EAC’s Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center series will continue at 3 pm, March 19, with a talk by Barbara Cantalupo about Edgar Allan Poe and Belgian artist James Ensor. Cantalupo, Emerita Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University and founding and current editor of The Edgar Allan Poe Review, notes that the ‘graphicality’ of Poe’s work has made him one of the most widely and most diversely illustrated authors. More than seven hundred artists from all over the world have been influenced by his work, including important painters such as Manet, Redon, Doré, Gauguin, Beardsley, Whistler, and James Ensor. Cantalupo will explore these questions: “What draws Ensor and Poe together? Their tendency to sneer at human foibles? Their cynicism about social improvement? Their fascination with death and scatological humor that masks an underlying Romanticism? Their love of beauty?” She will demonstrate that probably all of these connections are valid.

Barbara Cantalupo’s monograph, Poe and the Visual Arts, won the Poe Studies Association’s Patrick Quinn Award; her edited books include Poe’s Pervasive Influence, Emma Wolf’s Heirs of Yesterday, Emma Wolf’s Short Stories in the Smart Set, and Emma Wolf’s Other Things Being Equal. She has given talks on Poe at academic conferences here and abroad and at the Chicago Art Institute, the Pace Gallery in New York, and the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond. Her most recent Poe article, “Poe’s Visual Legacy,” is included in The Oxford Handbook on Edgar Allan Poe.

Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center programs are held in Eastport Arts Center’s cozy downstairs Washington Street Gallery, amidst rotating exhibitions. Admission is by voluntary donation; proceeds are shared equally between the presenters and EAC constituent group The Concert Series, which offers year-round programming run by volunteers. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Eastport Arts Center is at 36 Washington Street, Eastport. EAC abides by the State of Maine CDC COVID guidelines, revisiting our policy monthly. Additionally, at this time, the EAC encourages people to wear masks when in our building. More information about EAC programs may be found at eastportartscenter.org.