Diane LeBlanc – Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Director of Writing Program
Students completed this project in English 371, Advanced Poetry Writing. The primary purpose was to replenish the pop-up gallery of broadsides on 5th Floor Rølvaag Memorial Library. Additional outcomes included 1) viewing and learning about text and image artifacts in St. Olaf Special Collections; 2) practicing basic design skills involving space, page layout, color, font and font size, and visual images; 3) combining text and image to deepen revision of poetry form, content, and shape on the page; 4) integrating the concept of mess into creativity.
To achieve these outcomes, students chose a poem from their portfolio that was suitable for the public space in a high-traffic hallway. We studied the history of broadsides and met with Jillian Sparks to view broadsides and select artist’s books in the St. Olaf Special Collections. Then, Ezra Plemons met with our class for two days to demonstrate how to manipulate Google slides and font options to create 9″ x 12″ broadsides, printed at the Print Center. Ezra and I also taught students how to carve and print a basic block print. Students then hand-stamped images on their 9” x 12” broadsides.
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Class Project, English 371 |
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Google Slides, Block Printing |
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Broadside Examples |
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