Creative Imperatives 2019

Creative Imperatives Gallery

• Open Throughout the Festival
• Location:  Third Floor Gallery, Center for the Arts

This year’s festival show features Insights into India, a collection of photographs and video taken by UWL students participating in an intercultural study abroad.  

• Art
• Open Studio

THEATRE ARTS - Discussion: Sarah Bellamy in Conversation

• 7:30 pm
• Toland Theatre, Center for the Arts
• Festival Guest Sarah Bellamy

A theatre artist who has dedicated her career to empowering change in the inequities surrounding race and representation, Sarah Bellamy has succeeded her father Lou Bellamy as Artistic Director of Penumbra Theatre Company in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Join us for a conversation about her vision for Penumbra’s mission to “ illuminate the human condition through the prism of the African American experience” as it approaches the middle of its fourth decade as a powerful and important voice in the theatre community. Sarah will also discuss her personal work on equity, diversity, and inclusion, and the development of leadership programs to help teens learn to practice art for social change.

• Theatre Arts
• Discussion

Creative Imperatives Gallery

• Open Throughout the Festival
• Location:  Third Floor Gallery, Center for the Arts

This year’s festival show features Insights into India, a collection of photographs and video taken by UWL students participating in an intercultural study abroad.  

• Art
• Open Studio

MUSIC - Presentation: Protest Music

• 8:50-9:45 am
• Location:  Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Festival Guest Marja Kerney

Music functions as a cultural tool for change and is an effective way to observe the social climate of any given time. Studying the music of a particular historical period gives a glimpse into the challenges and triumph of its people. While this type of study can include many genres of music, the focus of this talk is on popular music from the 1960s to the present and the historical significance of each song.

• Music
• Presentation

ART - Open Studio: Ceramics

• 8:50-11:20 am
• Location: Room 25, Center for the Arts

Attend a demonstration of ceramic techniques and get a tour of the UWL ceramics studio. This hands-on event will also give you the chance to work with clay.

• Art
• Open Studio

ART - Presentation: Feminist Art [R]evolution

• 9:55-10:50 am
• Location:  Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Lisa Lenarz

Through the narrative of one of the project’s participating artists, this session will be a presentation on Ulrike Müller’s Herstory Inventory: 100 Feminist Drawings by 100 Artists (2009-2012). Attendees will become familiar with the project, it’s connection to the Brooklyn Museum and Lesbian Herstory Archives, and how contemporary feminist artworks are continually shaped by the past and present.

• Art
• Presentation

COMMUNICATION STUDIES - Presentation: Insights into India- A Photographic Exhibition

• 9:55-10:50 am
• Location:  Third Floor Gallery, Center for the Arts
• Ayesha Patnaik

UWL students who participated in an intercultural study abroad program will discuss the collection on display. The images capture moments that encapsulate culture and communication in India as it relates to ideas of identity, core symbols and cultural space. They sought to use the camera lens to provide “insight into deconstructing a scene through special attention to facial expressions, gestures, body language, relationships between people and their animals and surroundings.. in other words tell a story.” (Note: although the presentation is only scheduled for this hour, the collection is on display throughout the festival.)

• Art
• Partner dept.
• Presentation
• Discussion

ART - Presentation: Kehinde Wiley- Blackness Unbound!

• 11:00-11:55 am
• Location:  Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Richard Breaux and Deborah-Eve Lombard

A dual-perspective presentation that explores artist Kehinde Wiley’s work as a collision of art history, history and popular culture that works to free us from the ways we essentialize black people. Wiley draws on the tradition of classical art masters to create portraits of young black and mixed-race people—the results confront the vocabulary of power to address what is continually ignored.

• Art
• Presentation

MUSIC - Discussion: Brendan Kinsella in Conversation

• 12:00-12:55 pm (NEW TIME)
• Location: Room 131, Center for the Arts (NEW LOCATION)
• Festival Guest Brendan Kinsella

Visiting artist Dr. Brendan Kinsella will present a lecture/demonstration on repertoire for speaking pianist. Covering works from the 19th century to the present day, this lecture details a brief history of performance art and its pertinence to works by Schumann, Schwitters, and Rzewski. The works in question will also be discussed in the context of freedom of expression and identity in today’s social climate, particularly the #MeToo Movement and the subject of gender equality.

• Music
• Presentation
• Discussion

THEATRE ARTS - Performance: Songs of Freedom and Hope- A Musical Theatre Recital

• 12:00-12:55 pm
• Location: Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• UWL Musical Theatre Students

Musical theatre expresses freedom in many forms, including a person’s right to choose, oppression and the hope and light that arouses action. From musicals like Hamilton, Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing, Urinetown, Ragtime, 1776, South Pacific, and Bat Boy, UWL Musical Theater students will share songs about freedom and hope.

• Theatre Arts
• Performance

MUSIC - Open Studio: Brendan Kinsella Master Class

• 1:10-2:05 pm
• Location:  Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Festival Guest Brendan Kinsella

Dr. Brendan Kinsella will work with piano students to hone their skills in this open to the public master class.

• Music
• Open Studio

THEATRE ARTS - Presentation: Freedom from Labels

• 1:10-2:05 pm
• Location:  Toland Theatre, Center for the Arts
• Megan Morey

The fashion industry (i.e., “fashion labels”) generally offers a wide variety of options to individuals wishing to express their identities through apparel. However, for those who work in a setting where specific attire is required for safety, fashion choices are extremely limited; instead of providing an outlet for expression, fashion labels often stifle or even dictate our outward identities when working in these fields. In an effort to break free from these fashion labels and the identity labels they impose on individuals, students and faculty who work in the Theatre Arts department’s Scene Shop will present their designs and creations for new clothing options that allow for both functionality and personal expression. Please join us for a fashion show and discussion of our work.

• Theatre Arts
• Presentation
• Discussion

POLITICAL SCIENCE/PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - Presentation: Political Theory, Civic Discourse, and Popular Culture: Toward an Expanded View of the Public Sphere

• 1:10-2:05 pm
• Location:  Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Tim Dale

This talk will examine the ways in which art and culture provide politically relevant communities of meaning. In particular, the presentation will suggest that a theory of the ‘public sphere’ ought to include art and culture because of their significant contributions to political conversations in society. Additionally, through understanding the richness and diversity of popular culture as an important element within an expanded view of the public sphere, we better understand the political significance of popular culture.

• Art
• Music
• Theatre Arts
• Partner Dept.
• Presentation
• Discussion

ART - Open Studio: Metalsmithing and Blacksmithing

• 1:10-3:40 pm
• Location:  Rooms 20 & 23, Center for the Arts
• Brad Nichols

The freedom of expression is the starting point for any practicing artist. These personal ideas manifest to objects and images created in the studio. In this open studio, Metalsmithing and Blacksmithing students will demonstrate both non-ferrous metalworking skills and traditional blacksmithing techniques. Students will be available to answer technical questions, discuss creative influences and guide visitors through the two studios.

• Art
• Open Studio

EDUCATIONAL STUDIES - Presentation: Healing Through Art and Storytelling

• 2:15-3:10 pm
• Location:  Room 335, Center for the Arts
• Mai Chao Duddeck

This interactive presentation will utilize Gathering Fireflies, a verse novel with illustrations, as a catalyst for discussion on diversity, inclusion, and equity through art and storytelling. The conversation will aim to encourage dialogue regarding cultures, immigration, hopes and dreams, and what it means to be part of a multicultural community. (NOTE: The session has limited seating and will be repeated on Tuesday at 2:15 pm.)

• Art
• Theatre Arts
• Partner Dept.
• Presentation
• Discussion

COMMUNICATION STUDIES - Presentation: Public Disclosures of Mental Health and the NBA

• 2:15-3:10 pm
• Location: Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Kate Lavelle

Professional sports often discourage athletes from disclosing mental health issues because of the expectations placed on athletes to ignore anything that might detract from athletic performance. In 2018, several National Basketball Association players publicly disclosed their struggles with anxiety and depression. Historically, athletes have had a number of restrictions about how they are allowed to show emotion and this talk will cover the recent increase of freedom within sport for athletes to be open about the challenges that they face and living with mental illness. This program will include communication and sport analysis of these disclosures as well as encourage audience participation and discussion.

• Partner dept.
• Presentation
• Discussion

ART - Workshop: Protesting Through Art

• 3:00-4:00 pm
• Location:  Room 203, Center for the Arts
• Ellie DeMuth

This interactive workshop will be led by Art Education student Ellie DeMuth, focusing on the way in which art and artists are affected by society and culture and how art can be harnessed as a means of communicating personal messages that we want others to hear. A brief presentation on the history of protest posters will be paired with a hands-on opportunity for participants to create their own protest poster about societal issues that affect them. Finished posters will be on display for the duration of the festival in the Center for the Arts.

• Art
• Open Studio
• Presentation

THEATRE ARTS - Workshop: Rehearsing Freedom

• 3:00-4:00 pm
• Location: Room 347, Center for the Arts
• Jeanne Willcoxon

From Brazilian Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed to the storytelling circles of Free Southern Theatre’s John O’Neal, theatre has given activist artists the tools to imagine and practice freedom not only on the stage but in society. In this on-your-feet workshop, participants learn how theatre provokes, promotes and potentially produces social change.

• Theatre Arts
• Presentation

ENGLISH - Presentation: Why We Write: UWL's Creative Writers Share Their Voices

• 4:00-5:30 pm
• Location:  Room 116, Center for the Arts
• UWL Creative Writing Students

In this session, UWL’s Creative Writing minors (and other serious student-writers) reveal why the blank page beckons them. In their own authentic voices, they will explore why creativity matters, where inspiration comes from, and how the process of inventing, shaping, and sharing their poems, stories, and scripts can elevate the soul and make the messy world a brighter place to be. Listen to the primary sources; these student-writers have things to say!

• Partner Dept.
• Performance
• Presentation

ART - Artist Talk: Sawsan AlSaraf

• 7:30 pm
• Location: Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Festival Guest Sawsan AlSaraf

My life experiences as an expatriate Iraqi woman have acute pertinence to the work I create. The decision I made to leave my homeland, Iraq, more than a quarter of a century ago, has shaped my lived history, and formulated the unstable and shifting terms that make up my past and present. It is in this dispersed life, which was spent in many geographic landscapes between the Middle East and North America, that I have developed my artwork and nurtured my spiritual path. This Rihla (the Arabic word for journey) leads me to not only analyze my own life stories, each of which is dictated by a specific time and place, but also to be closer and more sensitive towards people who live similarly scattered lives. “Rihla” emphasizes issues of identity, exile, home, displacement, and belonging in the context of “journeys”. It adds to the discourse on the complexities of personal and social movements, and their intersections. Moreover, “Rihla” evolved to include liberation, pilgrimage with a focus on abandoned spaces, objects and bodies.

• Art
• Presentation

Creative Imperatives Gallery

• Open Throughout the Festival
• Location:  Third Floor Gallery, Center for the Arts

This year’s festival show features Insights into India, a collection of photographs and video taken by UWL students participating in an intercultural study abroad.  

• Art
• Open Studio

THEATRE ARTS - Presentation: Working with Your Hands: Competence in the Age of IKEA

• 9:25-10:50 am
• Location:  Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Ben Golden

Theatre designer and amateur furniture maker Ben Golden will discuss the relationship between manual competence and agency. How can learning an art, craft or trade make us into freer, more independent people? What are the consequences of distancing ourselves from the stuff that inhabits our lives?

• Theatre Arts
• Art
• Presentation

GLOBAL CULTURES AND LANGUAGES - Presentation: An Activist in Exile

• 9:25-10:50 am
• Location: Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo and Omar Granados

Writer, blogger, photographer, and political activist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (OLPL) was censored in Cuba in 2010 due to the political nature of his book Boring Home. Now in exile, Pardo Lazo is a political activist and accomplished author with several published fiction books and numerous literary awards. Since 2005, he has taught creative writing in Cuba and the U.S and has been a writer in residence at prestigious institutions such as Brown University, the City of Asylum Pittsburgh program and the City of Reykjavik. His photographic work has been featured in The New York Times and recently published in a book entitled Abandoned Habana (Restless Books, 2014). In this session, Pardo Lazo will share some of his photographic work and bilingual readings from his literature, highlighting his exploration of themes including freedom of expression, escape, confinement, provocation, rebellion and dissent.

• Art
• Partner Dept.
• Presentation
• Performance

MUSIC - Presentation: Musical Tricksters

• 11:00-11:55 am
• Location: Annett Recital Hall
• Festival Guest Andrea Fowler

Music history is full of composers and performers who routinely pushed boundaries, but only a handful have truly challenged our definitions of music and demonstrated freedom of expression through the creative process. Many of these composers came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s – Laurie Anderson, Julius Eastman, Philip Glass, to name a few. Much of this work would not have been possible without John Cage, the prototypical musical
trickster, one of the first composers to experiment through performer agency and freedom of choice. This talk will survey some of these tricksters, how they challenged audiences, and whether their tricks are still successful.

• Music
• Presentation

ART - Open Studio: Photography- Camera Not Included

• 11:00 am- 1:30 pm
• Location: Room 26, WING Technology Center
• Linda Levinson

Think you need a camera or at least your cellphone to take a photo? Come discover the world of Photograms, a photography technique that requires only light to capture an image. Break free from your expectations. Participants will learn the tips and tricks, and leave with a creation or two of their own.

• Art
• Open Studio

ART - Open Studio: Printmaking

• 11:00 am-1:30 pm
• Location:  Room 335, Center for the Arts
• Joel Elgin

You are invited to suspend reason and join the UWL printmakers, who under the influence of the subconscious, will perform magical, mystifying acts of printmaking prowess. Please bring an article of clothing to get it freshly printed with a UWL “Printfool” original artwork. The printmaking studio is also open from 2:15-3:40 pm.

• Art
• Open Studio

ALL - Discussion: Pushing the Limits

• 12:00-12:55 pm
• Location:  Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Joe Anderson, Jonathan Borja, Lisa Lenarz

The Arts have a long history of pushing the borders of polite society. We invite you to experience a discussion lead by creators of the Visual Arts, Music and Theatre talking about why they are compelled as artists to respond to the world around them in ways that are not always comfortable.

• Art
• Music
• Theatre Arts
• Discussion

POLITICAL SCIENCES/PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - Presentation: Freedom Bound? Subjecting Outdoor Artistic Expression to Government Restraint

• 1:10-2:05 pm
• Location: Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall
• Jim Szymalak

This session explores the various ways in which local control of signs can raise First Amendment challenges when applied to artwork. It will examine how outdoor artistic expression, such as murals and sidewalk chalking, is often a popular and effective method of freely expressing one’s beliefs. And how localities and community groups have also seized upon outdoor art as a conduit to create cultural identity, preserve history, promote economic
development, focus revitalization efforts, and encourage and foster community engagement.

• Art
• Partner Dept.
• Theatre Arts
• Presentation

THEATRE ARTS - Presentation: Lighting Oppression and Illuminating Freedom

• 1:10-2:05 pm
• Location: Toland Theatre, Center for the Arts
• Mandy Kolbe, Sarah Herkert, and Hannah Steele

This session will show how the lighting design of the musical Urinetown will change the scenery by using angle and color to manipulate the audience to feel oppression and fear while watching the performance.

• Theatre Arts
• Presentation

EDUCATIONAL STUDIES - Presentation: Healing Through Art and Storytelling

• 2:15-3:10 pm
• Location: Room 335, Center for the Arts
• Mai Chao Duddeck

This interactive presentation will utilize Gathering Fireflies, a verse novel with illustrations, as a catalyst for discussion on diversity, inclusion, and equity through art and storytelling. The conversation will aim to encourage dialogue regarding cultures, immigration, hopes and dreams, and what it means to be part of a multicultural community. (NOTE: The session has limited seating. It also takes place on Monday at 2:15pm.)

• Art
• Theatre Arts
• Partner Dept.
• Presentation
• Discussion

ART - Open Studio: Printmaking

• 2:15-3:40 pm
• Location: Room 334, Center for the Arts
• Joel Elgin

You are invited to suspend reason and join the UWL printmakers, who under the influence of the subconscious, will perform magical, mystifying acts of printmaking prowess. Please bring an article of clothing to get it freshly printed with a UWL “Printfool” original artwork. The printmaking studio is also open from 11:00 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.

• Art
• Open Studio

THEATRE ARTS - Presentation: Inspiring Political Action Through the Powerful Language of Theatre

• 2:15-3:10 pm
• Location: Toland Theatre, Center for the Arts
• Anne Drecktrah

Susan Fox, Diane Breeser, and Anne Drecktrah started The Alternative Truth Project in January of 2017 to do a reading of a political play every month. They wanted to provide a space for people to discuss what was happening in our country and to realize that there were many who felt that something must and could be done. With the goal to bring actors and audience together to talk about relevant events based on each reading, the play series has encouraged the community to keep talking outside of the theater and to become involved in issues that had been featured in that month’s reading.

• Theatre Arts
• Presentation
• Performance

MUSIC - Presentation: Social Justice Themes in the Choral Music of Jake Runestad

• 3:00-3:55 pm
• Location:  Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Christopher Hathaway

This presentation will highlight the evolution of social justice in American music as well as give a timeline of international choral music for social change. The two will then be merged together to reveal how American choral music is now being used for social activism as it never has before. Contemporary Minneapolis based composer, Jake Runestad, has become a leading American advocate for freedom of oppression and social change through his choral compositions, and will be used as the primary example in this presentation.

• Music
• Presentation

Global Cultures and Languages - Presentation - Cuba Uprooted (CANCELLED)

Due to unforeseen events, this session has been cancelled

COMMUNICATION STUDIES - Public Speaking Competition

• 4:00 pm
• Location: Room 1309, Centennial Hall
• Mike Tollefson

The Public Speaking Competition promotes and showcases student excellence in public speaking. Six finalists, narrowed down from a pool of over 2,000 students enrolled in CST 110 during Spring and Fall 2018, will present their persuasive speeches to an audience of community members and UWL students, instructors, and staff. This event is organized and supported by the Department of Communication Studies.

• Partner Dept.
• Presentation
• Performance

MUSIC - Performance: Brendan Kinsella in Concert

• 7:30 pm
• Location:  Annett Recital Hall, Center for the Arts
• Festival Guest Brendan Kinsella

Featuring music ranging from magical to maniacal and hilarious to harrowing, pianist Dr. Brendan Kinsella performs a “one-man band” voice, piano, and multimedia music event. Recited in German, Robert Schumann’s Two Melodramas evoke the dark mystery of German Romanticis. Kurt Schwitters’ raucous, unbelievable Ursonate closes the first half. The concert concludes with Frederic Rzewski’s epic De Profundis, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s eponymous essay on persecution, suffering, and redemption.

• Music
• Performance