020), which will be held at the Hilbert Museum of California Art from March to May 2025. As a queer woman outsider artist, Ray explored her own identity through a lifelong engagement with the landscape, and her process and discoveries will provide a springboard for these free public activities.

The ekphrastic poetry workshop will be led by prize-winning Californian poet, editor, and advocate for poetry in the community, Genevieve Kaplan. Through a deep exploration of the intersections between art and writing, Kaplan will guide participants through writing exercises that explore how ekphrasis amplifies and expands meanings. The exhibition guide, designed by emerging artist and former Escalette staff member Henry Littleworth ‘23 (Graphic Design, Art History minor), will include images of paintings, some of Ray’s published poems, and extracts from her journals and feminist theological writings. This material will serve as a springboard for creative activities that visitors can pursue independently.

“This program is timely as scholarship on contemporary women landscape painters is lacking, in part because museums rarely cede space to interdisciplinary work like Ray’s. The Huntington [Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens] and the Escalette have laudably committed to magnifying Ray’s yet-untold story. Additionally, Ray’s ecological consciousness speaks to California’s current environmental stressors of heat, wildfire, and water shortages,” said Fiona Shen, project director and director of the Escalette Collection. 

We are grateful to California Humanities for their support and for recognizing the importance of this project. This grant will enable us to provide accessible learning experiences for the public and promote understanding among California’s diverse population. We look forward to welcoming the community to the Hilbert Museum of California Art and engaging in meaningful conversations about art, identity, and the environment.

“This was an extremely competitive round, with our seven new Project Grant recipients representing only 6% of the applications we received,” said California Humanities’ President and CEO Rick Noguchi. “These projects rose to the top, and collectively represent what the humanities are about in California: providing creative ways to tell stories that haven’t been told, contributing to the mosaic that is California’s identity.”

California Humanities promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation, and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more, visit calhum.org, or like and follow on  Facebook, X, and Instagram.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project, and we hope to see you at the exhibition and workshop in March 2025!