This playlist is meant to serve as an introduction to theSocial Power of the Arts resources that ArtsU has provided over the past few years. We hope you will continue to explore our archives for more useful content! Check out the content tab for more information on each activity. If you have any questions please reach out to ArtsU@artsusa.org.
Moved by the cultural and social reckoning catalyzed by the events of 2020, scholar, educator, and writer Jan Cohen-Cruz and artist and cultural worker Rad Pereira embarked on a journey. Forty years apart in age, with different racial, gender, and national backgrounds, yet aligned in their commitment to a vibrant U.S. theater that responds to its time and place, they co-wrote, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance 1965-2020 (released in June, New Village Press). Based on nearly 100 interviews and exchanges, they capture the contributions and experiences of a diverse range of socially engaged theater and performance makers who reflect and lift up the many voices that make up the U.S. today.
Meeting the Moment provides a platform for a conversation that centers socially engaged artists—the unique roles they play, challenges they face in such intersectional work, and what they need to do that work effectively and in keeping with their values. This webinar will explore the themes that emerged through the authors' research,
About this Webinar
June 16 @ 3:00 P.M. ET
Moved by the cultural and social reckoning catalyzed by the events of 2020, scholar, educator, and writer Jan Cohen-Cruz and artist and cultural worker Rad Pereira embarked on a journey. Forty years apart in age, with different racial, gender, and national backgrounds, yet aligned in their commitment to a vibrant U.S. theater that responds to its time and place, they co-wrote, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance 1965-2020 (released in June, New Village Press). Based on nearly 100 interviews and exchanges, they capture the contributions and experiences of a diverse range of socially engaged theater and performance makers who reflect and lift up the many voices that make up the U.S. today.
Meeting the Moment provides a platform for a conversation that centers socially engaged artists—the unique roles they play, challenges they face in such intersectional work, and what they need to do that work effectively and in keeping with their values.
This session explores themes that emerged through the authors’ interviews such as:
their diverse influences and multiple approaches to education and training;
the role played by race, circumstances, class, gender/sexuality, and other identity grounders;
the rise in artists embedded in community development initiatives and collaborating with public agencies;
the supports that are needed by artists who are equally committed to art and social justice to sustain them in life and work; and
how 2020 has impacted socially engaged artists and may influence their directions moving forward.
This webinar sets the stage for a fall event series, Animating Democracy / Reflecting Forward. The series considers the practice and progress of community-based and socially/civically engaged art and culture over recent decades, and its promise now and into the future. It will bring together trailblazing artists and cultural leaders from Animating Democracy’s founding years along with this generation’s leading-edge practitioners from arts and other sectors to reflect back on and imagine forward the role of arts and culture, artists and culture bearers in animating democracy.
This webinar is free as part of our support and service to the field. Please consider becoming a member or donating to Americans for the Arts to support ongoing access to resources like these for everyone.
Jan Cohen-Cruz is a scholar, educator, and writer who has made vast contributions to building and sharing knowledge of community-based and socially engaged theater and arts. She wrote Local Acts, Engaging Performance, and Remapping Performance; edited Radical Street Performance; coedited with Mady Schutzman, Playing Boal and A Boal Companion; and co-authored with Rad Pereira, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, by Those Who Lived It, published by New Village Press. From 2013-2019, she worked with A Blade of Grass, supporting socially engaged artists, serving as director of field research and co-founding its magazine. From 2007-2012, she directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a consortium of colleges and universities committed to civic engagement, and co-founded its journal, Public. Cohen-Cruz earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies at New York University and was a professor in the Drama Department, initiating its minor in Applied Theatre. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. Jan was an evaluator for the U.S. State Department/Bronx Museum cultural diplomacy initiative smARTpower and for New York City’s Public Artists in Residence. She and Pam Korza researched and wrote the Municipal-Artist Partnership guide, a joint effort of A Blade of Grass and Animating Democracy/Americans for the Arts. Jan teaches at Touchstone Theatre/ Moravian University and, with her family, operates the Smokehouse Food Truck in eastern Pennsylvania.
Rad Pereira is a queer, mixed Black, Indigenous Brazilian Jewish (im)migrant cultural worker building consciousness between healing justice, system change, reindigenization, and queer futures currently based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn). As a community artist, they created The (Im)Migrant Hustle and produced Bang Bang Gun Amok I + II at Abrons Art Center, Media Tools for Liberation with JackNY, and facilitated Decolonization Rave and Cosmic Commons with You Are Here. They are a 2017 New York City Public Artist in Residence with Department of Cultural Affairs and Children’s Services working with LGBQTIA foster youth. As an actor and director, Rad has contributed to stories at HBO, CBS, NBC, MTV, National Black Theatre, MITU350, The Public Theater, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre in DC, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr, Target Margin, Poetic Theater, Ars Nova, New Ohio, Sesame Street, Theatre 167 and various online media platforms. Rad has spoken and consulted at the Queens Museum, Rio de Janeiro Museum, Instituto Republica, PSU Art + Social Practice, SITI Company Thought Center, United Nations, A Blade of Grass, Superblue, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, The 8th Floor, Working Woman of Color Conference, Dance/NYC Symposium, and Culture/Shift.
photo description: A brown skinned, curly haired Rad and white skinned, salt and peppered haired Jan smile into the camera warmly. Behind them is a green pond and forest full of green trees and bushes.
Civic dialogue is a critical process in a time of widespread conflict and divisiveness. But few of us are taught how to talk about - and hold space for others to talk about - pressing social issues and concerns in our communities, neighborhoods, and nation. In this webinar, we will explore ways that theatre-based approaches may support us in learning and practicing skills, concepts, and attitudes that can prepare us to engage in and facilitate meaningful dialogue in the public sphere.
About this Webinar
Civic dialogue is a critical
process in a time of widespread conflict and divisiveness. But few of us are
taught how to talk about - and hold space for others to talk about - pressing
social issues and concerns in our communities, neighborhoods, and nation. In
this webinar, we will explore ways that theatre-based approaches may support us
in learning and practicing skills, concepts, and attitudes that can prepare us
to engage in and facilitate meaningful dialogue in the public sphere.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to…
Identify the purposes of civic dialogue and some of the skills, knowledge areas, and attitudes necessary to engage in meaningful and effective civic dialogue.
Reflect on the process of skill acquisition and learning methods that help people to integrate and incorporate new skills, attitudes, and behaviors.
Analyze 2-3 case studies of theatre-based activities and name tools and approaches that support learning in relation to head (content), heart (emotion/attitude), body (behavior/perception), and environment (context & relationships).
Find connections between theatre and drama practices and the practices of civic dialogue.
Propose ways that theatre- and drama-based approaches might support civic dialogue in participants’ own work and life contexts.
Share resources and ideas for implementing theatre-based approaches to learning the skills, attitudes, and knowledge conducive to civic dialogue.
Jessica A. Levy
Founding Partner, The Blue Door Group
Jessica works in the intersections of education, the arts, and civic engagement. With twenty years in the nonprofit & public sectors, she has designed and implemented civic participation initiatives, arts-based community programs, and a variety of education, service, and advocacy events. Her work has included immigrant rights organizing, community education, and using drama-based approaches to learning and community-building. She is a Founding Partner of The Blue Door Group, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm that designs, facilitates, and teaches interactive processes for learning and for capacity-building.
Jessica holds an M.A. in Applied Theater from CUNY School of Professional Studies and an M.A. in Adult Education & Community Development from the University of Toronto. Her course design and teaching work has included graduate-level courses in teamwork and collaboration with the Industrial Design and Museum Studies programs at the University of the Arts and an English through Drama class with Temple University’s Intensive English Language Program (IELP). She currently teaches adult ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) with District 1199c Training and Upgrading Fund. Jessica is energized by exploring approaches to embodied learning and by making creativity, arts, and design foundational to strengthening institutions, communities, and movements.
Partnering with the arts fuels the economy, creates social cohesion and connectivity, and fosters civic engagement. According to Business Contributions to the Arts: 2018 Edition 79% of companies believe arts help to improve quality of life in the community. In this session, attendees will hear from exemplary business leaders on how the arts are essential to the development of a vibrant and diverse community in which the best employees want to live, work, shop, create, and contribute.
About this Webinar
February 2021
Partnering with the arts fuels the economy, creates social cohesion and connectivity, and fosters civic engagement. According to Business Contributions to the Arts: 2018 Edition 79% of companies believe arts help to improve quality of life in the community. In this session, attendees will hear from exemplary business leaders on how the arts are essential to the development of a vibrant and diverse community in which the best employees want to live, work, shop, create, and contribute. We are pleased to offer this on-demand webinar for free.
Learning Objectives:
In collaboration with Chief Executive for Corporate Purpose (CECP), this session will present data from Americans for the Arts and CECP research on business support of and partnership with the arts to advance communities. Attendees will hear directly from companies who have successfully used the arts to promote social priorities and develop communities.
Hilary S. Ayala serves as the Director of Con Edison’s Strategic Partnerships Programs. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Ms. Ayala leads the company’s strategic, cause-related charitable contributions program and employee engagement initiatives. Ms. Ayala’s portfolio includes the company’s strategic partnerships program, volunteer corps, board placement program, and employee engagement programs. In former positions at Con Edison, Ms. Ayala served as the company’s principal federal lobbyist in Washington, DC. Ms. Ayala joined Con Edison in 2001. Prior to joining Con Edison, Ms. Ayala worked in the United States Senate before joining the development team at Manhattanville College.
Ms. Ayala is a graduate of Manhattanville College with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies. She has served on the boards of the Westchester Children’s Museum and the Vineyard Theater. She currently serves on the Youth Committee at Christ Church Greenwich. An outdoor enthusiast, Ms. Ayala may often be found on the trails and slopes of Vermont with her teenage son.
Jinny Jeong
Corporate Strategy & Impact
Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP)
Jinny is a social impact leader with experience delivering data-driven, human-centered insights for the corporate and non-profit sectors. Since joining CECP in 2014, she has been a trusted advisor in equipping corporate social responsibility (CSR) leaders with the tools, best practices, and data insights to drive strategies in environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Jinny also leads the advisement of business and social impact and the strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion research through CECP’s Accelerate Community. Prior to CECP, Jinny worked with several nonprofits including Grounds for Sculpture, New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop), and The New 42nd Street/New Victory Theater. She currently resides in Boston, MA.
Kimberly Williams
Manager, Government, Regional and Community Affairs Department
Con Edison
Kimberly Denise Williams is a Manager in the Government, Regional and Community Affairs Department at Con Edison. In her role she serves as a representative of the company to elected officials and community-based organizations in Washington Heights, Inwood, and Manhattan’s west side. As part of her responsibilities, she oversees the relationship with over 25 non-profit organizations in these neighborhoods. Kimberly joined Con Edison through the company’s leadership development program and was formerly a supervisor in their Construction Management Department.
Outside of the office, Kimberly has maintained her passion for writing and the arts. She has written articles for several publications and websites. Additionally, she’s penned creative pieces that have been performed by community arts groups. Her volunteer efforts include serving on the Black History Committee at the Lenox Road Baptist Church, Stuyvesant High School’s Black Alumni Diversity Initiative, and previously mentoring through p.s. alumni and OCA NY-Asian Pacific American Advocates. For the last four summers, Kimberly has had the pleasure of mentoring through the Diversity in Arts Leadership Program. Kimberly is a graduate of Harvard University where she studied History and African and African American Studies. She also has a Master of Science in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics.
Alexis Simmons
Alexis Simmons, a DIAL alumna, is a native of Montgomery, Alabama. She studied at The University of Alabama graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts and Communication Studies. Alexis now resides in Brooklyn, New York working as a 5th Grade English Language Arts Teacher. As a teaching artist, she is dedicated to reimaging texts to highlight the transformative power of storytelling.
How can artists and municipal leaders work together to bring innovative creative capacities to achieve civic goals, improve the workings of government, and benefit community residents? Artists and municipal leaders are partnering to address city-wide mandates such as racial equity. They are helping change perceptions of municipal departments and disinvested neighborhoods. They are developing art projects that address wide ranging issues in public health, environment, and police relations. And more!
To support these dynamic partnerships, A Blade of Grass and Animating Democracy have developed the Municipal-Artist Partnership Guide. Just released, it aims to assist municipal agency leaders, artists, and arts agency leaders in navigating this often-complicated partnership work and to achieve positive and powerful artistic and community results. Webinar participants will hear partnership pointers related to My Park, My Pool, My City, a three-year artist residency in which artists partnered with the Austin’s (TX) Parks and Recreation Aquatics Division, activating and amplifying civic engagement around the future of Austin’s city pools. This story will illuminate some of the guiding principles, values, and quality practices featured in the guide. Animating Democracy and A Blade of Grass will highlight selections from the trove of Nuts and Bolts, partnership profiles, and model documents and tools.
About this Webinar
How can artists and municipal leaders work together to bring innovative creative capacities to achieve civic goals, improve the workings of government, and benefit community residents? Artists and municipal leaders are partnering to address city-wide mandates such as racial equity. They are helping change perceptions of municipal departments and disinvested neighborhoods. They are developing art projects that address wide ranging issues in public health, environment, and police relations. And more!
To support these dynamic partnerships, A Blade of Grass and Animating Democracy have developed the Municipal-Artist Partnership Guide. Just released, it aims to assist municipal agency leaders, artists, and arts agency leaders in navigating this often-complicated partnership work and to achieve positive and powerful artistic and community results. Webinar participants will hear partnership pointers related to My Park, My Pool, My City, a three-year artist residency in which artists partnered with the Austin’s (TX) Parks and Recreation Aquatics Division, activating and amplifying civic engagement around the future of Austin’s city pools. This story will illuminate some of the guiding principles, values, and quality practices featured in the guide. Animating Democracy and A Blade of Grass will highlight selections from the trove of Nuts and Bolts, partnership profiles, and model documents and tools.
Learning Objectives:
Learn why these partnerships are attractive and gaining ground in municipal government
Gain insights into how artists and municipalities have navigated different ways of working and gained new capacities
Understand how Local Arts Agencies are playing key roles as organizing agencies and intermediaries
Pam Korza
Co-Director of Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts
Pam Korza co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. She has consulted and offered workshops and presentations on arts and civic engagement for artists, cultural organizations, funders, and at cross-sector gatherings across the country and internationally. She co-authored the Municipal-Artist Partnership Guide (2019) with Jan Cohen-Cruz, in partnership with A Blade of Grass. She co-wrote Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture, and the Arts & Civic Engagement Tool Kit, as well as the five-book Case Studies from Animating Democracy. Her writing and editing on assessing arts and social change work includes: the framework, the Continuum of Impact guide; Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change;“Evaluating Impact/Appreciating Evaluation;” and a chapter in the book, Arts and Community Change (Routledge, 2015).
Prerana Reddy is Director of Programs at A Blade of Grass, a nonprofit that advances the field of socially engaged art through financial support for artists, public programming, research, and content creation. Previously she was the Director of Public Programs & Community Engagement at the Queens Museum in New York City (2005-2018) where she organized both exhibition- and community-based programs as well as public art commissions. In addition, she oversaw a cultural organizing initiative for Corona, Queens residents that resulted in the creation and ongoing programming of a public plaza and a popular education center for new immigrants. She has a Masters degree in Cinema Studies and Anthropology from New York University, and has extensive film programming experience. She is currently on the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission and sits on the boards of NOCD-NY, ArtBuilt, Rockaway Initiative for Sustainabilty & Equity, and New Immigrant Community Empowerment.
Executive Director, Civic Arts (formerly GO Collaborative)
Lynn Osgood, PhD is an urban planner and researcher, and the founder and executive director of Civic Arts. She started her career in urban planning in New York City when she worked with the UN Habitat II Conference on Human Settlements. Trained in landscape architecture and urban planning at the University of Virginia, Lynn moved to Austin in 2003,where she became Adjunct Faculty at the University of Texas in the School of Architecture. She now teaches there on civic engagement and qualitative research. In 2011 she founded Civic Arts (formerly GO collaborative) and leads the development of creative placemaking projects such as the NEA Exploring Our Town website, and the ArtPlace America-funded Drawing Lines project, as well as technical assistance services for municipal partners across the United States. Currently Civic Arts is in partnership with ArtPlace America, the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) to find ways in which arts-based community development practices can become more fully integrated into the local government sector.
Associate Artistic Director & Community Collaborations Director of Forklift Danceworks
Working in the mediums of dialogue, participation, and collaboration, Krissie Marty makes dances with people who aren’t traditionally considered dancers. As Associate Artistic Director & Community Collaborations Director of Forklift Danceworks, she most often engages city employees in making dances that ask audiences to reconsider their relationship to labor and laboring bodies. She helped to conceive the My Park, My Pool, My City project and co-directed Bartholomew Swims, Dove Springs Swims, and Givens Swims. Krissie created and directed RE Source, featuring employees and machinery of the Goodwill Resource Center in a 125,000 square foot warehouse. She co-directed PowerUP, Play Ball Downs Field, Afoot: A Marching Band Extravaganza, and The Trees of Govalle. Previously, Krissie worked as a faculty member and choreographer with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange for over a decade. She choreographed movement for theatre with Big Art Group (NYC and international tours), Washington Shakespeare Company, and Imagination Stage (DC). Her choreography has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Stratford Circus in London, Chateau de Cazals in France, and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
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About this Webinar
