ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS
July 2004
|
|
Animating Democracy News and Updates |
Perseverance Theatre hires new artistic directorwww.perseverancetheatre.org
Perseverance Theatre has announced the appointment of PJ Paparelli as its new artistic director. Selected from a pool of 54 candidates after a six-month, nationwide search, Paparelli began artistic leadership of the organization in early July. Paparelli comes to Perseverance Theatre from The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, where he has worked since 1998, most recently as associate director.
|
|
|
News from the Field |
New MFA Program headed by CAN Director Leonardwww.theatre.vt.edu/Academics/directing.html
Robert H. Leonard, a founding director of the Community Arts Network, will head a new MFA program in directing and public dialogue at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. Within the context of the artist as an engaged citizen, the three-year, studio-based program will provide professional training for directing plays, developing and maintaining an ensemble, and forming and facilitating community partnerships, among other topics. The program includes a one-semester internship with an ensemble, and the final project may include creative work with specific community groups.
Public Conversations Project hiring for two positionswww.publicconversations.org
Public Conversations Project, an organization working to promote constructive conversations and relationships among people who have differing perspectives about divisive public issues, is seeking to fill two positions: information and office coordinator and outreach and fundraising coordinator. For more information about these positions, visit the Public Conversations Project website.
|
|
|
Articles and Publications |
Urban Bush Women Case Study posted onlinewww.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
Hair Parties is a project of the Brooklyn-based, internationally recognized Urban Bush Women (UBW). The project uses a method of cultural sharing that alternates between dance performance and dialogue to explore how ongoing debates about the politics of hair within the African American community can lead to deeper dialogue about issues of race, class, and social justice. Hair Parties were held in homes, barber shops and beauty salons, YWCAs, corporations, and other community settings. As UBW sought to establish a home for the company in Brooklyn, Hair Parties became a vehicle to bring residents of the community together, build new relationships in Brooklyn, and begin to explore growing issues of development and gentrification. The case study, written by Animating Democracy project liaison Caron Atlas in collaboration with Urban Bush Women, explores the powerful combination of art, dialogue, and social analysis in the Hair Parties themselves around such questions as: How does embodying dialogue within dance deepen the dialogue? Can a party format encourage candid, from-the-heart "kitchen talk”? What is the role of conflict, passion, and point of view in these exchanges? How does the seemingly personal topic of hair lead to critical thinking about challenging societal issues? The case also illuminates how the work with dialogue trainers helped UBW to understand its own intuitive approach to dialogue, enhance its work through skill building, and codify practice.
City Lore Case Study posted onlinewww.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
Poetry Dialogues was a series of intergenerational workshops, presentations, and community dialogues that used contemporary and traditional poetry forms—including rap, spoken word, African jali (or griot) praise poetry, Muslim prayer-calling, and Filipino balagtasan—to engage audiences and communities in dialogue on self-defined issues. The Poetry Dialogues project was based on an exploration of dialogic poetry, the concept of poetry as dialogue, and the potential for poetry to contribute to broader civic dialogue. It included intergenerational dialogue among youth poets, mentor poets, and elder poets; “dialogue” between oral art forms through the encounter of the elder and youth poets; and debate or dialogue within the performance of the forms themselves, especially balagtasan and hip-hop freestyling, and it facilitated audience dialogues following each presentation. The Poetry Dialogues yielded many lessons and led to further development of the model toward a next phase. The case study, written by Animating Democracy staff liaison Andrea Assaf, illuminates the impact on participating poets and audiences; organizational and partnerships issues; aspects of working with youth, intra, and intercommunity dialogue; and the civic dimensions of the project.
Henry Art Gallery Case Study posted onlinewww.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
In April 2002, on the heels of the Human Genome Project’s historic announcement about the completion of a human genome “rough draft,” Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery opened Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics. The exhibition brought together more than 50 recent and new artworks representing artists’ imaginings of the social, ethical, and economic ramifications of genetic and genome research. To spur dialogue about the provocative and potentially polarizing issues, the Henry, together with its community collaborators, devised and implemented a cross-disciplinary series of public programs in conjunction with its exhibition. This case study, written by Lynn Stern, explores how the project sought to harness the power of contemporary visual art to elucidate and provoke dialogue about new developments in the science of human genomics. It describes the Henry’s various dialogue methods and raises questions such as: What new innovations can be brought to conducting dialogue about art and, in this case, “controversial art”? How does art function as dialogue between artist and viewer? Does the viewer’s experience in grappling with the ideas evoked by a work of art constitute civic dialogue? And, what do existing curatorial and education practices have to offer when designing opportunities for civic dialogue?
|
|
|
Events on the Horizon |
National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation
Dates: October 23–26, 2004
Denver, COwww.thataway.org/conference/2004/
The second National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) invites artists, arts programmers, and cultural organization leaders involved in arts and dialogue to attend its second gathering. NCDD values what art can bring to civic dialogue. Animating Democracy encourages artists and arts organizers to propose a session. Scholars will have the opportunity to submit papers to be presented. Proposal forms to lead a session are due on Friday, July 30. Practitioners, scholars, trainers, artists, activists, and students will enjoy a one-of-a-kind gathering, with ample time for networking; skill building; hearing from some of the key leaders in the field (including Jim Fishkin, Glenna Gerard, Harold Saunders, and others); and (of course!) engaging in dialogue and deliberation. Twelve excellent postconference trainings we will be offered on October 26. Early registration is $250 until the end of July. Thereafter it will be $350. Scholarship applications are available in mid-July. NCDD is also looking for an artist to create an image for the event. For information on the conference, visit NCDD’s website.
Making Knowledge: Democracy, Cultural Partnerships, and the University Dates: November 5–7, 2004
Philadelphia, PAwww.ia.umich.edu
What happens when democracy, imagination, and scholarship converge? Drawing on the groundbreaking work of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Partnerships, this year’s conference will explore the collaborative production of new knowledge for the public good. Citizen scholars, working in and with universities, push the limits of community-based work in the arts and humanities. The conference program will showcase new research produced through cultural partnerships. Sessions will focus on innovative projects at the Center for Community Partnerships and major Imagining America initiatives, including the Tenure Transformation Team; research on excellent campus-community collaborations; and Sekou Sundiata’s “dramatorio” in progress, The America Project.
|
|
|
About Animating Democracy |
Animating Democracy is a four-year initiative of Americans for the Arts and is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation.
Back to Top
|
|
|
Share With Us! |
Do you have news you would like to share with Animating Democracy and the broader world of art and civic engagement? Send an e-mail to adi@artsusa.org with "Animating Democracy E-News" in the subject line. Please be sure to include full contact information.
Back to Top
|
|
|
Contact Us |
|
|
|
| |
|
