Art Spiegelman, noted artist, historian, and theorist of comics, and saxophonist great Phillip Johnston performed “Wordless!” as the keynote event at the 13th annual Cornerstone Arts Week in January. The performance combining slides, lecture, and music was highlighted by Spiegelman’s discussion about the earliest graphic novels and their influence on him. As President Jill Tiefenthaler said in her introductory remarks to the sold-out crowd, “Wordless!” debuted at the Sydney Opera House and then the Brooklyn Academy of Music, so the obvious third stop on the tour is Colorado College.

The Cornerstone Arts Week events examined a single question, which this year was a quote from Spiegelman: “What Are the New Words and Music?” Events included a screening of “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” a film by Assistant Film and New Media Studies Professor Dylan Nelson; a presentation by Tim Sexton ’82 titled “Writing Across Culture”; a talk by Ben Duhl ’99 titled “New Media and the Wild West Coast: Out With the Old and In With the New”; and a presentation by Toni Pizza ’12 titled “Indie Games: Design on the Margins.”