Prof. John Schott of Cinema and Media Studies at Carleton College has organized an interdisciplinary celebration of walking and walking art called “WALK! A Festival of Walking, Art and Ideas”.  This Walking Festival, features art and media projects, wide-ranging lectures, and many public walking events.  

Carleton is my community and I’m able to participate in many of the events.  I will include a few posts on hut2hut.info about WALK! in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, here is a brief sketch and check out the complete schedule.  

Walking Festivals are common in Europe, not so much in USA.  A festival focusing on walking, art, and ideas is rather unique.  I hope other communities will join us in producing festivals celebrating art and ideas.

Briefly: events include a variety of performances and art exhibitions, films, and lots of guided walks of all kinds.  Also included are talks by urban geographers, artists, religious scholars, pilgrimage, art historians, and even myself, talking about my work on hut2hut.info.

Two Guest Walking Artists-in-Residence will be on campus for two weeks each: Phil Smith & Angela Ellsworth.

Angela Ellsworth is an Associate Professor in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, School of Art, at Art Arizona State University.  Ellsworth is a founder and acting director of the Museum of Walking. The Museum of Walking (MoW) is an educational resource center committed to walking as an art practice. MoW facilitates exhibitions and lectures on walking as well as curates walks throughout the Sonoran Desert.  

Phil Smith is a performer, writer, teacher and researcher, specializing in making performances based on walking and in heritage sites. Author of ‘Mythogeography’ (Triarchy Press, 2010) and ‘Counter-Tourism: The Handbook’ (Triarchy Press, 2012) and co-author of ‘Walking, Writing and Performance’ – (Intellect, 2009).  He is the company dramaturg and a founding member (1981) of TNT Theatre (Munich) and is a core member of site-based artists group Wrights & Sites (Exeter, UK).