Jemeli Tanui
(315) 443-5172
Art-in-Motion, a newly announced partnership of Imagining America, Open Hand Theater and Syracuse Stage, is an experimental, hands-on project that will include conversations and performances centered on activating the arts and stimulating urban redevelopment in Syracuse.
Art-in-Motion includes four conversations bringing visiting scholars and artists together with Syracuse residents to discuss the impact of art connecting and strengthening communities. The centerpiece of Art-in-Motion is a communal practical art project whereby residents will create giant puppets and theatrical scenes reflecting their neighborhood identities, culminating in a citywide street performance with the finished puppets in mid-September.
The conversations kick off Wednesday, March 3, at The Warehouse in downtown Syracuse with an 8:30 a.m. breakfast talk featuring renowned multimedia artist Barnaby Evans, creator of the famous WaterFire installation in Providence, R.I., that includes 100 bonfires on the city’s three downtown rivers. Evans will discuss the relevance of WaterFire—which has attracted more than 10 million visitors, bringing life to downtown Providence—in the context of Syracuse’s ongoing revitalization efforts.
The Art-in-Motion partners hope to bring together an audience comprising people from different sectors of Central New York—including business, higher education, the arts and government, and representing the city’s diverse neighborhoods. “The visiting scholars and artists will extend our understanding of cultural participation in development as relevant to both local and national initiatives across the United States,” says Jan Cohen-Cruz, Imagining America director and University Professor at Syracuse University.
Funding for the four conversations leading up to the final performance comes from a New York Council for the Humanities grant. Funding for the final collaborative performance comes from a Chancellor’s Leadership Project grant, initiated by SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. SU’s Office of Community Engagement and Economic Development and the Syracuse Public Art Commission are co-sponsors of the first conversation with Evans.
In September 2010, the arts conversations will culminate in Art-in-Motion: A Citywide Performance, a large-scale street show starring Syracuse residents, staff from Open Hand Theater and Syracuse Stage, and SU students, in collaboration with SU’s Office of the University Arts Presenter. Open Hand Theater’s Geoff Navias and Syracuse Stage’s Lauren Unbekant will work with different city neighborhoods over the next few months, developing and creating the puppet and theatrical scenes. SU students through the College of Visual and Performing Arts Drama Department’s “Art in Action” course will assist and participate while learning about the community.
For more information on the first conversation or to R.S.V.P., e-mail vadelpra@syr.edu or call (315) 443-8590. For more information on the featured artist, visit Barnaby Evans’ website at http://www.waterfire.org/about-waterfire/welcome.
About the Art- in- Motion partners and collaborators:
Imagining America is a national consortium of more than 85 colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities and design, currently hosted by SU. Open Hand Theater is a Syracuse-based museum and professional theater company that celebrates the human experience through mask and puppet traditions. Syracuse Stage creates new work and fresh interpretations of classics, and is committed to enhancing the cultural richness of Central New York and the vitality of theatre itself. The SU Arts Presenter Office brings renowned artists to SU and Syracuse, allowing the formation of connections between art, academia and the community to enhance the transformation of the Central New York region through the arts.
June 05, 2012 The program, designed in collaboration with the Casting Society of America, was developed for casting students, including key professional components and core courses with fellow Tepper students.
Read more
August 24, 2012 Natalie Teale, a senior Earth sciences and geography major in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, spent the summer as part of an immersive research experience in the cloud forest of Costa Rica.
Read more
September 13, 2012 Syracuse University today announced that it has surpassed its goal for the most ambitious fundraising effort in the institution’s history.
Read more
September 10, 2012 Civil engineering professor Cliff Davidson had a breathtaking view of the City of Syracuse from a rooftop garden recently. But it’s the possibilities of that prime location that made the experience memorable.
Read more
September 10, 2012 Trauma, psychiatric medications, family therapy, nutrition and systems reform are a sampling of the topics experts from across the country will discuss at the Children’s Mental Health Summit, September 27-29 in Syracuse.
Read more
