Thurs. Oct. 2

Our country has never been devastated by war. Pearl Harbor, yes. On 9/11/01, yes, New York, Washington, D.C. and in a Pennsylvania field. But we've never suffered the all-out devastation of what a war does to the country it's fought in? We can imagine ... and we do. TV started bringing us closer with Vietnam and, in every conflict since, TV and film have brought us, in a way, to the front lines - the front lines as viewed from a theater chair or couch, anwyay. Some questions posed by the folks at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Is it possible to describe the true state of material and moral ruin in which a country finds itself at the end of a war? Can readers and viewers be expected to take in the tales of irremediable gloom? On Thursday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m., there's a lecture called “Creativity During Wartime:  A Writer and an Artist Talk About Making New Work in War-Torn Afghanistan and Iraq” with former Gardner Museum Artists-in-Residence Anne Nivat and Lida Abdul. The two talk about their experience working in Iraq and Afghanistan and show a film by Abdul. Tied to politics, war, art, the lecture takes a look at the notion of creativity during Wartime – specifically through the lens of two women: Abdul, a brilliant video artist whose work explores the relationship between architecture and identity (and in this case, art and war); and an equally brilliant award-winning writer and journalist, Nivat, who’s long reported on war-torn areas and their political implications. The lecture, presented in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Tapestry Room, will be introduced by opening remarks by the Gardner Museum’s Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini and will include a screening of Abdul’s recent film, In Transit, 2008, Kobul, Afghanistan. Tickets: $7.

280 The Fenway, 617-278-5156, www.gardnermuseum.org