Let’s Talk Art is a local art lecture series that shares information along with relating art exhibits, photo presentations and most recently, movies. 

The series has grown over the last eight years bringing in about 60 to 70 different speakers and takes place at the Hammond Regional Arts Center and the university’s Contemporary Art Gallery. 

The lectures first started at the university by two staff members who shared their love of art. 

“Eric Johnson, the director of the library and I had to work on a project together,” said Associate Professor of Art History, Dr. Irene Nero. “As we were working on this project, we realized we had similar interests. He loves art and he is a major art supporter.”

After getting to know Johnson’s love for art and playing around with the idea of starting up a lecture series with him, Nero  officially asked him if he would want to start one.

“She and Dr. Amy Morris, who was an art historian here back in 2008 came to me and said, ‘Would you like to participate in an art lecture series and maybe have it here at the library?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely,’” said Johnson.

Nero gave the very first Let’s Talk Art lecture in the old Student Union in August of 2008 with 40 people in attendance. Having the lectures in the old Student Union presented itself as a challenge because of all the gears that needed to be set up. This is one of the reasons that the lectures later moved to CAG. 

“Because you had to have a projector and images and a screen and all that, doing it in the Student Union you had to order all that stuff and get it all up,” said Nero. “It just got to be a little unwieldy. So over here, that equipment is right there and you just have to walk out and do it. You know the real virtue for having it here is because the students are all around in classes, and so they could come in the middle of the day. That’s how we did it at first.”

CAG proved itself to be a better location to do the lectures. Let’s Talk Art could not be contained to one location as it expanded to HRAC with the help of Johnson as well as the Friends of Sims Memorial Library who take care of the prints and post cards.  

At the time, Johnson was on HRAC’s board and there was another lecture series going on at lunchtime that he wanted to combine with the lectures at the university.

“Two years later, since I was on the board, I asked Irene and Amy if we should maybe join forces with them,” said Johnson. “I thought it would be really good to have some talks at the arts center at five o’clock when people could come after work. It would give another venue that’s different from the usual academic venue. This would be an arts center and I thought we would be attracting a different audience as well or a larger audience.”

HRAC eliminated their lunchtime program all together in order to merge with Let’s Talk Art. 

“That way, during the year if they have an artist who is doing a show there and wants to give a lecture, we add it to the Let’s Talk Art program,” said Johnson. 

Along with a larger audience, the program gained a large range of speakers and topic choices per semester.

“We have had three to four, or six depending on if we have graduating seniors, a semester of fresh, new, never done before art talks for the last eight years,” said Nero. “We are stunned.”

They have had a couple of people speak more than once, like Nero and Johnson have, but the content has been presented in a new light every time. 

“We are pretty proud of the fact that we have never repeated anything and we have a really long list and people keep saying, ‘Why don’t you talk about this or that?’ So we keep looking at list going ‘Who wants this topic?’” said Nero.

The growth of Let’s Talk Art and how long it has lasted continues to stun those involved. The intention of starting the series was to have fun talking about art.

“We thought that if it lasted a year, it would be great,” said Nero. “It would be fun. Then in year two we thought, ‘Well you know, this is still kind of cool. Lets see what else happens’ and it just kept going. Then, this is year eight.”

The goal for the program is to choose a variety of speakers so that people can gain different perspectives on art and learn that it is approachable. 

“Our goal is to bring in as many different speakers as we can so people see that art comes from a whole lot of different areas over than just an artist or art historian,” said Nero. “I think the goal is to make everyone realize that art is more humanitarian than maybe they think. Art is approachable. It’s not an ivory tower or anything.”

Graduating students in art history are also required to narrow down their thesis and put together pictures to present their own Let’s Talk Art lecture. The lectures students give, like all the other Let’s Talk Art lectures, need to be something new and different. 

“They are always cutting edge because we don’t let them do these topics unless they are cutting edge,” said Nero. “They just don’t take something out of a book and repeat it. They’ve got to come up with their own different angle or different idea.”

Students do these talks to help them move on to the next step in their education. The lectures that the students give are on the same level of quality as the other lectures given and get large crowds. 

“I am so delighted at the quality of work the art history students do and the presentations that they have done,” said Johnson. “They are as good as any art presentation I’ve heard from art faculty, artists, anyone. They just are excellent researchers and they do a fine job with it.”

Along with having a lecture this semester, Let’s Talk Art shared their first film at HRAC twice.

“This past year we did something a little different because there was a show in the arts center called COPYCAT, and there was a film about recreating famous works,” said Johnson. “We thought it would be fun to show the movie, ‘Art and Craft.”

The documentary “Art and Craft” had its last showing last night at HRAC and was the last Let’s Talk Art program for the semester. There will be more events to come in the spring.