What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1290149
SEPTEMBER 20-26, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 11 The impressive list of speakers, panelists and featured artists who will participate throughout the day includes Thelma Golden, director and chief curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem; singer/ songwriter and arts advocate Ben Folds; Mario Rossero, executive director of the National Art Education Association; Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti; and actor and activist Kerry Washington as the summit's emcee. "Kerry Washington is both certainly somebody that can attract a lot of attention, given her fame and her body of work," Reyes says of the star's involvement in the summit, "but she is also an amazing arts advocate, and she has spoken quite passionately for the importance of arts education, for the importance of supporting and nurturing creative communities. We knew that we wanted somebody of that caliber who can really leverage their profile and their platform but also can speak from the heart and can speak from a place of real authenticity, because we know how passionately she feels about art and education and engagement." Though the switch to a digital platform enabled the programming team to position the summit as a national dialogue, Reyes affirms that the issues and ideas being discussed affect local creatives just as much as those on the coasts or elsewhere in the country. "Which is why it's important for us to feature local voices," she shares. "Coco Vasquez is a local young person who's part of [the art education] panel, getting from her that sense of agency, that she's not a passive observer of the events around the world and around our nation. Art is giving her additional strategies and tools to become a source of that solution to our civic and social concerns." Reyes points to the timing of the summit as a reminder that art can help people find a way forward through the struggles of the world around them. Having written the guided questions for the panels before the pandemic hit, and before the highly publicized continued violence against the Black community with the recent murders of the past few months, Reyes says the topics being discussed feel all the more urgent as the summit approaches. "For the people tuning in, I hope they take away, ultimately, a sense of optimism in the fact that people are talking about it and that we are looking to all kinds of models for engagement and response to these very important issues," she says. "Not the least of which is we're looking to artists and creatives and those creative communities because they're providing for us a means and a pathway for grappling with these issues." FAQ 'State of the Art 2020' Summit Schedule Sept. 23 10 a.m. — Welcome announcements and Indigenous peoples and land acknowl- edgment 10:20 a.m. — Panel #1: Sense of Place: Nurturing Vibrant Communities 11:50 a.m. — Artist Spotlight: Suchitra Mattai, Peter Everett, Paul Stephen Benjamin 12:25 p.m. — Panel #2: Confronting History: Changing the Narrative 1:10 p.m. — Panel #3: Shifting Grounds: Art Education for a New Age 1:55 p.m. — Prompt and Discussion Session 2:30 p.m. — Artist Spotlight: JooYoung Choi, Cristina Molina, Jody Kuehner 3 p.m. — Conclusion "Come Tuesday (Sportsman's Corner)" by L. Kasima Harris L. Kasimu Harris' work was part of the "State of the Art 2020" exhibition and now, Harris will be a panelist during the "Sense of Place: Nurturing Vibrant Communities" discussion. "The 'Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges' series explores the importance of sense of place to culture, particularly in New Orleans — but it is of the utmost importance throughout the African Diaspora," he explains of his work. "I'm looking at how these bars serve their community, the Black community, when nothing else was available to them, and how they became a respite from inequities of the outside world as well as a repository for the Indigenous culture here in New Orleans — be it brass bands and second lines or Black Masking Indians sometimes called Mardi Gras Indians." (Courtesy Photo/Crystal Bridges Museum) "Exodus" by Suchitra Mattai "My primary pursuit is to give voice to people whose voices were once quieted," shares Suchitra Mattai, one of the artists included in "State of the Art 2020" and featured during the summit. "Using both my own family's ocean migrations and research on the period of colonialism during the 19th century, I seek to expand our sense of 'history.' Re-writing this colonial history contributes to contemporary dialogue by making visi- ble the struggles and perseverance of those who lived it." (Courtesy Photo/K Contemporary Art and Suchitra Mattai)