Chiseling Time: Nick Benson’s Inscriptions in a Digital Age

Event Snapshot

On Saturday, January 24, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, the Newport Art Museum’s Winter Speaker Series welcomes master stone carver Nick Benson for a live and live-streamed lecture titled “Inscriptions in the Information Age.” Tickets are $35 per person, and the afternoon includes the talk, audience Q&A, and time to mingle in the galleries over hot tea, coffee, light bites, and desserts.​

Who Nick Benson Is

Nicholas Benson is the third-generation owner of The John Stevens Shop in Newport, founded in 1705 and renowned for its hand-carved lettering in stone. His work appears on major national memorials, including the National World War II Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the Eisenhower Memorial, as well as at universities like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth.​

Over his 40-year career, Benson has studied calligraphy and letterform design in Basel, Switzerland, and has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island, with his wife Alix and their children, Hope and Henry, grounding his globally recognized craft firmly in the local coastal community Edge Realty serves.​

Why This Talk Feels So “Newport”

Benson’s lecture explores the tension between the physical and digital worlds—how carved stone, one of the most permanent forms of inscription, speaks to an age of disappearing screens and scrolling feeds. For homeowners, designers, and anyone who loves architecture and place-making, his perspective offers a fresh way to think about everything from house numbers and plaques to public spaces and civic memory.​

The Winter Speaker Series itself has been a cornerstone of Newport Art Museum programming since 1928, curated each year to “educate, illuminate, delight, and inspire,” which makes it feel less like a one-off event and more like a seasonal tradition. It is the kind of Saturday commitment that pairs beautifully with a stroll down Bellevue Avenue, a late lunch, or a quiet afternoon in the galleries.​

How To Experience It

The series is designed to be accessible whether you are in town or away: talks are offered in person and via livestream, and all lectures are recorded for later viewing by subscribers and ticket holders. Each event closes with conversation in the museum galleries, giving you the chance to process big ideas about craft, time, and technology in a setting surrounded by art.