Hindsight 2020, a virtual salon
To celebrate the launch of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts’ new podcast, “Art Restart,” five remarkable artist leaders from around the country came together for a virtual salon on Thursday, January 14, where they discussed what needs to be reinvented in their artistic fields and how they would go about reinventing it. Watch the “Art Restart: Hindsight 2020” virtual salon below.
The pandemic has laid bare what so many artists already knew: So many of the existing systems for supporting and producing art were outdated or running on fumes long before COVID-19.
The long-overdue national reckoning with systemic racial inequities and injustices has exposed the myriad ways current systems have replicated and maintained exclusionary tactics.
So what’s next? Once life returns to a semblance of normalcy, will artists and artistic institutions return to the status quo or have the events of 2020 presented a unique chance for artists to revolutionize the way they bring their art to their communities?
The guests are:
Yazmany Arboleda, a visual artist who has created community-engaging projects from Nairobi to Kabul
and who is currently Artist in Residence with New York City’s Commission for Civic
Engagement
Murielle Elizéon and Tommy Noonan, dancers/choreographers and co-founders and co-directors of Culture Mill, a performing arts laboratory in Saxapahaw, NC
Tito Muñoz, Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony in Phoenix, AZ
April Parker, a cultural worker and architect of Black spaces, currently in residence at Elsewhere
museum in Greensboro, NC
The moderator is:
Theater director Seema Sueko, who until recently was Deputy Artistic Director of Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage.
During the pandemic she created the Arena Stage Artists Marketplace, a new model for
regional theaters to connect art, artists and their artistry directly with the public
and she is currently creating artistic partnerships with notable think tanks, including
The Atlantic Council, for whom she recently directed the film “Veterans Day 2020.”
More on Art Restart
The Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts’ “Artist as Leader” interview series and podcast has proved that artists are among the most nimble and resourceful leaders in our communities. The tumultuous events of the year 2020 made us want to build on this knowledge, while shifting the focus of interviews to more urgently plumb artists’ innate capacity for creative problem-solving. In our new podcast, “Art Restart,” we’ll explore how artists are reinventing their fields and building a new landscape for the arts.
The first season of Art Restart will focus specifically on the lessons of the year 2020.
January 15, 2021