Social & Civic Practice

Excerpt from The Sentient Archive: Choreographer Gregory Maqoma on Expressing Cultural Identity

Gregory Maqoma’s Sentient Archive essay “Exit/Exist – Embodiment,” the artist examines how he translates his ancestral history into performance, rejecting a “conceptual” framework for which descriptions supersede the work itself and instead embracing a historically driven approach.

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Nora Chipaumire on a Dancer’s Skin

Choreographer Nora Chipaumire explains how embracing her skin allows her to more deeply investigate what audiences impose on dancers.

Questions of Practice: Multi-media Artist Mariam Ghani on the Tensions between Private and Public Narratives

Mariam Ghani reflects on shifting narratives that exist “in counterpoint to each other.

On Telling the Stories of the Disabilities Community: Artist Teresa Jaynes, Playwright Suli Holum, Writer Terry Galloway, and Art-Reach's John Orr

We invited a group of artists and an organizational leader working to serve individuals with disabilities to discuss how art can offer new lenses through which to interpret people's lived experiences.

Questions of Practice: Artist Pepón Osorio on the Role of the Arts in Expanding Dialogue Beyond the "Local"

Visual artist and Pew Fellow Pepón Osorio talks about the relationship between artistic practice and "the local." 

Questions of Practice: Artist Ken Lum on Creating Art that Emanates from "the Local"

Artist Ken Lum discusses the importance of "the local" in the globalized realm of the visual arts.

Questions of Practice: Visiting Scholar Kristy Edmunds on Why We Should Look Beyond the Local

In her concluding address as the Center's visiting scholar, Kristy Edmunds discussed the importance of providing a platform for national and international artists alongside local artists.

Questions of Practice: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko of the Abbe Museum on Audience Dialogue

Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko discusses promoting participatory audience engagement and dialogue-based programs in the context of a Native American museum.

That There Might Be Queer Sound by Ashon Crawley

On the occasion of OutBeat: America's First Queer Jazz Festival, we invited Professor Ashon Crawley (UC Riverside) to unpack the concept of "queer sound."

Suli Holum and David Bradley on Food Court and Disability in Performance

Theater artists Suli Holum and David Bradley reflect upon the ways disability and difference might be represented, interrogated, and objectified in performance.