The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Tort law museum celebrates art, political satire
Politico’s Matt Wuerker, The New Yorker’s Barry Blitt are special guests
WINSTED » The American Museum of Tort Law will present a workshop, presentation and meet and greet event with two of the most distinguished voices of political satire in the art world — Politico’s Matt Wuerker and The New Yorker’s Barry Blitt.
The program, “If It Doesn’t Please the Court: Two Ink-Stained Wretches on the Art of Political Satire,” is set for Saturday, kicking off with a workshop on cartooning/illustration led by both Wuerker and Blitt at 11 a.m. Tickets for this portion of the program are $10.
The workshop will be followed by a presentation at 1 p.m. Wuerker and Blitt will be joined by consumer advocate, author and museum founder Ralph Nader. Tickets to the 1 p.m. program are $10, which also includes admission to the museum. Both the workshop and the presentation are being hosted by the Winsted United Methodist Church, adjacent to the museum. The program will close with a meet-and-greet with the speakers at the museum’s bookstore.
The American Museum of Tort Law is Nader’s brainchild, with the mission of educating the public on an important part of the American civil justice system.
Nader said it was essential to place the museum in his hometown of Winsted.
“Tort law and the civil justice system is the way people defend themselves when they’re wrongfully injured,” Nader said during an interview this week. “They can get compensation from the wrongdoer, they can publicize the defect for a larger number of people to safeguard themselves and they send a signal to potential wrongdoers that it’s going to cost them more to be bad than to be good. There’s no other law museum in the world that’s dedicated to the law of torts. What better place (for this museum) than our home town, which is part of the industrial revolution.”
Nader contends that what makes tort law especially important is that it is an exercise of power that does not require permission. If one is harmed, they have the right to seek a measure of justice through the courts.
Because there is no other museum of its kind, the founding members sought out unique ways to convey its vision, and art played an enormous role. The museum relies in part on the work of exceptional artists who bring the stories of court cases to life through evocative and often humorous illustrations.
An important contributor and co-founder of the museum is Wuerker, who spent endless hours volunteering his time, creating and revising his work under the guidance of law professors to ensure the illustrations accurately depicted the meaning and messages of the tort law cases.
Nader was thrilled and grateful for the work of the artists who worked tirelessly to bring the concepts of tort law to life.
“One of the reasons why there hasn’t been another law museum of any kind in the world is because they haven’t figured out how to make it visible and vibrant and memorable,” he said. “(But) in this case (in the museum) the artists figured it out. Instead of using the dry text books of law, statutes or regulation, this museum relates to everyone’s experience. “We have a beautiful blend, a harmonious blend of form and function between the art and the verbal descriptions of the cases.”
The event on Saturday showcases the way in which art is an effective vehicle to convey complex messages — including the American Museum of Tort Law.
The schedule of events for Saturday is as follows:
Cartoon, illustration workshop: 11 a.m. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Blitt and Wuerker will discuss their distinctive approaches to creating visual communication that can influence how we interpret the political landscape and challenge leadership – beyond the written word alone.
Presentation, Q&A: 1 p.m. Blitt and Wuerker present their perspectives on how their work has changed the way we see the world,followed by a talk by Nader. A question and answer period will follow their remarks.
Meet and greet: 2:45-5:30 p.m.The museum’s bookstore will be open with a special collection of illustrations and books by Blitt, Wuerker and Nader, available for signing and purchase.
Tickets are $10. All are welcome to attend all three programs or make a reservation for the afternoon program. Advance reservations are highly recommended. The workshop is limited to 50 participants and RSVP/reservations are required. To purchase tickets, contact AMTL Director of Engagement, Joan Bowman, at joan@tortmuseum. org; or online at: www.tortmuseum.org using a credit or debit card.