The Clock Museum: Exploring Grief and Memory

About this event

What can a simple drawing of a clock reveal about memory, grief, and our perception of time? Join psychiatrist and writer Celeste Lipkes, MD, for a thought-provoking exploration of how we experience time during periods of illness and loss.

Drawing on personal experience and her clinical work with patients with dementia, Lipkes will explore the Clock Drawing Test, a simple tool for assessing cognitive function. From clocks with missing numbers to distorted faces reminiscent of Salvador Dalí paintings, these drawings offer insights into how patients experience the world. They also provide a powerful metaphor for the ways grief and loss can change our relationship with time.

About the Speaker

Celeste Lipkes, MD, is a psychiatrist, writer, and author of Radium Girl (2023), a poetry collection published as part of the Wisconsin Poetry Series. Her poetry, essays, and creative prose have appeared in numerous publications. She has led writing workshops for students, patients, caregivers, and medical professionals.

Lipkes is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, where she teaches courses on illness narratives and ethics. In fall 2027, she will serve as an Erikson Scholar-in-Residence at the Austen Riggs Center, working on an essay collection about time.

Tea and Cake

4–6 p.m. in the President's Library.