FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Bert Woodard
Next Level Communications
336-978-0021, bert@nextlevelcom.net
For Kenan Institute for the Arts
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts presents innovative faculty projects at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts
WINSTON-SALEM, NC: The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts announces three new BREATHE projects designed by faculty members at the University North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).
In its second year, the Creative Challenge Project, BREATHE, is an initiative that provides a means for the teaching artist faculty at UNCSA to design collaborative, multidisciplinary summer intensive projects that will create bridges between UNCSA and the larger community, provide opportunities for involvement of all campus constituencies, address an area of underdeveloped aesthetic potential, and allow for learning to be brought back to the school's educational programs. Each project will be documented through a detailed, multimedia diary of dialogue on the Institute's website. A public presentation of each project will be held at UNCSA in fall 2009.
"We are thrilled to again provide UNCSA faculty with a collaborative learning experience that allows them to breathe in an environment that is not the normal working/artistic space on campus," said Margaret S. Mertz, executive director of the Kenan Institute for the Arts. "This project offers the potential for stretching the participants' intellectual, artistic, emotional and physical capacities, while expanding their professional skills and expertise in new directions. We look forward to learning about the ways these projects will transform their artistic and educational careers."
The 2009 Breathe projects are:
House and Home: Communities Transformed
Kelly Maxner, Director, School of Drama High School Program
Greg Shelnutt, Director, School of Design & Production Visual Arts Program
They will visit Rick Lowe's Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, and the two campuses of Dennis K. Ruth's and the late Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio in Newbern and Auburn, Alabama. These two organizations offer potent models of how the arts can be used to create, transform, celebrate and sustain human communities.
"Repentista" Poet Singers of Brazil
Michel Berta, Faculty, Undergraduate Academic Program
Bill Mai, Faculty, School of Filmmaking
They will travel to the backlands of northeastern Brazil to discover how the "Repentista" Poet Singers have adapted to the pressures of the modern age. This project will provide a vehicle for meeting a primitive ethnic group who relies on the oral tradition as a means to communicate. They will share with UNCSA students the form of performing art in the tradition of oral narrative from which theatre is rooted.
The HAG[US] Project
Trish Casey, Contemporary Dance Faculty, School of Dance
Vicki Davis, Set & Costume Design Faculty, School of Design and Production
Elizabeth Klaimon, ESL Faculty, University Academic Program, Director, Writing Ctr.
Elaine Pruitt, Chief Academic Officer
Ellen Rosenberg, Humanities Faculty, University Academic Program
Virginia Shepley, University Administrative Manager, School of Design and Production
All six participants will travel to the Isle of Iona in Scotland where they will have the opportunity to connect with the ancient rhythms of the hills, valleys, stones and paths of the Hebrides, and to seek within the landscape and history the opportunity to learn and develop creativity. The project would culminate with time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts incubates projects that sustain artists at every point in their creative development through strategic partnerships that capitalize on visionary thinking in the arts. For more information, visit www.kenanarts.org or call 336.722.0030.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the first state-supported, residential performing arts school in the nation, offers professional training for careers in the performing, visual, and moving image arts. Visit www.uncsa.edu for more information.
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