Capstone Speaker Series Explores How Art Reflects and Shapes Justice

Lawrenceville’s 2026 Capstone Course, and its accompanying Speaker Series, will examine how art not only reflects society, but helps shape it — building the civic capacity to “share information, strengthen connections, sharpen analysis, illuminate vision, and inspire action,” said Zaheer Ali, Executive Director of the Hutchins Center for Civics.

Organized in collaboration with the Hutchins Center for Civics, this year’s theme, “Art and Justice,” asks students to consider how creative expression functions within moments of social change.

“Throughout every major social change in history — whether it be rupture or healing — art has been critical to our democracy,” Ali said. At a time when many institutions are being tested, he added, the Series offers an opportunity “to explore and imagine ways to move forward as a community.”

Art as a Civic Tool

This year’s Capstone centers on a set of core questions: How does art both reflect and shape the contexts in which it is created? What can artistic practices teach us about imagining new possibilities? And what responsibility do audiences carry in responding to art as a force for justice?

For Ali, the answers lie in understanding art as essential to civic life, and the speaker roster includes artists, activists, scholars, and practitioners who, he said, “work at the intersection of art and justice.”

A Bridge Between Theory and Practice

Since 1990, the Culbertson Capstone Program has challenged Fifth Formers to engage deeply with contemporary issues. Students are divided into four course sections, each led by a different instructor. The Speaker Series, Ali said, “forms the spine of the course,” with each talk building on foundational ideas introduced in class.

The format is intentionally hybrid. Students move between Harkness-style discussion and lecture-based learning, engaging directly with speakers whose work they may have previously only encountered in texts.

Learning Through Inquiry

Student engagement begins before each lecture, with assigned materials and the development of questions. At pre-lecture meals, small groups have the opportunity to engage speakers in more informal conversation, with each student attending one dinner over the course of the term.

After the lecture, Ali said, “each student is responsible (solo or in pairs) for facilitating a Harkness discussion that debriefs the lecture, making and synthesizing connections with previous learning in the class.”

For their final project, each student has the option to curate three works of art (in any medium) or create one that showcases the themes covered in class, accompanied by a statement explaining their choices.

Beyond Lawrenceville

Ali expects the ideas explored in Capstone to resonate long after students leave campus.

“Wherever students go beyond Lawrenceville, they will find art (hopefully!),” he said.

Through direct engagement with practicing artists, students move beyond abstraction, encountering how creative work operates within real social and political contexts.

The Power of Questions

Ali said he hopes that students come away from the course “understanding that questions first and foremost guide our life journeys; and that their time in the course has more than anything else, sparked and nurtured among students a deep curiosity about themselves and others, and the world around them.”

All talks will be held in the Woods Memorial Hall Heely Room from 7–8 p.m. Each is open to the Lawrenceville School community (students, employees, families, and alumni) , no tickets required, but seating is very limited and priority will be given to Lawrentians enrolled in the Capstone course.

Schedule

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.