Sarah Peterson

CSPA Supports: Round TWO

The CSPA congratulates the second recipient of a CSPA Supports MicroGrant:  Elizabeth English and A Collection of Shiny Objects in Brooklyn, NY for their original theater production of Goods & Services (The Walmart Project).

Goods & Services is a collaborative, semi-devised object theater piece that explores Americans’ relationhship with the buying and selling of consumer gods with a focus on the phenomenon of the “Big Box” store.  The project will be developed and presented at the Henson PATCH (Puppetry at the Carriage House) in April 2012.  The project will then move on to New York City early in 2013, with a goal of touring afterwards.

The theme of the project revolves around issues of American consumer culture, the buying and selling and life cycles of objects, and by extension the nature of the community formed by consumers and Walmart employees.  The project reflects three facets of sustainability simultaneously: the environmental impact of consumer culture through theme, the economic impact of the “Big Box” store (and community impact), especially as it manifests in the current climate of economic crisis through story, and new models of sustainable creative space through process.

The recipient of Round Two of CSPA Supports has been selected by a small panel of adjudicators including Ian Garrett, Sarah Peterson, and Miranda Wright, based on the CSPA’s articulated grant guidelines.  We are looking forward to Round Three!

More about A Collection of Shiny Objects here:  http://www.collectshinyobjects.org

 

CSPA Supports

CSPA Supports is a micro-grant program for artists working in any facet of sustainability.  Awards range from $200 to $1,000.  Our next deadline is January 1st, 2012.  Guidelines may be found at https://www.sustainablepractice.org/cspasupports/

PAST RECIPIENTS:

ROUND ONE:

Public Office for Architecture (POA) is a collaborative project situated at MoKS, Center for Arts and Social Practice in Mooste, Estonia.  POA is an artistic practice conceived as a a nomadic architecture office.  POA involves and engages the public with the built environment through architectural and artistic dialogue and intervention.

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial – Can You Help?

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial

Our Goal

To create a design-based performance piece in response to the 2011 Prague Quadrennial that examines materials, and then organizes and redistribute (would be wasted) materials to the local arts community.

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial

Our Story

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is a hybrid organization dedicated to gathering and redistributing information about sustainable practices in art making.  This project marks our first initiative to solve one of the major dilemmas of creating art on the ground:  Wasted Materials!  We will travel to Prague this summer to focus on the environmental impact of production at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial and will creatively repurpose the waste generated from this 10-day design conference of over seventy exhibiting countries.

Organizing team members include Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright (co-founders of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts), Sarah Peterson (Production Manager, Theater Artist, New York CSPA Associate), Moe Beitiks (artist, cultural volunteer, and writer for inhabitat, CBOT, and the CSPA), Misa Rygrova (leading researcher on this topic in the Czech Republic), and James McKernan (faculty at York University and Technical Director for the PQ’s Scenofest).

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial

The PQ

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is a leading world artistic event – a presentation of contemporary work in a variety of performance design disciplines and genres including costume, stage, lighting, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera, drama, site-specific, multi-media performances, and performance art.

Founded in 1967, the Prague Quadrennial has presented work from more than 70 countries on 5 continents. The exhibition draws thousands of performance and theatre professionals, students, and spectators from all over the world. At the most recent Quadrennial in 2007, 35,000 visitors came to enjoy installations, photos, videos, and live performances of work ranging between theatre and visual arts, as well as more than 500 events, workshops, performances, presentations, lectures, and discussions.

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial

The Impact

This project will be a significant catalyst for the advancement of sustainability in theater and design.  It is an opportunity to develop a comprehensive case study on community engagement in creative resource management.  As a performance, it will examine the relationship of production communities from around the world to their use of materials practically and dramaturgically.  It will create new methods for distributing large amounts of previously used materials quickly, test the limits of a community’s ability to absorb the material, and develop a mode of a working network of materials exchange.

CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial

What We Need & What You Get

We are looking for $4,000 in additional funding to supplement travel for our team, and to provide resources and tools for distributing materials and documenting this project.

We promise to give you what we get:  INFORMATION!  We’ll be documenting this project, and will gladly share our findings with you.  Other perks include copies of the CSPA Quarterly, a publication dedicated to sustainable practices in all creative areas, CSPA membership, and special tokens from the PQ!

Other Ways You Can Help

Spread the word!  Share this project with your friends and colleagues.

To support the greater effort of the CSPA, become a member by visiting www.sustainablepractice.org/join-the-cspa

Campaign CSPA Prague Convergence: Reduce Waste at the Prague Quadrennial — IndieGoGo.