{"id":833,"date":"2020-10-23T16:00:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginedtheatres.com\/?post_type=issue&p=833"},"modified":"2020-10-21T17:02:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T17:02:30","slug":"curating","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/curating\/","title":{"rendered":"Curating"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

— Arundhati Roy<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back in March 2020, when a staggering wave of cancellations hit the performing arts field, curator and contributor to this issue, Lisa Gilardino wrote us from Italy about a colleague who ran a festival in Bergamo. He had said that\u00a0it seemed as if the sea had withdrawn and that we were now able to see the seabed and everything it contained. Lisa was sure <\/span>that in this moment of clarity we would discover hidden treasures, that \u201ctogether we\u2019d find something we didn\u2019t even imagine before.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve carried this image of the tide and the seabed with us ever since, as our world was swept by COVID-19, and, as of writing, we are still living through it\u2019s fallout. We have also witnessed the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and others by police, and the rising of Black Lives Matter protests, not only in the United States but across the globe, creating what is being called the\u00a0<\/span>largest civil rights movement in history<\/span><\/a>. In the heave of lockdown and protest, and with a crucial U.S. election just a few weeks away, this is a time of exhaustion, anger, grief, and anxiety, but also one that is surging with momentum, collective awareness, and hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

These two pandemics, that of COVID-19 and of systemic racism, have laid bare the truths we have known for a long time. We have seen the inequality and unsustainability of the performing arts field. How we need to better support the arts ecosystem of artists, administrators, technicians, producers, designers, directors, and beyond — so many of whom are precariously employed. How we are complicit and, as contributor Shanta Thake so aptly writes, \u201cin partnership with\u201d white supremacy, and urgently need to reallocate power and resources in our field. Perhaps we must reimagine it entirely. The tide is finally out and we cannot look away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Work on <\/span>Imagined Theatres Issue 05: Curating Performance\u00a0<\/span><\/i>began in September 2019, a period now known as the \u201cbefore times.\u201d Back then, we sought to hear from curators, artistic directors, producers, and arts administrators about what they imagined for the future of our field. We reached out to colleagues, and colleagues-of-colleagues, across the globe, asking them to enter into dialogue about their hopes and dreams for the future of the performing arts. We wanted to weave this issue from a series of dynamic encounters: placing curators of small institutions, artist-run centers, and festivals in conversations with colleagues at major museums and institutions; those early on in their careers with those who\u2019ve contributed to shaping the field for more than twenty years; as well as incorporating a diverse set of geographies, knowing, of course, the impossibility of capturing the field as a whole. We see this as the start of a conversation about what curating performance, and performance itself, can be in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adopting a call-and-response structure, eighteen colleagues were asked to write the first round of imaginings, what we call \u201cTheatres.\u201d We then paired each of them with another colleague who would write a response, what we call a \u201cGloss.\u201d Little did we know that this issue would, in form and content, straddle a historic moment that we\u2019re still living through: with the initial contributions written before COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, and their responses written in the wake of these events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This issue, which features a range of creative reflections, musings, and calls to action, invites us to step through the portal, and encourages us not to look back, but rather forward, to imagine a set of possibilities that will shape the future shoreline. This issue asks: how can we \u201ctogether find something we didn\u2019t even imagine before?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are eternally grateful to the colleagues who generously accepted the invitation to imagine with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—<\/span><\/p>\n

October 23, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

Anna Gallagher-Ross and Ron Berry<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-Artistic Directors,\u00a0Fusebox Festival<\/p>\n

Co-Editors,\u00a0Issue 05: Curating Performance<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. — Arundhati Roy   Back in March 2020, when a staggering wave of cancellations hit the performing arts field, curator and contributor to […]","protected":false},"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/issues\/833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/issues"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}