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.

Deepening Our Roots: Capacity Building Cross-Country

By: Ilana Silverstein, Field Network Manager

With generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the The Field Network convened for our Annual Field Network Conference in Washington, DC last April and, shortly thereafter, for a new network capacity building initiative.  In May, Joelle Worm (The Field/Milwaukee) and I flew to Boulder to meet Chrissy Nelson (The Field/Boulder) for a 48 hour Capacity Building Meeting.  Our goal was to build the Boulder and Milwaukee Field sites by sharing best practices in fundraising, community building, and facilitation.

Of the many takeaways from the weekend, here’s three:

Back Up is the Best  On the Saturday night of the site visit, we gathered some local artists for a happy hour.  We promoted the event as an evening of mingling, mapping, and the de-Mystification of peer to peerfeedback. I sensed that Chrissy was nervous that no one would come. There were other popular arts events happening that evening and only a few people had RSVP’d.  But then, her energy shifted because she realized that she had us. Having 2 colleagues as back up, gave the work validation, felt less isolating (she was reminded of the larger community that she is a part of), and made hosting the event not as scary. And, people did come, and had a great time!

Post-Feedback Shout Outs  During our session on facilitation, one of the topics discussed was how to help artists apply feedback.  The three of us, along with James Scruggs (via conference call) developed a structure to make sure artists are getting the feedback that they need. After Fieldwork, the facilitator invites the artists to say one thing they heard that they are going to go back and use or a recent “aha moment” in making the work. By saying these observations out loud, the artist may be more likely to apply them as she or he continues in the creative process.  I look forward to trying this out in Fieldwork this Fall. 

Collaboration and Fieldwork Workshop  One of The Field/DC's dreams is to host a workshop on collaboration.  We find that artists come to Fieldwork wanting to collaborate but do not know how to initiate that relationship.  Chrissy shared a structure for a successful 2-hour collaboration workshop that she organized in Boulder.  I hope to produce a similar workshop in DC and tie in some Fieldwork basics.  

Just as arts residencies provide artists with time away from family/home for diving into the creative process, this site visit gave us the opportunity to focus and look critically at our sites’ organizational development.

In 48 hours we:

-   Strategized how to share the work load of running a site with our colleagues

-   Connected with local artists

-   Brushed up on facilitation skills

-   Brainstormed how to support and be supported by our kindred spirits, The Field Network.

The timing of the visit was perfect.  Joelle, Chrissy and I had recently connected at the conference and were able to draw on the inspiration we had felt from the guest speakers and other colleagues there.  Working as a cluster of three seemed just right.  We were effective in getting work done, as well as nurturing our artist-selves (desperately needed as site-leaders). 

In planning this capacity building initiative, Jennifer Wright Cook, Susan Oetgen and I had considered a web-based convening, but I am so grateful that we didn’t go that route.  Meeting face-to-face was key.  Being in the presence of other Fieldwork lovers is a tremendous gift.  There is a heightened sense of investment and listening among us whether we are engaging in Fieldwork or not.  

By tapping into The Field Network, anyone can find these individuals across the United States and Europe - from Boulder to Berlin!

To learn more about The Field Network, Fieldwork, or connect with the Washington, DC arts community, email me, at dc@thefield.org