With his tall stature, substantial beard and soft British accent, Richard Fletcher certainly looks the part of philosopher. The classics professor, in fact, is musing, pondering and asking deep questions as part of his multifaceted research project centered around the myths of Plato and supported by a generous Ronald and Deborah Ratner Teaching Award.

He’s wondered, how do mythology and philosophy shape contemporary art? How can antiquities' ideas, symbols and myths be regenerated through the ages? Do Plato’s myths offer us a novel way to appreciate the role of the contemporary artist in the research university?

Fletcher set out to explore answers to those questions by engaging local artists and 700 of his students in an evolving project and exhibition, Myths of the Academy, on view in Hopkins Hall Gallery from April 4-18, with a reception on April 8 from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

He invited Department of Art faculty members Dani Leventhal, George Rush and Suzanne Silver, along with CCAD’s Carmen Winant to join a reading group. They poured over Plato’s “weird and wonderful myths,” he said, and each invited a collaborator – Brett Price, Liz Roberts, Ryland Wharton and Geoffrey Hilsabeck – to join them in addressing broader questions of art, research and education.

The results are portrayed in the exhibition, which lets visitors encounter a space filled with myths of Plato’s academy, embodying collaborations, conversations, research and creativity. Each two-artist team has merged their experiences and perceptions to create an installation for the exhibition.

For example, Winant and Hilsabeck created an idea for a new “model” art school; Leventhal and Price explore Plato’s myths of love and the afterlife; Rush and Roberts created playful, colorful scenes of their research community including a green sod replica of Ohio State’s Oval; and Silver and Wharton built an installation about ideas and the current academy.

As part of the project, Fletcher is creating a two-part catalog. The first focuses on the creation of the exhibition by the eight artists. The second version will evolve based on input from his 700 students in his “Classics 2220: Classical Mythology” class.

“The last third of that course focuses on Plato’s myths and the philosophical questions surrounding them,” he said. “The students will need to visit the exhibition and create a ‘Myths Academy’ project.”

Specifically, the students will need to take a photograph – a smartphone pic or even a selfie – inside the gallery. They will be given a card from the catalog that they will need to personalize in some way. And they’ll need to write a statement based on their experiences with the exhibition.

These components will be uploaded onto a website monitored by Fletcher, and a collage of their contributions will form volume-two of the catalog.

A related symposium for the university community will take place April 8, with an open-to-the-public event, “Report From the Myths Academy” scheduled at 3 p.m. in the Round Room at the Ohio Union.

As his project unfolded, Fletcher realized it was not a “textbook” examination but more of a creative exploration. Of the exhibition, he advises visitors, “Throughout this journey, you will not be lectured to, nor given a road map; instead you will be invited to experience Myths of the Academy as a collaboration of teachers and students, scholars and artists.”

Image: George Rush, 2016