Jamison read a
scholarly piece that threaded her ongoing study of James Agee with a meditation on empathy; Kent Russell read a humorous
essay about a visit to the subculture Juggulos scene; and Wendy Walters read from a work that touched on sweeping questions of identity and
place.
In the
essay, Elderfield adroitly traces the nomenclature from studiolo (a
place for
scholarly studium (diligence, zeal, contemplation and, although it seems so anachronistic in our day, concentration) as distinct from the bottega (workshop) and atelier, a
place where the artist worked not just in solitude but in the company of critics, collectors, and students (the academy was often in the neighborhood).