Abstracts

DAY 1, FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2025

FRIDAY, MORNING SESSION, 10:00 AM – 11: 45AM

DOING IT FOR YOURSELF, CREATING A BIENNALE, FESTIVAL, RESIDENCY, NEWSPAPER AND MORE. YOU CAN DO IT.
Moderator: Judith Tolnick Champa Independent Curator, Writer, and founding Director and President, Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art.
LOCATION: Steam
I-Chen Kuo, I Founder STUPIN Artist Studio Residency Platform
Susanne Mueller-Baji, Artist, Art Critic, and Curator; Creator, FeuerbachGO, Hungary
Shabani Ramadhani, Musician, Bass Player, Songwriter, Festival Organizer and Founder, Marahaba Music Expo
Malvina Sammarone, Visual Artist and Independent Researcher, Brazil

BE STUPIN! BE SMART!
I-Chen Kuo, I Founder STUPIN Artist Studio Residency Platform
STUPIN is an artist studio residency platform established by artist I-Chen Kuo in 2017. STUPIN operates on an individual artist basis, facilitating the connection and sharing of studio and networking resources through “Studio Space Exchange” and “Pin Residency Cultural Guide.” This innovative approach creates a new type of international art residency network. The pronunciation of STUPIN resembles “stupid,” reflecting the wholehearted and sometimes unconventional dedication artists put into their creative process. This attitude often yields unexpected results. STUPIN represents a state of exploration into the unknown, unburdened by existing logical frameworks. Even in the face of complete uncertainty, there is the courage to move forward step by step with an open mindset, embracing the journey into the unknown.

CULTURE AS A COMMUNITY PROJECT
Susanne Mueller-Baji, Artist, Art Critic, Curator and Creator of FeuerbachGO, Hungary
FeuerbachGO is a print/online magazine that is published as a community project in one of the districts of Stuttgart/Germany. FeuerbachGO requires including as many people as possible in the process and ideally make them want to volunteer regularly, be it as an author or by helping to distribute it by trying to find their field of interest and expertise and by teaching and mentoring them along the way. The FBGO volunteers are of different age groups and backgrounds, presenting the various aspects of life in the district. The concept has been honored, for example, by the German Journalists’ Association as a promising new approach to local cultural Journalism. The latest addition to the magazine is an open stage that FeuerbachGO is setting up during the annual district festival, which features the various musicians/composers/singers in the district. A similar project in the field of visual art is pending. It often seems to be impossible to change the difficult situation artists, writers, musicians and – more and more often also journalists – find themselves in; however, once people of various backgrounds and a joint vision come together and join forces, things can suddenly pick up speed.

MARAHABA MUSIC EXPO, AFRICA’S GREAT LAKES REGION
Shabani Ramadhani, Musician, Bass Player, Songwriter, Festival Organizer and Rounder, Marahaba Music Expo
Consisting of workshops, discussions, lectures and performances, Marahaba Music Expo is committed to facilitating dialogue between artists in Africa and from other parts of the world. The Expo’s aims are to educate the public, share innovation, promote progress, and foster cooperation through music. The Expo invites other countries, companies, international organizations, the private sector, the civil society, and the general public to participate in the music event. Marahaba Music Expo is a unique brand, rooted in the African Great Lakes region, which includes Kenya, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, with links across the region and beyond. For brands looking to create support based on home-grown solutions that speak to the identity and culture of not just the Great Lakes region, but Africa as a whole continent, Marahaba Music Expo is the right place to begin. The African Great Lakes region is a true hub of trade and a meeting point for communication and culture. Marahaba Music Expo is one of the top destinations for entertainment, showbiz, musicians, producers, record label owners, agents, festival organizers, booking agents, music-lovers and tourists.

YCHANCE.ART.BR: AN ARS COMBINATORIAL WEBSITE
Malvina Sammarone, Visual Artist and Independent Researcher, Brazil
A profusion of lists of keywords that can be read in different directions, and ordered following various classification criteria: alphabetical, numerical, sound, and hierarchical. Furthermore, they are references from various fields of knowledge, a varied range of knowledge, images, languages. All of this is part of a game of chance, like a game of dice, but with instructions to be followed. The collaborative platform, by chance.art.br, was planned to have a defined field for the words that will be randomly generated and a brief description of the lists. There are fields for choosing the number of words, the number of lists, or even the option of choosing certain lists. It can be considered a cross-media, interactive project, an experimentation system with multiple inputs and unpredictable ramifications, combinations of words that allow and instigate creations in diverse, unusual areas, in any language, in the visual arts, music, literature, among others. It is part of the Posverso Bienal (1st International Biennial of Experimental Poetry of Argentina), from October 18th till December 20th, 2024, in multiple spaces in Junin, Buenos Aires.

PRESERVING HISTORY, ENSURING THE TRUTH
LOCATION: Red Room
Moderator and Presenter: Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Founder, Senior Curator, Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
Yemi Alalade, Invention Educator, Artist, Consultant at Lemelson-MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Founder, ANIKE
Pauline Burmann, Board Member, Thami Mnyele Foundation
Dr. Alix Pierre, Scholar in Residence; Professor, African Diaspora Studies; Director, Cultural Orientation, Spelman College

PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC LEGACY: SUSTAINABILITY IN ARCHIVING
Moderator: Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Founder, Senior Curator, Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)
This talk will address the importance of the historic preservation of an Art & Artist Archive, including documentation, provenance, and collections management. Specifically, the talk will focus on how DVCAI has led to the protection of legacy for a small Black-woman-led community-based cultural institution for 28 years. Addressed will be Community Archiving Skills (where participants will come to understand that community archiving is achievable with the dedication to upholding a mission), Legacy Preservation Awareness (where attendees will learn to pay attention to how they want their legacy to be preserved); the Importance of Collecting Black History in the Arts (where participants will recognize the significance of paying attention to and collecting Black history in the arts while ensuring our hired artist workforce is fairly compensated), Accessing Resources (where participants will learn about specific resources available for viewing, such as DVCAI’s digital collection on the Digital Library of the Caribbean, or dLOC); and a New Perspective on Black Contemporary Visual Artists (where attendees will gain a new perspective on Black contemporary visual arts and how it can be preserved, particularly in the context of the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

MINING ARCHIVES
Yemi Alalade, Founder of ANIKE, Artist and Consultant and Invention Educator at Lemelson-MIT
With nature as the ultimate source of inspiration, Africans’ ingenuity delivered pragmatic solutions to dire necessities through psychospiritual and artistic practices that enabled scientific disciplines and technological advancements. From prehistory to modernity, self-portraits have enabled insights into the artists’ minds and manifestations as modern technology continues to develop computer-generated tools to activate and transform these portraits into avatars that visually articulate powers and possibilities; we must mine and not undermine the Indigenous knowledge and practices that facilitated these technologies. Undermining distorts an accurate representation of ourselves within a cultural context and impedes future explorations. Join the conversation as we explore some of the tools (or media) that have facilitated these practices in Africa and beyond, chart the evolution of these media in today’s technology, and highlight the inventions and innovations they have engendered, inspired and sustained.

STRATEGIES FOR WORKING IN FIELD OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE.
Pauline Burmann, Board Member – Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam
The Foundation pays homage to the South African activist artist Thami Mnyele. Mnyele utilized art as a tool of expression and communication during the struggle for liberation from Apartheid in South Africa in the 80th of last century. He died in exile in Botswana in 1985 during a military raid as a result of his actions as a member of the MEDU Art Ensemble. After his death, artists and politicians proposed to the Amsterdam city council that a guest studio be founded in his name. In 1990, while the cultural boycott against Apartheid in South Africa was still in full force, the Foundation was born. The Thami Mnyele Foundation is a nonprofit organization. The organization existed from the beginning, out of the solidarity of a so-called ‘working board’; all the activities are done voluntarily by the board itself. The board members organize the program around the artists, maintenance of the residency space and the studio, the selection, administration, contact with the press, and media organization. Our artist-in-residence program is a communal product of the cooperation among artists, curators, universities, art academies, cultural agents, and the local people of Amsterdam, who understand its constantly evolving social structure. Artist-in-residence programs allow artists to live and work outside of their usual environments, giving them time to reflect, seek cultural exchange, and conduct vital research. We try to create a tailor-made program that emphasizes and encourages direct collaborations between practitioners.

FRIDAY, EARLY AFTERNOON SESSION, 1:15 PM – 3:00 PM

PECHA KUCHA SESSION
Moderator: Thad Beal, Artist, TransCultural Exchange Board Member
LOCATION: Steam
Rapid fire, three-minute pitches by residency programs. See left-hand navigation for more details.

ARTISTS REIMAGINING HEALTH AND HEALTH SYSTEMS
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator: Dr. Nisha Sajnani, Co-founder & Co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab; Associate Professor New York University (NYU); Founder, Arts & Health @ NYU
Yazmany Arboleda, Artist and Founder, People’s Creative Institute
Dr. Raquel Chapin-Stephenson, Professor, Lesley University
Dr. Tasha Golden, Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins University; Singer-Songwriter and Poet; Founder, Project Uncaged
Stephen Stapleton, Social Entrepreneur; Co-founder, Jameel Arts & Health Lab; Founder, Edge of Arabia and Crossway Foundation

This panel will allow artists to engage with growing international interest in how the arts can contribute to a radical reimagining of health and health systems. What is the role of artists in responding to complex health and health equity concerns facing us today? How do artists imagine health, care, and well-being? What evidence do we have that engaging in the arts can promote physical, mental, and social health? How can more people access the health benefits of the arts and arts therapies? Can the arts be better integrated into mainstream medicine and public health? This panel will cover these questions with artists who have trailblazed opportunities to reimagine health and health systems. Attendees will be introduced to leaders in the growing field of arts and health, learn about the ever-increasing evidence base for how the arts contribute to our health and wellbeing, and discover how new global initiatives like the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, co-founded by the World Health Organization, and policy pathways such as ‘Arts on Prescription,’ position artists as vital partners in our individual and collective health and wellbeing.

FRIDAY, LATE AFTERNOON SESSION, 3:15 PM– 5:00 PM

FRIDAY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
NO GOING BACK TO “NORMAL”
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator: Caitlin Strokosch, President & CEO of the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network
Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director, Mass Cultural Council
Lisa Funderburke, President & CEO, Artist Communities Alliance
Kristopher McDowell, Founder, KMP Artists
Ronee Penoi, Interim Executive Director for ArtsEmerson and the Office of the Arts, Emerson College

In a crisis (and its aftermath), systems of inequity can either become more entrenched or they can be disrupted for positive, systemic change. Artists and arts organizations have faced unprecedented disruptions in the compounding crises of the pandemic, violence against communities of color and trans and queer communities, and economic and political turmoil. Amidst urgent calls for wage and labor justice for artists, decolonization, anti-racism practices, and collective, liberatory work, what have our organizations learned and committed to, how can our sector build institutional accountability to these practices, and how do we continue moving toward systems change that resists the lure of “back to normal”?

ENTANGLED LIFE: CULTURE TOWARDS CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
LOCATION: Red Room
Moderator: Shana Dumont Garr, Writer, Eductor and Curator
Eli Brown, Artist
Laura Maria Gonzalez, Researcher; Professor, Cornell University; and Instructor, Genspace
Grace Grothause, Computational Media Artist
Yuka Oda, Artist

This panel brings together cultural thinkers and observers of the natural world to understand how entangled and co-dependent life is on our planet to generate climate solutions collaboratively. As we leave the Holocene’s stability and enter the Anthropocene’s unpredictability, we require a paradigm shift in understanding the world around us and how all living things are deeply interconnected. We need to recognize that cooperation is at the heart of the beating pulse of all our existence. Bringing together creative practitioners from the arts and sciences, this panel will seek to highlight interdisciplinary research that reveals multi-species co-dependence. Topics can include all living forms–true bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, plants, and animals–to show just how entangled life is on our earth.

DAY 2, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2025

SATURDAY, MORNING SESSION, 10:00 AM – 11: 45 AM

STRATEGIES FOR GLOBAL EXCHANGE IN TIMES OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL STRIFE
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator: Susan Katz, International Cultural Exchange Specialist
Anna Chistoserdova, Co-founder of Podzemka and Ў gallery of contemporary art (Minsk, Belarus) and Ambasada Kultury (Vilnius, Lithuania)
Kendal Henry, Artist, Curator, Assistant Commissioner of Public Art, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
Eva Khachatryan, Curator and Vice-President of AICA Armenia (International Association of Art Critics)
Tatiana Kochubinska, Curator, Writer, Researcher, Lecturer, Ukraine

This panel brings together US and international arts workers and artists to discuss how transnational arts residency programs have adapted to recent conflicts in post-Soviet countries to nurture dialogue, creativity, and collaboration. In recent years, pandemics, political turmoil and wars have forced international arts residencies to reevaluate their programs and develop new methods to facilitate creative development and transnational exchange. How have the needs of artists and arts workers around the world changed in response to global turmoil? What should be the role of transnational arts residency and exchange programs in times of strife? How can international arts residency exchange programs adapt to conflict and unrest and continue to support dialogue and collaboration between the arts communities they serve?

REGIONAL NETWORKS OF RESIDENCIES
Moderator: Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Pablo Caligaris, Director, La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires
Evelyn Grzinich, Chairwoman of LOORE, Estonia
Annette Klein, Program Curator, Goethe-Institut Boston
Kaseem Istanbouli, Founder of Istanbouli Theater, Lebanon

RED QUINCHO, THE NETWORK OF RESIDENCIES IN ARGENTINA
Pablo Caligaris, Director of La Ira de Dios, Buenos Aires
RED QUINCHO is an ONG that brings together art residencies in Argentina. More than 30 projects from all regions of the country participate, uniting managers, programs, and organizations dedicated to developing art residencies. With a common interest in inclusivity and diversity, Quincho aims to be a fabric of national and international collaboration and cooperation, promoting the strengthening of the sector. The network emerged as a response to the pandemic in 2020 and was established as a formal organization in 2021. It is a continuous learning process on how to manage a horizontal relationship between the members and keep being executives in our decisions as a group. During these first years, we have learned that working in collaboration empowers the sector, promotes the sustainability of each project, provides visibility to the activity in the country, and leads to the development of more significant projects.

THE POWER OF NETWORK(S)
Evelyn Grzinich, Chairwoman of LOORE, Estonia
It is time to admit that the world is becoming increasingly unpredictable, and crises are becoming a permanent fixture. Cooperation is crucial to survival in this era of perpetual crisis. Given the urgency of climate and geopolitical challenges, residencies must work more actively with each other locally and regionally. At Res Artis’ last annual conference in September 2023, its members emphasized the need for broader regional cooperation. In the spring of 2022, Estonian creative residencies established a joint organization – LOORE, the Estonian Creative Residencies Network. The network comprises 16 residency organizers from various fields and institutional backgrounds, ranging from artist-run organizations to art academies, and from architecture to music. This presentation explores what prompted creative residencies from diverse institutional backgrounds and disciplines to collaborate and what has emerged and continues to emerge from this cooperation.

PROGRAMS IN GERMANY
Annette Klein, Program Curator, Goethe-Institut Boston
Germany offers international artists in a wide variety of fields numerous opportunities for residencies as well as project funding. This talk will present a selection including programs developed by the Goethe-Institut itself.

ACAN, THE ARAB ARTS AND CULTURE NETWORK
Kaseem Istanbouli, Founder of Istanbouli Theater, Lebanon; Founder, ACAN
The world witnessed a catastrophic transformation due to the accelerating spread of the new Coronavirus, and thus a significant decline in the cultural and civilizational fields appeared at the global level as a whole and at the Arab level in particular. To fill this gap, ACAN was established to bring together Arab institutions, associations, and artists in late 2020. As this project develops, it addresses cultural, political, economic, and social issues, including programs for children and youth, artistic programs related to theater, in addition to programs for exchanging experiences between institutions. This network serves as a motivational tool that promotes artistic and social culture to this day.

CLIMATE CHANGE | CLIMATE ACTION
LOCATION: TBA, MIT
Moderator: Gediminas Urbonas, Artist; Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) Program; Co-founder, Urbonas Studio
Laura Garbštienė, Founder of Verpėjos, Lithuania
Yipei Lee, Independent Researcher, Founder and Curator, SUAVEART
William Maier, Vice President of Social Impact and Transatlantic Relations at Cultural Vistas, Germany
Liudmyla Nychai, Artist, Curator, Project Coordinator, NGO Congress of Cultural Activists, Ukraine
Helmi Vent, Director of the Lab Inter Arts and Professor, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria

ARTIST’S – SHEPARD’S PRACTICE
Laura Garbštienė, Founder of Verpėjos, Lithuania
Verpėjos (The Spinners) is an independent artist-run initiative founded in 2017 by artist Laura Garbštienė in the rural area of South Lithuania. Verpėjos aims to explore and rethink traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation themes to empower discourse on local and global processes and changes. Since 2019, Verpėjos has been curating the Marcinkonys Railway station gallery and the international art residency program started in 2020. Verpėjos‘ residency focuses on the slow process of artistic research and the long-term value for the participating creators and audience. In our Verpėjos’ creative pastures residency program, the invited artists take turns to be the rotating hosts of the traditional homestead and share the responsibility of shepherding the herd of sheep. In close communion with animals and nature, we invite interdisciplinary artists to rethink the relationship between contemporary humans and the environment in the epoch of the Anthropocene. Sheep act as intermediaries between humans and the natural and social environment. In our pastures, sheep no longer function as units of meat or wool, but as a platform for creative work, a school of coexistence. They transform us from tourists who consume the environment into participants of places.

RESPONSIBLE ART EXCHANGE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Yipei Lee, Independent Researcher, Founder and Curator, SUAVEART, Taiwan
Examining the intersection of responsible art exchange and creation amid climate change, this paper draws insights from tropical rainforest projects to explore ecological awareness within the art community. SUAVEART’s projects begin with archipelagos in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, where the climate and islands play a crucial role in shaping biodiversity. The cultural landscape, shaped by nature, modernity, economics, and society, forms the foundation for our initiatives and esthetics. Collaborating with conservation institutions, art organizations, scientists, ecologists, citizens, art and cultural practitioners, Project Seeding Future and Wagiwagi – Greeting to Nature aims to create a creative sensemaking for the present and future. A diverse range of initiatives emphasizes the arts’ role in reshaping cultural narratives surrounding climate issues. Through artistic programs, field research and tours, SUAVEART engages in various activities.

CLIMATE ACTION ARTIST RESIDENCIES: HOW TO GLOBALLY AMPLIFY THE VOICES OF POPULATIONS MOST IMPACTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
William Maier, Vice President of Social Impact and Transatlantic Relations at Cultural Vistas, Germany
The role that we need art to play in counteracting the climate emergency goes far beyond being a soup can target or a backdrop to activists who glue themselves to museum walls. Art can give us insights into the impacts of climate change on the lives of people living on the other side of the earth, and at its best, can motivate us to take real action to counteract climate change. This presentation will outline the results of the first iteration of the Climate Action Artist Residencies, a new residency program designed to convey globally intertwined vulnerability caused by climate change at the intersection of art and climate research. Six artists from countries of the “Vulnerable Twenty” (V20) completed three-month international residencies, during which they were paired with environmental research institutions in their host country. Two artists from Germany also completed residencies in V20 countries. The resulting works of art communicate the science of climate change through artistic media and amplify the voices of the populations of V20 countries disproportionately affected by climate inaction. This presentation highlights examples of the artistic projects that emerged from the artist residency program in Fiji, the Philippines, Samoa, and Germany.

THE ECOLOGY OF AREAS UNDER MILITARY PRESSURE
Liudmyla Nychai, Artist, Curator, Project Coordinator, NGO Congress of Cultural Activists, Ukraine
A presentation of an online art residency mentorship with scientists about the ecology of areas under military pressure. It was a great collaboration between a one-time project where I worked as a curator. However, the Ukrainian institution IZOLYATSIA has an on-going partnership with interested partners. I in that capacity, they organize their projects abroad or online about topics impacted by Anthropocene era.

CULTURAL WORKERS ON AVENUES FOR DARING IN THE REFERENCE FIELD OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE FARMERS IN THE BAVARIAN VILLAGE DARING
Helmi Vent, Director of the Lab Inter Arts and Professor, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria
The paper addresses the multifaceted nature of courage in the context of the conference theme Avenues for Daring, with an example of courage from my immediate regional neighborhood, documented in images and on video: We are talking about the small village of the same name, DARING (pronounced Dahring), with 35 inhabitants in Berchtesgadener Land in the south-easternmost corner of Germany. No Farm, no Food, no Future can be read on tractor signs. Livelihoods have been at stake for years. Out of 5 farms, only one is still fully farmed. Since January 2024, Daring’s farmers have been protesting against the current disastrous agricultural policy in an organized alliance with thousands of farmers. They are doing this with determination and risky commitment and also with astonishing scenic-performative instruments: a thoroughly designed, moving street theater with columns of traction engines, dramaturgically choreographed on various street stages, with moving soundscapes and many handmade signs on the front ‘guards’ of the rolling tractors, controlled live via mobile telephony. From a cultural anthropological perspective, the farmers of our planet are elementary workers and maintainers of culture par excellence. In the context of a return to and reconsideration of culture, which in its original meaning refers to the cultivation and care of arable land, farmers in many countries around the world are walking a risky tightrope that threatens their very existence. We all need a DARING DOING – a demand, inspiration and connection between life-sustaining culture and our art of living.

SATURDAY, EARLY AFTERNOON SESSION, 1:15 PM – 3:00 PM

SHAPING DEMOCRACY & PUBLIC ART
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator: Sarah Tanguy, Independent Curator and Arts Writer, former Curator, Art in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, US
Bénédicte Alliot, Director General, Cité internationale des arts
Jon Isherwood, Artist, former professor at Bennington College, US
Amy Merrill, founding member Her Story Is Collective
Susan Sgorbati, Director, Center for the Advancement of Public Action, Bennington College, US

Democracy is messy, and its fluid, making the very definition of the term difficult. Creatives are in a unique position to navigate this challenge. They communicate in a variety of art forms, adapt to different settings, and engage a wide range of topics from urban displacement and education to women’s rights and the climate crisis. Our panel will focus on the complex issues surrounding the representation of democracy and place-making and the positive role that public art can play to bridge barriers and generate dialogue. We will address cultural sensitivities and democratic ideals; relational aesthetics and social practice; site-responsiveness and inclusive collaboration; and the role of various stakeholders as catalysts and agents of change. Susan Sgorbati and Jon Isherwood will discuss the commission at the U.S. embassy in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which involved a partnership between faculty/student teams at Bennington College, VT, and Silpalkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. From the creation of a multi-year curriculum, interdisciplinary research to design and visualization, they will explore how collaborative creation yields diverse perspectives. Amy Merrill will discuss the work of the Her Story Is collective, a group of independent women visual artists and writers, based in Iraq and the US. From presentations and exhibitions to two forthcoming books of poetry in 2025, HSI demonstrates resilience and creativity between women separated by geography and decades of war.

PROGRAMS FOR EXPLORING SOUND
LOCATION: Red Room
Moderator: Susanna Bolle, Boston-based Curator and Concert Organizer.
Sara Bouzgarrou, Member, Mouhit Space, Tunisia
Emiko Kato, Director, KAB Library and Residency, Japan
Hasan Hujairi – Music Director, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE
Laura Perrone – Founders studioconcreto, Italy

INTRODUCING MOUHIT SPACE, AN ENVIRONMENT FOR FOSTERING CREATIVITY, FEEDBACK-CULTURE, CONVIVIALITY AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Sara Bouzgarrou, Member, Mouhit Space, Tunisia
Mouhit Space offers emerging Tunisian artists a safe space for creative experimentation, practicing feedback and critical reflection. Twice a year, 4 local residents are offered funded accommodation and workspaces to develop their artistic practices and projects. It also hosts international residencies, learning programs, and various community events. Our team provides residents with personalized mentoring and feedback based on nonviolent communication and deep listening. In collaboration with our residents and members, we are committed to developing a relational mediation toolbox to reinforce the use of the Tunisian Arabic dialogue and locally relevant references in contemporary art discourse and art mediation. Currently, Mouhit offers its members access to its sound lab, where artists can collaborate and experiment with the medium of sound and host performances and listening sessions. Mouhit is also home to a Broudou, a research collective and publication project that explores the future of food in Tunisia by bridging food, politics, and art. Coming from an arts-based approach to research, the collective hosts a creative learning environment to exchange and learn with Mouhit’s audience about themes relating to ecology, colonialism, restorative farming practices, and land rights.

LEUPHANA CONCERT LAB –TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO GRAND CHALLENGES INVOLVING ARTISTS AND STUDENTS FROM ALL STUDY BACKGROUNDS
Lea Jakob, Project Coordinator, Leuphana Concert Lab, Germany
The Leuphana Concert Lab is a transdisciplinary teaching & learning project at Leuphana University, cooperating with scientific and artistic partners. It pursues the goal of encouraging students from all faculties to reflect on socially relevant topics through the medium of classical music and to bring this to the region. In research and teaching, the project develops interdisciplinary approaches to classical music in current societal discourses with researchers from all faculties. The project members from within the university and their students work together with artists and practice partners. In addition to building up structures in research and teaching, various transfer activities such as concerts, workshops, and conferences are carried out at the university, and a participation offer for the region is created. Several seminars and concert activities with different artists have been implemented since the project started in 2023. Our accompanying research investigates how sensemaking and sense-giving processes occur between the students, artists, and the audience. At the conference in 2025, we would like to present the research results, invite new artists to collaborate in this transdisciplinary endeavor, and discuss ways of aligning artists, researchers, and students to approach today’s Grand Challenges.

EMIKO KATO’S KAB LIBRARY AND RESIDENCY
Emiko Kato, Director, KAB Library and Residency, Japan
KAB Library and Residency operates an artist-in-residence program based in the downtown area of Tokyo, providing a library and accommodation facilities for artists and curators from around the world to immerse themselves in research and creation. The program offers stays ranging from one day to three months, with accommodation for one to three individuals in a rental format of the entire facility. Residents have access to approximately 3,000 volumes of books within the facility for browsing, and specialized referrals and information are available upon request. Kyojima in Sumida Ward is known as an artist town where creators establish studios, galleries, shops, cafes, and other facilities through renovation. Simply exploring the surroundings makes one feel like a part of the art community in this unique area. With convenient access, it’s easy to visit galleries, museums, and other places of interest.

STUDIOCONCRETO
Laura Perrone, Co-founder, studioconcreto
studioconcreto, founded by Luca Coclite and Laura Perrone in 2018 in Puglia, Italy, was born out of the need to address, in various forms of artistic experimentation, the critical issues arising from socio political themes related to the body in connection to architecture while reconciling art with the gestures of everyday life. Reflecting on the proxemics of unconventional spaces, mostly self-organized and opposed to institutional design planning, Studioconcreto produces transversal choreographies composed of encounters in public spaces. (a series of performative lectures held in the street by artists who put words and politics at the center of their research); exhibitions in collaboration with artists (Claire Fontaine, Anna Halprin, Cesare Pietroiusti, Antonio Della Guardia, Calori & Maillard); workshops and practices of radical pedagogy (AdrianPaci, Francesca Sarteanesi, Alessandro Laita, and Chiaralice Rizzi, Pietro Gaglianò); live performances (Mara Oscar Cassiani, Canedicoda & Roberta Mosca, Alvin Curran, Frederick Acquaviva, Phill Niblock, Neil Leonard); interventions and initiatives through new technologies.

SATURDAY, LATE AFTERNOON SESSION, 3:15 PM– 5:00 PM

SATURDAY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
ART ON THE FRONTLINES: NAVIGATING RISKS AND FOSTERING RESILIENCE
LOCATION: Steam
Panel Organizer and Moderator: Julie Trébault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC)
Mosab Abu Toha Palestinian Poet, Short-Story writer, and Essayist
Achiro P. Olwoch, Ugandan Writer, Playwright and Screenwriter
Camila Ramírez Lobón, Cuban Visual Artist

DAY 3, SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2025

SUNDAY, MORNING SESSION, 10:00 AM – 11: 45 AM

CRITICAL RESPONSES TO CRITICAL TIMES
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator: Glenn Williams, General Manager, Boston Neighborhood Network Media
Tony Evanko, artist, architect, founder, and director of the Casa Tres Patios Foundation, Colombia
Yulia Fisch, interdependent curator, cultural worker and co-founder of the collective “Beyond the post-soviet”, Switzerland
Dr. Koustav Nag, Assistant Professor , K R Mangalam University, India
Michael Sheridan, Filmmaker and Educator, Founding Director, Community Supported Film and SheridanWorks
Qudrat Wasefi, Composer and Trumpeter, Founder of Afghanistan Freeharmonic Orchestra

THE ART(IST) IS NOT ALONE: INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK IN PURSUIT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
Tony Evanko, artist, architect, founder, and director of the Casa Tres Patios Foundation, Colombia
Medellín is a city that has faced historical challenges of violence and inequality, even being the most violent in the world in 1991. However, in recent years, it has undergone a transformation in which art and education have played a significant role. This presentation will reflect on how artistic residencies can catalyze social and urban transformation through co-creation, interdisciplinary work, and pedagogical mediation. We will focus on how artists can engage with local communities authentically and meaningfully, overcoming the dichotomy between making art “about” and making art “with” by collaborating with professionals from different fields. We will explore previous residencies that have fostered intercultural dialogues, strengthened social fabric, and revitalized urban spaces, contributing to constructing a more inclusive and just city. Therefore, we will share lessons learned and challenges faced on the journey toward art committed to social transformation and invite artists to join our residencies.

SPONTANEOUS COLLECTIVES AND CULTURAL MEDIATION IN TIMES OF CRISIS
Yulia Fisch, interdependent curator, cultural worker and co-founder of the collective “Beyond the post-soviet”, Switzerland
“Beyond the post-soviet ” emerged in 2021 as a non-hierarchical collective with a mission to generate and disseminate knowledge surrounding geographic and cultural regions, previously referred to as the ‘post-Soviet space’ and ‘post-socialist’ countries. Consisting of artists, researchers, thinkers, and curators operating in various geographical and cultural contexts, the collective adopts an effective research approach, incorporating multiple forms of knowledge such as theoretical insights, artistic creations, individual and collective narratives, as well as memories and emotions. The collective has assumed a role as responsible mediators, organizing and executing events and projects involving artists from Ukraine, Central Asia, and post-Soviet, post-socialist countries and anticipating the urgency to work in a state of crisis since the recent Russian invasion in Ukraine. The special assembly in solidarity with Ukraine at the Centre Pompidou co-organized by the collective in March 2022, embraced attentive listening as a central method of working with artists and cultural workers from Ukraine. Subsequent projects unfolded in the creation of “spontaneous collectives,” where organizers and invitees collaboratively shared knowledge and responsibility and jointly designed events. In this paper, we will delve into an introspective analysis of the methods and approaches employed by “Beyond the post-soviet ” during times of crisis, particularly in the context of war, where artists and cultural objects face imminent threats.

ART AS ACTIVISM: THE IMPACT OF SOCIALIST IDEALS ON MODERN INDIAN ARTISTS
Dr. Koustav Nag, Assistant Professor , K R Mangalam University, India
Art and activism have become the cornerstone of the Independent movement in India. Through the years, it has become an essential component of society, especially after 1947. Artists like Somnath Hore and Chittaprasad played an active role in the feminist and hunger movements. Later, Suranjan Basu and young artists took up the mantle. Today, Indian artists are driven by socialist principles. Their artworks and techniques exemplify how this influence is manifested differently. They use art to address social injustices, advocate for marginalized groups, and envision alternative socio-political scenarios based on fairness, equality, and collaboration. These artists address pressing social issues like racism, economic inequality, gender imbalance, and environmental degradation. Their work showcases a solid commitment to promoting social change and a belief in the powerful impact of art to challenge existing narratives and foster communal participation. Contemporary Indian artists actively participate in the ongoing socio-political dialogue by embracing socialist principles and using art as a powerful tool to promote and affect societal change in India. The powerful impact of art to challenge prevailing narratives and foster communal participation.

LOOK-LISTEN-LOCAL
Michael Sheridan, Filmmaker and Educator, Founding Director, Community Supported Film and SheridanWorks
Looking and listening from the local perspective should be an imperative in our divided and ill-informed world. Our news and non-fiction media makers should have learned the lesson from the rise of authoritarianism and failed global interventions that we need to know about struggles and challenges from the perspective of those living them. Most of what we hear about people outside our circles is from the perspective and concern of people inside our circles. This causes those who wish to be well-informed, and their leaders, to be caught-by-surprise, misguided, and flounder with ineffective responses. Community Supported Film puts the listening and looking devices in the hands of the affected, the misunderstood, and the misrepresented and mentors their making of short documentary films.

AFGHANISTAN FREEHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Qudrat Wasefi, Composer and Trumpeter, Founder of Afghanistan Freeharmonic Orchestra
The Afghanistan Freeharmonic Orchestra – or AFO – is a group of committed Afghan and international musicians from around the world of all nationalities. Founded by Qudrat Wasefi and Dan Blackwell, the musicians of this ever-expanding, unique group, collaborate virtually to record original pieces and arrangements. Our focus is Afghan music, which has been silenced since the Taliban takeover. We also incorporate Western and other global musical styles and genres. Currently, Afghan musicians are being silenced, their instruments destroyed, and their freedoms are being taken away. AFO aims to reunite displaced Afghan musicians and include musicians of all nationalities to join in solidarity to promote peace, freedom, and music. Beyond the music, it is AFO’s mission to give a platform and a voice to those who need their stories heard.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR ARTISTS
LOCATION: Red Room
Moderator: Eric Gunther, Artist/Designer; Co-founder and Director, SOSO
Luc Courchesne, Artist; Founding member, Society for Art and Technology (SAT); and Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Jingjing Lin, Multimedia Conceptual Artist
Arthur Makaryan, Artistic Director of Arte Makar Productions; La Sorbonne Panthéon Paris 1 ACTE Institute Affiliate
Nomeda Urbanos, Artist; Co-founder, Urbonas Studio; Researcher, Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) program, MIT

VIRTUAL TELEPORTATION
Luc Courchesne, Artist; Founding member, Society for Art and Technology (SAT); and Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Over centuries, the artist toolbox has been evolving from supporting creative reframing of the world (people, places, ideas…, etc.) to storytelling and world-building. How are we invited into inhabitable versions of these worlds? This conference will outline the concept for virtual teleportation and provide a roadmap for its deployment.

ARTISTIC PRACTICE AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Jinging Lin, Multimedia Conceptual Artist
Discussing the era of artificial intelligence, how do artists influence audience participation and
interactive art experiences in artistic practice and social engagement. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly permeating various aspects of our daily lives and contemporary environment, posing new and unignorable questions about how artists, at the forefront of exploring technological frontiers, redefine the boundaries of creativity and engagement using emerging technologies. This proposal delves into unconventional artistic practices, exploring new avenues and possibilities for artistic expression and societal interaction. By actively employing AI algorithms, AI-generated functionalities, digital narratives, and interdisciplinary projects, artists can engage in dialogue, address pressing issues in contemporary society, and explore artificial intelligence as a medium for reflection, transformation, and reshaping the transformative potential of art.

THE CENSORSHIP OF DREAMS
Arthur Makaryan, Artistic Director of Arte Makar Productions; La Sorbonne Panthéon Paris 1 ACTE Institute Affiliate
The Censorship of Dreams is a multidisciplinary theater piece investigating the complex and ever-evolving relationship between our bodies, technology, language, and surveillance—in both content and form. This piece explores how technology can be used for oppression or expansion, and the struggle to express truth after language has been rendered meaningless. We are exploring theatrical representation of Brain-Computer-Interface systems and how to not just inform but implicate and involve the audience in a new mode of society where the human mind is directly linked to technology. We believe that by bringing together concepts at the forefront of technological innovation and brain science with the artistic work of creative technologists and the ancient forms of theater that are rooted in the human body and imagination, we can offer a unique and provocative experience of symbiosis between humans and technology.

THE SWAMP AS A LABORATORY FOR COLLABORATION, LEARNING AND ADAPTING
Nomeda Urbonas, Artist; Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) Program; Co-founder, Urbonas Studio
In light of accelerating technological speed, we look back at the Swamp to gain a different perception of time and to realize that swampland takes a thousand years to form. Swamp plants are adapted for slow growth, accumulating value for their healing, cleaning, or antiseptic properties, which are often forgotten or even unknown by our generation. The Swamp seems to encompass heterogenous temporalities and different knowledge systems — indigenous and techno-scientific, premodern and ultra-futuristic. The juxtaposition of the technological and the organic must be reconsidered. Swamp cultivation is always a technological interaction. This presentation will discuss the Swamp as a conceptual character and a window into its own operations. With the short overview of programmatic concepts that employ conceptual, spatial, speculative and aesthetic aspects of a Swampian research, the focus will be on the Swamp as a laboratory, as self-organized, open-ended and ever-changing infrastructure that supports collaborative experiments in design, pedagogy, and artistic intelligence for learning and adapting to imminent unknowns.

LGBTQ+, BIPOC & FEMINIST INTERVENTIONS INSIDE/OUTSIDE OF INSTITUTIONS
LOCATION: Dance Studio
Moderator: Dr. Jocelyn E. Marshall, Curator; Faculty, Dept. of Visual & Media Arts and Writing, Literature & Publishing, Emerson College
Erin Genia, Member, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Multidisciplinary Artist, Educator and Community Organizer
Kathrine Guinness, Lecturer, University of Queensland; Theorist, Historian and Author
Conor Moynihan, Acting Department Head and Associate Curator, Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, RISD Museum
Homa Sarabi, Artist, Educator, Programmer
Combining a range of arts programmers and artists, this panel explores strategies for instituting modes of preservation, protest, resistance, and redress within and outside institutional affiliations. The 2025 TransCultural conference coincides with the 50th-anniversary of the ‘end’ of the United States’ involvement in the War in Vietnam. As U.S. Immigration policies have historically upheld racist and xenophobic exclusions alongside homophobic and transphobic protocol, this panel grapples with the tensions of being an artist and/or programmer based within the U.S. while aiming to upend such traditions of state-sanctioned violence. The panel discussion will navigate two central questions: How do we make visible violence that is actively hidden and erased? And in what ways is testimony voiced despite routine acts of silencing? Together, the panelists explore strategies for working within and against institutional constraints to, ultimately, care for under-discussed histories, resist further modes of marginalization and silencing, and evaluate the extent to which such harms can be redressed.

SUNDAY, EARLY AFTERNOON SESSION, 1:15 PM – 3:00 PM

SOLIDARITY AND RESISTANCE IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
LOCATION: Steam
Moderator|Panel Organizer: Bojana Panevska, Program Manager, TransArtists
Liudmyla Nychai, Artist, Curator, Project Coordinator, NGO Congress of Cultural Activists, Ukraine
Heather O’Donnell, Co-founder the Green Room for Artists
Johan Pousette, Director, IASPIS, Sweden
Mary Sherman, Director, TransCultural Exchange

Our society is becoming more and more polarized, the Earth’s resources are getting exhausted, there are wars and genocides, forced migrations, censorship, environmental injustices and more. The question is how can we, in the cultural sector even begin to offer and practice solidarity? How can we repair, listen and (un)learn? How long can we rely on hope, and can there be freedom without hope?
During the panel discussion, these topics will be covered, with honesty and cruel optimism. While showing the solidarity and resilience of our sector, the aim is to find new visions for the future, based on care and well-being for everyone involved.

In an era where the freedom to create is increasingly threatened by political instability, censorship, and violence, artists around the world find themselves at the forefront of advocacy and social change. This panel, led by Artist at Risk Connections (ARC), delves into the lives and experiences of artists who navigate these challenges daily. It aims to shed light on the courage and creativity of artists working under threat and the vital role of global networks in supporting their safety and freedom of expression.

CASES FOR CULTURE
LOCATION: Red Room
Moderator: Doris Sommer, Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University; Founder, Cultural Agents
Chiara Caiazzo, PhD candidate, Contemporary Philosophy, Pompeu Fabra University; Fellow, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Ian Koebner, Strategic Advisor, Health and Wellness at Carnegie Hall
Giuliano Picchi, Cultural Entrepreneur in Residence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Founder, UNITA – United Talents for the Future
Dr. Nisha Sajnani, Co-founder & Co-director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab; Associate Professor

Artists can learn how to prepare an easy-to-read business school type case to document the effectiveness of an intervention and stimulate future investments. Artists sometimes speak at cross purposes with functionaries in business, government, and education when they defend their work as interventions without demonstrating the effects of the work. Since creatives are not trained in – and often unpersuaded by – statistical evidence, much of the impact is lost on decision makers. A practical way forward is to partner artists with social scientists and business experts to produce “Cases for Culture,” brief narratives supporting quantitative and qualitative evidence of art projects’ social, economic, and health effects and exposure to the arts. New cases will resonate among functionaries since there are excellent examples in the HBS list of teaching cases. However, the category has not yet been identified as an important horizon. We can make Cases for Culture more visible and relevant both for artists and decision-makers who can include artmaking in government, education, and employee support budgets. The workshop will give examples and on-site practice in mapping out a Case for Culture and creating collaborations among participants.

AI IN ART: NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR WORK & PROCESS
Moderator: Eric Gunther, artist/designer; Co-founder and Creative Director of SOSO
LOCATION: Red Room
Zachary Lieberman, Artist, Researcher and Educator
cari ann shim sham, Artist, AI Creater and Professor, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
Additional Panelists: TBA

As artificial intelligence reshapes our creative landscape, artists stand at a fascinating crossroads of tradition and innovation. This panel brings together diverse voices who are navigating this intersection with curiosity and intention – not as technologists, but as artists first, each discovering their own meaningful relationship with AI. Through their stories and experiences, we’ll explore how AI can extend artistic vision rather than replace it, how it might unlock new forms of expression while honoring traditional practice, and how it’s prompting us to reconsider fundamental questions about creativity and authorship. Whether you view AI with skepticism, enthusiasm, or curiosity, join us for an honest dialogue about what it means to be an artist in this transformative moment.