Lecture and Musical Performance: The Art of the Gig with William Ellis

Lecture and Musical Performance: The Art of the Gig with William Ellis

In this “sonically illustrated” talk, William Ellis, Ph.D., will explore how gig posters engage in visual dialogue with bands’ music.

By Shelburne Museum

Date and time

Location

Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education

50 Shelburne Museum Shelburne, VT 05482

About this event

  • Event lasts 1 hour

In this “sonically illustrated” talk, musicologist and musician William Ellis, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Fine Arts: Music, Saint Michael’s College, will explore how gig posters engage in visual dialogue with bands’ music and act as historical documents of cultural and countercultural movements and communities.

About William Ellis -

Acclaimed roots music artist William Lee Ellis is a fingerpicking stylist and songwriter versed in acoustic blues and gospel guitar styles, notably the music of Rev. Gary Davis. His latest album, Ghost Hymns, is a Blues Music Awards nominee for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year and has been hailed as one of 2023’s best by Downbeat and Blues Music magazines, among other publications. 

Writes Acoustic Guitar, Ellis is a “masterful genre-bender who sounds completely at home and thoroughly invested in whatever style he tackles.” 

The son of banjo/fiddle composer Tony Ellis, William holds a PhD in ethnomusicology and is a guitar instructing alum of Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch and Augusta Blues Week. He is Chair of Fine Arts at Saint Michael’s College.

About the exhibition, Sound, Art, and Ink: Higher Ground Gig Posters -

The gig poster, created to memorialize musical performances, captures fleeting moments in a way that evokes the intensity and spirit of a live performance. These works of art have become enduring symbols of shared experiences and collective memories. For over 25 years, Burlington’s marquee music venue, Higher Ground, has presented concertgoers posters that have endured as more than just souvenirs. Presented free at the end of the evening, these silkscreened prints embody the unique partnership between music and visual art that defines this region. Designed by local artists and handprinted in limited editions, the prints are coveted works of art that collectively provide a window into the rich artistic and diverse musical heritage that has shaped this community.

Sound, Art, & Ink: Higher Ground Gig Posters presents 270 silkscreened gig posters, celebrating the enduring collaboration between the designers and printmakers of Solidarity of Unbridled Labour and the Iskra Print Collective with Higher Ground. For more than two decades, Shelburne Museum has proudly been part of this creative community, serving as the venue for some of Higher Ground’s most memorable performances through the Ben & Jerry’s Concerts on the Green series. Together, these organizations and artworks embody a vibrant intersection of music, design, and community—brought to life through sound, art, and ink.

Organized by

Founded in 1947 by pioneering folk art collector Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888–1960), Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, is the largest art and history museum in northern New England and Vermont’s foremost public resource for visual art and material culture. The Museum’s 45-acre campus is comprised of 39 buildings including the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education and Webb Gallery featuring important American paintings by Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Grandma Moses, John Singleton Copley and many more. For more information, please visit shelburnemuseum.org.

FreeAug 6 · 6:00 PM EDT