Philosopher Wins NEA Grant for Exhibit on Fashion and Art


William Paterson University will be getting $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to develop an exhibition on fashion, art, and philosophy as a result of a successful grant application by assistant professor of philosophy Laura T. DiSumma-Knoop and  Kristen Evangelista, director of the William Paterson University Galleries.

Laura T. DiSumma-Knoop

Together they will be curating the interdisciplinary exhibit, “Fashion is a Verb: Art, Performance, and Identity.” The exhibit is about

investigating the use of fashion in the arts or, more radically, the very idea of fashion as art. Fashion is far from a passive object. For fashion is also an active verb: it is to fashion. Reflecting on fashion as a performance, an act that is both personally and socially significant discloses new venues of analysis at the intersection between artistic practices and philosophical questions. “To” fashion is to interrogate oneself and to engage in a discussion on the daily aesthetic practices that are necessary for the establishment of our identities, communities, and values. (from the grant narrative)

In addition to the exhibit, the grant will fund related projects, such as an experimental study on the relation between fashion and style and personal identity in conjunction with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, and various talks, workshops, and panel discussions.

For more information about the work this grant will support, see this press release. To learn about the other projects funded in this round of NEA grants, go here.

Warwick University MA in Philosophy
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