The Field's National Network: National Touring Exchange (pt. 2)

This spring The Field initiated its pilot Network Touring Exchange (NTE) program by sending three of our national Fieldwork facilitators on tour. Read a little about their experiences below.


Artist Chrissy Nelson traveled from Boulder, CO to Salt Lake City, UT, where, in addition to participating in a Fieldwork session, she also connected with Field facilitators Amy Caron and Maggie Willis, local artists, and dance faculty at the University of Utah.

L to R: Amy Caron, Chrissie Nelson, Kerri Hopkins

She learned how Fieldwork could fit into a larger artistic community, for example, how to run Fieldwork as a program under the umbrella of a larger artistic organization, and she was exposed to some of the smaller details of how to run Fieldwork in a simple, grass roots fashion.

Salt Lake City hosting Chrissie Nelson

Chrissy was also reminded by Amy Caron to use Fieldwork as a way to “practice” art generation, to sustain her interest and her creation, rather than feel pressure to show a new work each time.  

“Being present with the artists of another site helped me to consider new organizational AND artistic practices while also validating the work we are already doing in Boulder."

Artist Ilana Silverstein toured with her feminist punk rock dance band, Tia Nina, from Washington, DC to New York City. They participated in The Field’s 30th anniversary Fielday performance at Dixon Place, took a dance class, and explored NYC while planning their next artistic steps.

The cast of Tia Nina
 about to perform

“Taking myself out of my comfort zone in my home community stirred up so much. On a personal level, the NTE reignited my love for the grassroots community building that The Field excels at. I felt so energized by the diversity and warmth of the other artists involved in the Fielday.”

Other Tia Nina Members: Leah Curran Moon and Lisi Stoessel

Artist Amy Caron travelled from Salt Lake City, UT to Milwaukee, WI. During her time in Milwaukee, Amy taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milkwaukee, participated in a Fieldwork session, toured the city, reinvigorated her creative practice and connected closely with Milkwaukee site director, Joelle Worm.

Amy Caron

“I think this NTE opportunity in Milwaukee was successful in re-energizing my artistic practice.  As parent of a toddler, my focus on my creative practiced had diminished significantly in recent years and I was looking for a suitable opportunity to reintroduce myself to my practice and a stepping stone where I could begin actively building a new paradigm for creating work.  I think a great deal of impact from this tour experience came from my host also being an artist/mother – we were able to relate to the challenges we both face and I felt like she was truly a peer artist with similar life goals."

Joelle Worm and Amy Caron

The Field wishes to thank these brave adventurers for participating in the pilot year of of the NTE and for reminding us to reinvigorate our creative practices by: stepping outside our comfort zones; connecting with our peers (even when they are far away) and that Fieldwork is a great place to practice art generation.

If you are interested in learning more about these Fieldwork facilitators read part 1 of the National Touring Exchange blog here. If you are interested in learning more about the Field Network or starting a Network site in your city click here.
National Touring Exchange is funded by the

The Field's National Network: National Touring Exchange (pt. 1)

The Network Touring Exchange (NTE) is a pilot opportunity for our national Field Network Sites to build their capacity by working with other Field Network Sites.  Represented by one dance/movement-based artist/Fieldwork Facilitator, a Fieldwork Site may travel to another Fieldwork site for 2-7 days to learn, share, collaborate and grow.

The Field is excited to announce the recipients of our first Network Touring Exchange!

photo by Dave Rubin

Amy Caron will travel from Salt Lake City, UT, to Milkwaukee, WI, April 6 -12.

Amy is a multidisciplinary artist based in Salt Lake City.  Her artistic versatility is informed by her experience as a crossover athlete.  A high-level figure skater and gymnast at a young age, Amy later represented her country in World Cup competition as an aerialist on the US Freestyle Ski Team.  She holds her BFA in modern dance and also studied animation and arts technology.  Her short dance films screened at Galapagos Art Space, American Dance Festival, KMUTT School of Architecture and Design, and Macau Art Museum.  The year 2006 marked a career turning point when Performance Space 122 commissioned Waves of Mu—a complex installation/performance work about the neurobiology of empathy created with world-renowned scientist V.S. Ramachandran.  Through this rewarding venture into science, Amy grew as a social practice artist, expanded the interdisciplinary nature of her work, and received a Visiting Artist Grant from Duke University.  In 2012 Amy premiered Holotype, a large-scale biomorphic installation for The Leonardo Museum.  Inspired by her rigorous study of algae and the challenge to translate the obscure organism’s inscape, this ambitious multi-year project filled the museum’s vast 4,000-sq./ft. atrium.  Andrew Andrew, Culturebot, and Interior Design Magazine have covered Amy’s work. www.amycaron.com

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Ilana Silverstein will be touring with her feminist punk rock dance band, Tia Nina, from Washington DC to New York City on April 9-12. 

Tia Nina was started by Leah Curran Moon, MPA PhD (J Van Stone), Ilana Silverstein, MFA (Sammy Rain) and Lisi Stoessel, MFA (Sticks) in 2011.  Tia Nina plays the festival circuit including Capital Fringe DC, Asheville Fringe NC, the Festival of Subversive Ideas and Minds, College Park, MD, as well as theaters like The Lang Theatre, DC, Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore, and Gesa Powerhouse Theatre, Walla Walla, WA. The band plays non-traditional venues including SlutWalk DC on the National Mall and the Wonderland Ballroom. Tia Nina’s community events include dance tailgating and feminist parties for artists and scholars. Their shows are included on the syllabi for Gender Studies courses, and the band has taught in the Dance and the Women’s Studies departments at University of Maryland, George Washington University, Whitman College and DeSales University.  Tia Nina recently received a Space Subsidy Grant Award from Dance Metro DC, and works with celebrated composers Michael Moon and Eric Shimelonis, performer Colleen Hutchings (Chymes Maloney), and costume designers Katy Kincade and Deb Sivigny. By originating vivid, creative live performances of punk rock modern dance, voice & stage art and live-form puppetry, Tia Nina defines — unforgettably — the value of thinking critically about gender in popular culture. www.tianinarocks.com

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Photo by Heather Grey

Chrissy Nelson will be travelling from Boulder, CO, to Salt Lake City, UT, April 21-24. 

Chrissy is a dance artist, physical therapist, and movement educator.  She is adjunct faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches Experiential Anatomy, Somatics & Injury Prevention, as well as Pilates and various dance techniques.  Also adjunct faculty at CU-Boulder, Nelson teaches Improvisation, and serves as the Co-Director of the Theater & Dance Wellness Program.  In addition to her teaching, Chrissy also directs The Field | Boulder, collaborates frequently with sound and visual artists, has performed original works in PA, NY and CO, and co-produces FRASS events (Front Range Artist Salon Series).  Chrissy's performance research involves the vulnerability found in improvisation, both in movement and in the spoken word.  Most recently, Nelson was invited as an intensive teacher at CI Iowa 2015, and was part of the teaching faculty at the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival 2015.  As a soon to be certified Movement Fundamentals Practitioner, Nelson values CI as a foundation to the dance artist’s practice, and incorporates its principles into all of her movement-based teaching.  Chrissy received her MFA in dance from the University of Colorado-Boulder (2013), with a secondary emphasis in both Somatics and Improvisation in Performance.  She received her MPT from Ohio University in 1998. https://chrissyln.wordpress.com/

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Read about their 2016 National Touring Exchange in Part 2 of this series.

OURGOODS: Sharing Power: From a Sharing Economy to Solidarity Economics

The Creative Time Summit is "a conference that brings together cultural producers—including artists, critics, writers, and curators—to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world. Their international projects bring to the table a vast array of practices and methodologies that engage with the canvas of everyday life. The participants range from art world luminaries to those purposefully obscure, providing a glimpse into an evolving community concerned with the political implications of socially engaged art."

In 8-minute presentations, we heard from artists, activists, and designers from all over the world. A moving statement came from Annenberg Prize winner Jeanne van Heeswijk: "In my work, we are learning collectively to take responsibility."

So, what are the political implications of socially engaged art? If politics is about the distribution of power (or "how we learn collectively to take responsibility"), how does socially engaged art distribute power and help groups learn collectively to take responsibility? For me, a lot of socially engaged art is like the new term "sharing economy", giving a little without changing power structures. The projects that moved me most at Creative Time's Summit and exhibition, Living as Form, truly engage communities by redistributing power. Remember, as Participatory Rural Appraisal tells us, "participation without redistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless."

If you haven't visited the show yet, consider where each project places the participants in this ladder of participation:

- manipulate
- inform
- consult
- placate
- partner
- delegate
- participate

All of this reminds me of a conversation I had with Cheyenna Weber of SolidarityNYC...

Caroline (2010): “What’s the difference between the sharing economy and the solidarity economy?”
Cheyenna (2010): “It’s the difference between doing something that is good and doing something that is just. It’s the difference between friends helping each other and true social justice.”

Cheyenna and Caroline (2011): We all recognize that sharing is good. Sharing, lending, and borrowing help connect neighbors, encouraging isolated individuals to create community by consuming less. But the latest sharing projects all focus on wealthy neighbors. What if I’ve never had too much? How do we address social inequity? How do we redistribute power to the majority who live without it? To transform an economic system which fails to meet community needs, we have to move from a sharing economy to a solidarity economy.

What's the difference? The solidarity economy is based on democratic control and social justice, not just cooperation and ecological sustainability. It's about sharing power. Solidarity means recognizing our global interdependence, addressing injustices in our communities by replacing dynamics of unequal power with grassroots, cooperative leadership. The sharing economy is one step towards a system-wide change, where all people are empowered to meet their needs. Sharing is about neighbors helping neighbors, but in which neighborhoods? Solidarity means sharing with your neighbor in public housing by joining a credit union, supporting low income immigrants who run worker-owned businesses, and providing sliding scale pricing at events to welcome all people. The solidarity economy addresses power imbalances directly through grassroots economic justice.

In New York City we are lucky to have hundreds of examples of solidarity economy practices. Sometimes they are new, utilizing economic innovations, and other times they are a return to ancient survival strategies which have served our communities well. Together they make up a dynamic alternative to an economy based solely on profit and greed. The models vary but cross all sectors of economic activity: housing, healthcare, retail, financial services, food, culture, and transportation, to name a few.

At solidaritynyc.org we're documenting these practices and models in an online map and a series of short films portraying the stories of different solidarity economy leaders. The films, Portraits of the Solidarity Economy, include stories of food and worker cooperatives, intentional communities, credit unions, community gardens, barter networks, and participatory budgeting. Each is empowering specific NYC communities and in turn creating a solidarity alternative to the destructive economic transactions that dominant our daily lives.

If you want more info about the Summit, watch the videos here (in particular, I'd watch Laura Flanders, Urban Bush Women, Ted Purves, and Jeanne van Heeswijk): http://www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/2011/summit/summit_presenters.html