This Fall, I'll be leading generative workshops and participatory performances almost every week and in multiple locations, so mark your calendars!
The Art of Making it Work: Reimagining Participation and Production as Artist Parents
September 17th, 2017, 11am-3pm
Extended Practice Series
Chicago Family Picnic, 3701 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago, IL
As part of my work with Cultural ReProducers and in partnership with the project Extended Practice, I'll lead an idea-generating conversation and strategy-building workshop about “making it work” as a parent and artist. Participants will explore existing artist-led initiatives that address the challenges of artist-parenthood, and will reflect on their own experiences with balancing art-making and child-rearing. Through individual and collaborative activities, participants will identify key needs and desires of artists parents and will develop new models for creating a more sustainable artistic life in Chicago. The workshop includes on-site childcare through Present Place Chicago, and a networking lunch for participants.
Many Possible Futures
September 30th, 2017, 3pm-5pm
Compound Yellow + Self Reliance School
244 Lake St., Oak Park, IL
AND
October 16th, 2017
The Mothernists II: Who Cares for the 21st Century?
Astrid Noack's Atelier, Copenhagen, Denmark
What futures do we hope our children might help to build, and what models can we offer them as a starting point? What do youthful visions of the future bring to the conversation? In the midst of social, environmental, and political unrest, parenting artists and educators play a critical role in activating public imagination while also mindfully engaging the next generation. The goal of this workshop is to identify resonant spaces where these points might intersect. Participants will engage in a series of short writing and drawing exercises as an aid toward imagining, action, and further conversation. Shared responses will become part of a collective archive and small-press publication I'll be producing as part of my work with Cultural ReProducers and the collective Temporary Services through their publishing project, Half Letter Press.
This event is designed for adults raising or otherwise working with young people. The workshop hosted by Compound Yellow + Self-Reliance School includes a special concurrent program for children 4-7 years old. Children will create a multimedia timeline with art education students while the adults work in a separate room, before regrouping for shared conversation.
Ecological Storytelling: Imaginative Experiments for All Ages
October 7th, 2017
UWM Terra Incognita + Bubbler Series
Madison Central Public Library
201 W Mifflin St, Madison, WI
I'll be collaborating with artist and scientist Andrew Yang to lead this hands-on workshop exploring unexpected connections between the things in your everyday life and our natural, artificial, cultural, and imaginable. During this two-hour workshop, co-sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, Madison's Terra Incognita series and the Madison Public Library's Bubbler program, participants of all ages will work together to explore the ecological webs that connect through our lives. Through open-ended prompts, participants will collaboratively devise stories from a blend of drawing, collage, and game playing to spark inter-generational conversation and ecological thinking. In this time of environmental complexity, we need new ways of telling stories that connect us to each other and to our futures, pasts, and present environment. This playful approach to ecological narratives involves the complex, non-linear, and indeterminate. Let’s make art together to invent new relations and new ways of learning!
Of Possible Futures: Imagining How to Get There
November 2, 2017
Berea College, Berea, KY
I'm honored to speak about my work into imaginative time travel as part of the Berea College Convocation Series this November. The lecture will be the keynote for a symposium exploring artistic economies, parenthood and creativity organized by artist Sarah Irvin, who is undertaking an intensive project with the school's community of students raising children. More information: https://www.berea.edu/convocations/convocations-calendar-2017-2018/christa-donner/