Discussion: Briggs / Gydesen / Marsden May 24, 2005

Patricia Briggs, an art historian and critic at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, will host a discussion with photographers Terry Gydesen and Ann Mardsen titled ?Portraits of Women Changing America: A Conversation About Politics and Art? at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24 at Carleton College?s Gould Library Athenaeum. The event is free and open to the public.

The discussion will revolve around the work of Gydesen and Mardsen currently on display through August 25 at Carleton?s Gould Library. Gydesen?s works focus on women in Minnesota politics including the woman Gydesen believes best carries on the legacy of the late Senator Paul Wellstone?Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong-American state legislator in the nation. Marsden?s photographs document women on both sides of the political spectrum during a series of demonstrations outside the 2004 Republican Presidential Convention in New York City.

Briggs received her B.F.A. in painting and art history and M.A. in art history from the Ohio State University; she received her Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Minnesota. An active art critic, Briggs writes on Twin Cities area exhibitions for Artforum International, Art on Paper and New Art Examiner, contributes essays on local artists to gallery catalogues and curates numerous independent exhibitions.

Gydesen, a documentary photographer, has spent the last 20 years recording national and local Minnesota politics. She has documented Presidential campaigns along with the daily routines of politics. Since the death of Wellstone, Gydesen has demonstrated a particular interest in documenting those politicians who have built on the late senator?s tradition by reaching out to the politically disenfranchised and disaffected.

Marsden, best known for her portraits of artists in the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jungle Theater and Penumbra Theater, has recently turned her lens to the role of women on both sides of political issues.

For more information and disability accommodations, call Carleton?s library at (507) 646-4260.