Abstracts

DAY 1, NOVEMBER 4
MORNING PANELS

Natural Wonders, Residencies in the Amazon, Mauritius, Taiwan and South African Desert
Moderator: Alberto Balestrieri, Writer and Documentation Consultant, Canada
Krishna Luchoomun, Artist and Founder of pARTage, Mauritius
Sonya Rademeyer, Tankwa Artscape Residency, South Africa
Diana Riesco Lind, Founder and Director, Centro Selva Arte y Ciencia, Amazon (Peru)
Shu-Lun Wu, Director, Taitung Dawn Artist Village, Taiwan

TROPICAL ISLAND ARTIST RESIDENCY
Krishna Luchoomun, Artist and Founder of pARTage
pARTage residency program offers an artist their artist-in-residence facilities to live and work in Mauritius, for a period of 4 to 8 weeks, giving the visiting artist the opportunity to integrate in the local artistic community and to respond to the local situation in his/her work. The residency is intended as part of pARTage’s cultural exchange program in view of facilitating cultural exchange and creative dialogue by bringing together international and local artists in a stimulating and supportive environment. The residency includes educational activities such as interaction with art students, local artists and the general public. As part of this, the visiting artist is asked to give a short artist’s talk towards the beginning of his/her residency. Towards the end of the residency, the artist-in-residence can hold either an open studio day or an exhibition. The residency program provides the selected artist with the opportunity to work and research alongside other local and international artists whose practice varies from traditional to new media. The non-prescriptive and process-based nature of the residencies enable artists to develop projects in response to the new environment, or to conduct research benefiting from Mauritian resources.

TANKWA ARTSCAPE RESIDENCY, SOUTH AFRICA
Sonya Rademeyer, Artist, Spokesperson for Tankwa Artscape Residency
Tankwa Artscape Residency is an annual, free artist residency for emerging and mid-career artists, both national and international, taking place in South Africa. It is a unique desert experience with a conceptual focus that looks to interact creatively with the harsh environment of the Tankwa Karoo and the history of the First Nations People (The San) who lived there. The residency is suited to works relating to the environment, offering space and time for investigation, unusual art practice and interdisciplinary collaboration. Artworks lean towards ephemeral and performance-based works predominantly, which are documented through video/photography/audio podcasts. Land/nature artists, sculptors, sound artists, musicians, spoken word artists, storytellers, movement artists and performance-based artists are encouraged to apply.

CENTRO SELVA ARTE Y CIENCIA
Diana Riesco Lind, Founder and Director, Centro Selva Arte y Ciencia, Amazon (Peru)
Centro Selva offers an opportunity to experience a place in the world where there are many preconceived notions, but little that we really know. It is truly a place to discover ways to connect with ourselves, others and the earth. Centro Selva offers artist residencies for visiting artists to experience different aspects of the local native and mestizo living cultures in a rural setting and for local artists to get involved with foreign artists in an environment that, for economic reasons or lack of opportunities in those locations, might otherwise not have the opportunity to experience this type of international exchange.

THE TAITUNG DAWN ARTIST VILLAGE AND TAIWAN’S EAST COAST LAND ARTS FESTIVAL, SYMBIOSIS AND CO-PROSPERITY
Shulun WU, founder of Taitung Dawn Artist Village, Taiwan
The Taitung Dawn Artist Village focuses on the relationship of the Austronesian culture between Taiwan and other countries to explore each region’s local cultures, histories, environments and social issues. The Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival is organized by the East Coast National Scenic Area, Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China in cooperation with Taitung Dawn Artist Village. For the 8th annual East Coast Land Arts Festival, artists will be invited to submit proposals to create art installations that combine aspects of the natural environment of Taiwan’s east coast– its geography and aesthetic qualities. The purpose is to gather local and international artistic creativity through a modern cultural tourist strategy into shaping the area’s unique cultural and scenic landscape.

Arts Funding at the Intersection: Building Artists’ Power and Advancing Racial Justice
Hear from arts funders whose work is at the intersection of artist support and racial justice, including public and private sector funders, those who fund artists directly and those who work through intermediaries, from specific grant-making programs to investing in holistic strategies. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of the arts philanthropy ecosystem vis a vis individual artists and racial justice, as well as insight into the different ways funders approach these conjoined priorities for community transformation.

Panel Organizer and Moderator: Caitlin Strokosch, President & CEO, National Performance Network
Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of Arts and Culture, Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, City of Boston
Cuong P. Hoang, Director of Programs, Mott Philanthropic
Catherine Morris, Director, Arts & Culture, The Boston Foundation
F. Javier Torres-Campos, Director, Thriving Cultures, The Surdna Foundation

Missing Clues, Mining Archives, Ensuring the Truth
Moderator: Cynthia Fowler, Professor, Emmanuel College, Massachusetts
Yemi Alalade, Artist and Founder of ANIKE, Massachusetts/Nigeria
Christine D’Onofrio, Associate Professor and Chair, Bachelor of Media Studies program, University of British Columbia
Anne-Karin Furunes, Artist and Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway
Helene Larsson Pousette, Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and Co-Founder, Stockholm Museum of Women’s History
Amani Willett, Artist, Professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design

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 pre-history to modernity, self-portraits have enabled insights into the artists’ mind 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; it is imperative that we mine and not undermine the Indigenous knowledge and practices that facilitated these technologies. To undermine, is to distort an accurate representation of ourselves within a cultural context and impede 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.

SCATTERED IN EXISTENCE: LESSONS OF COMMUNITY WHEN BUILDING AN ONLINE USER-CONTENT-GENERATED ARTISTIC ARCHIVE
Catherine D’Onofio, Associate Professor and Chair, Bachelor of Media Studies program, University of British Columbia
Fusing the potentials of online democracy and community building, Intuition Commons visualizes overlooked and underrepresented stories of mentorship, influence and reciprocal generosity through creative contributions. The coded ‘scatter’ avoids a central author as community “is not the space of the egos-subjects and substances that are at bottom immortal-but of the I’s who are always others” (Jean-Luc Nancy, 1990). The work was created in reaction to hosting “Wikipedia” edit-a-thons where the collaborative spirit was exciting – but the perpetuation of legitimizing references was antithetical to ways a community offers, inspires, contributes, communicates and produces. Intuition Commons (2019) is a pedagogical work that enacts hooks’ performative and relational coming to know oneself via knowledge accessed through deep networks of human relationships (2003). Users are encouraged to contribute their own perspectives and accounts, creating a rhizomatic web of nuance and overlapping stories. Demonstrating complexity of Agamben’s inaccessible and radically unknowable communication of “singularities as an attribute that does not unite them in essence, but scatters them in existence” (1990), the site emphasizes effects granted by other perspectives showing a process of difference differing (Haraway 2008) and facilitates Barad’s concept of “intra-action” to understand agency as a “dynamism of forces” (2007), rather than belonging to a sole element.

SILENT WITNESSES
Anne-Karin Furunes, artist and Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway
Anne-Karin Furunes’ works are often huge light-painting portraits of unknown/ forgotten people, discovered by the artist through her archival research. Furunes perforates the images by hand, starting with a monochrome canvas and letting the portrait emerge through negative space. Evoking loss and the complexity of memory, the effects of light on the painting remain unfixed and in constant dialogue with the surrounding environment. Photo archives represent a diversity of information. Stories are usually told by the winning side, but archives represent the complex and often darker side of our history, which Furunes find much more compelling. Furunes often looks for stories that are kept in the silent dark archive, looking for anonymous portraits of people to share a new side of things. The archival pictures are often small in size, and their technical quality is modest. Furunes concentrates on faces and crops the images in a way that leaves none of the attributes that could reveal the person’s social position. It is surprising to see how much a bare face actually reveals about the person but also about the time, or the spirit of the time, when the picture was taken.

TRAVERSING THE ARCHIVE
Helene Larsson Pousette, Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and Co-Founder, Stockholm Museum of Women’s History
During 2022, the Cultural Counsellors of Sweden in Turkey, Russia and the USA are collaborating on a series of digital workshops/seminars which will examine the challenges and possibilities of archives in four countries: Sweden, Russia, Turkey and the US. One major challenge for archives today is the issue of representation. There is often much that is missing or omitted and information about certain groups is often told, documented, and archived by others than the groups themselves. For example, the lack of women in the Swedish historical canon, despite several decades of important women’s studies and gender research, reinforces the idea that women’s lives are not as important and do not fit in our common memory. In addition, the history, memories, and experiences of many marginalized or oppressed groups are not archived at all or are in precarious conditions. The project hopes to answer crucial questions such as: What are the challenges and possibilities of the archives of the four countries? What cross-connections of archives can be made, and what challenges can this lead to? How does an artist research an archive? This presentation describes the research that took place in 2022 and give reflections on some of the issues above.

EARLY AFTERNOON PANELS
Taking it to the Streets, Art Practices in the Public Realm
Moderator: Harold Steward, Executive Director and Cultural Strategist, The Theater Offensive, Massachusetts
John Boylan, Writer and Producer, Seattle, Washington
Zen Cohen, Program Director, Open Air Media Festival and Assistant Professor of Art and Film Studies at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA
Kassem Istanbouli, Director, Tiro Association for the Arts, Lebanon
Otis Kriegel, Founder, Illegal Art, New York

BRINGING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT INTO MAINSTREAM ART PRACTICE
John Boylan, Writer and Producer, Seattle
This discussion will explore methods and strategies for expanding art-making based on community engagement, effective collaboration, and social critique into broader everyday art practice. Given the urgency of problems we face, the climate crisis, encroaching authoritarianism, we need all—or as many artists and performers as we can muster—doing the things that artists have the skills to do: examining the status quo, envisioning new futures, and creating new ways of thinking, new ways of living. Artwork that does these things is often separated out as social engagement art, social practice art, eco-art. Much of this work never reaches its intended audience because it can be marginalized, and because too many artists don’t know how to effectively engage the public. There can also be a general sense that this sort of work is less serious than more mainstream art. By their training, experience, and aptitude, artists and performers are well-suited to explore both the problems we face and potential solutions, to envision healthy, inclusive, and effective futures. It’s critical that more and more artists learn to better engage their places and their communities, at levels that are meaningful to those communities and that are responsive to those places.

OPEN AIR MEDIA FESTIVAL
Zen Cohen, Program Director, Open Air Media Festival, Iowa
Open Air Media Festival (OAMF) is an outdoor, public arts event in Iowa City, Iowa, accessible to any artist through an open call and an inaugural residency program. The OpenAir Media Festival invites artists to intervene in public spaces throughout Iowa City, including site-specific installations, video projections, and performances. OAMF premiered in September 2020, as a need for joy and dialog in the onset of COVID-19 and was founded on in-person and virtual participation. The third biennial Open Air in Spring 2023 will continue with an open call and begin a residency program. Iowa City has a long history of avant-garde arts dating back to the 1960s from the University of Iowa’s MFA program and a thriving contemporary arts scene, supported by community organizations like the Media Arts Co-Op. OAMF opens the artistic process to a variety of non-traditional spaces including parking garages, construction sites, Zoom calls, radio programs, gardens, and front porches. Artists participating in OAMF tend to work collaboratively to meet the challenge of public, temporary art. OAMF is accessible to international participation without the cost of travel through video submissions and virtual programming. In 2022, the Media Art’s Co-Op (MAC) will open a longer-term, on-site residency with support for one artist to make work and participate in OAMF. The residency includes access to studio space, living accommodations, digital technology resources, community, and workshops.

TIRO ASSOCIATION FOR ARTS, THE IMPORTANCE OF ARTS AND CULTURE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
Kassem Istanbouli, Director, Tiro Association for the Arts, Lebanon
A place without a theatre is a lifeless place. We believe that art has the power to change people’s lives and communities. When we watch a movie or a play together, we share emotions and are united by our humanity – with no boundaries or differences. When art is absent, so is change, and this suffocates the revolution within us. Our dream is to provide for the people, and we have proven to be a beacon of hope for many people who have been in need. For future generations, we are creating and preserving memories. We have consisted of street performances since the beginning of our journey; we wanted to ensure that our dream was not only for artists, but for the entire community. Nothing can be accomplished in an instant; it takes time, patience, and effort to establish an initiative. We believe that passion, love, and affiliation are the most important aspects of project implementation. We learn through experience and work, and we will always be guided by hope and love. The theater is for the people, and our goal is to make art accessible to everyone, rich and poor alike. We have a soft spot for the general public because we started out as street performers. We kept performing on the streets and worked hard to attract the public’s attention by encouraging them to participate in our carnivals, events, and activities. Many people came to us from closed-minded families that did not believe the arts were necessary. Yet, culture and art allowed them to step outside of their comfort zone and broaden their horizons. I will talk about the history of the cinemas in Tyre, Al Hamra, Nabtatiyeh and about our journey in converting old cinemas into spaces.

BEYOND THE OBVIOUS: THE INSPIRED IMPACTS AND UNEXPECTED BENEFITS OF NEW FORMS OF COLLABORATIVE PUBLIC ART
Otis Kriegel, Founder, Illegal Art, New York
Art has a unique ability to inspire, engage, and challenge our perception of the world around us – so what if art could be experienced anywhere? What if libraries, parks, stores, schools, community centers, cemeteries, sidewalks, street corners or empty walls could become sites for innovative new forms of public art? And, what if artists and community residents came together to create and appreciate these new forms of public art? These unorthodox opportunities are available to the artist who is willing to reach beyond the traditional guidelines to show their work and create opportunities for themselves. Often overlooked, activating these spaces creates an opportunity for any member of the general public to engage or appreciate a creative intervention on their own terms – without having to cross barriers into spaces designated for only art. In this presentation, artist and founder of Illegal Art Otis Kriegel will discuss how he and artist Aaron Asis identify, develop, and activate under-utilized urban spaces and share their own experiences with inspired impacts and unexpected benefits of shared art making – over the past two decades.

Valuable Perspectives from Outside the Cultural Canon
Moderator: Amanda Phillips, Executive Director, Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), Pennsylvania
Dr. Catherine Bernard, Art History Professor, SUNY Old Westbury, NY
Dr. Florian Grond, Artist, Research Associate, Shared Reality Lab, McGill University, Canada
Carmen Moreira, Carmen Moreira, Executive Director and Choreographer of SQx Dance Company, Canada
Ying Tan, Senior Program Manager, Collections at the Art Fund, UK

THE FUTURE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE
Dr. Catherine Bernard, Art History Professor, SUNY Old Westbury
The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be focuses on the work of contemporary Indigenous artists in the United States who are at the forefront of art-making and boldly claim their role in the contemporary art scene. As they do so, they combat the erasure of indigenous cultures and histories. Artists such as Sky Hopinka, Post Commodity, Alan Michelson, Rose B. Simpson, Jeremy Dennis, the collective Desert ArtLAB, Demian DinéYahzi’, engage with Native communities and with the contemporary artworld and contribute to a redefinition of the artistic space and the recasting of artistic practices through indigenous lenses. Some audiences may look at Indigenous artistic and cultural practices as experiences in nostalgia and preservation of the past or may attempt to fetishize indigenous practices. Contemporary indigenous artists respond by offering alternatives to the traditional visions of the art markets, museums and classrooms; and, while they don’t forget their histories as crucial to understand the present, they negotiate these tensions in their practices.

DISABILITIES AS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE ARTS
Dr. Florian Grond, Artist, Research Associate, Shared Reality Lab, McGill University, Canada
This panel follows in the footsteps of the TransCultural Exchange 2016 Conference panel Creations off the Beaten Path, which focused on the topic of disabilities as opportunities in the arts. The paper aims to shift the perspective away from disability as a need for service or a cause for charity but rather as a creative force in the arts. Marcel Duchamp’s key concept of non-retinal art was likely inspired by his encounter with blind veterans and, in a similar way, I will argue that disability is transformative for creative processes, artistic formats and institutions.

ACTIVE INCLUSION PROGRAM (AIP): A NEW DANCE PERFORMANCE PROGRAM TO DISRUPT DISCRIMINATION, INTOLERANCE, RACISM AND HATE
Carmen Moreira, Carmen Moreira, Executive Director and Choreographer of SQx DanceCompany, Canada
AIP is a 3-year project that target’s Canada’s youth-at-risk, currently nearing its completion of Year 2. Because of the ongoing pandemic, AIP has been exclusively delivered online, meaning that we have had to replicate the same transformative and meaningful experiences that vulnerable communities have expected of SQx programming pre-pandemic in AIP’s digital performances, workshops, and arts-based community development activities. Year 3 will culminate in a final public policy paper that we will use to lobby for Arts Education curricular augmentation based on the research we have gathered as we evaluate the program and participant and educator experiences. The results of our qualitative and quantitative evaluations will help build a better understanding of the disparities and challenges faced by marginalized communities in Canada. To date the program has been presented to more than 10,000 participants across Western Canada and resulted in 13 new full-time jobs for vulnerable emerging artists. AIP promotes social inclusion and the cooperation of diverse artists by advancing belonging, unity, and cooperation in at-risk communities, while increasing engagement and access to art through remote programming. AIP also brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to learn about reconciliation and decolonization.

TOWARDS AN ELASTIC CURATORIAL PRACTICE
Ying Tan, Senior Program Manager, Collections at the Art Fund
If our personal histories are not contextualized as a continuous entity; then how might elasticity be a part one’s curatorial practice? Existing within the context of a peripheral position, I can attest to the process of meaning making from a constant state of comparative identity. I have often reflected on this state of existence. If a stranger, for instance, challenges the pre-established assumptions of the place in which they are estranged, then might we need to also consider the pre-established assumptions that engenders that environment to begin with? Because, for whom is a ‘stranger’ an active concept? For those who exist within the context of a minority, there is always also an acceptance that there is a condition of post-truth that we have to contest with. We experience the world through language, codes, hierarchies, sensory perception, established narratives and the things people tell us. These complexities invite us to question one reality for another, to de-prioritize our subjectivity and to question what it is we think we know, creating shimmering illusions, or pointing towards the veils of deception and manipulation that form our everyday experiences.

Artists in Labs, Scientists in Studio
Moderator: Stephanie Couch, Executive Director, Lemelson-MIT Program
Rotem Goldenberg, Performance Artist, Massachusetts
Irène Hediger, Director, swiss-artists-in-lab program, Zurich University
Joel Kowit, Artist, Graphic Designer, Founder of Immunology Workshops and Professor Emeritus, Emmanuel College, MA
Crispin Weinberg, President of Biomedical Modeling Inc. (BMI), MA

THEATRICAL ART AS A THERAPEUTIC TOOL: CREATING A FANTASTIC EMOTIONAL SPACE
Rotem Goldenberg, Performance Artist, Massachusetts
What is a medical clown? Do clowns in the hospital really help children and their parents? Is it all about laughing and humor? Can it also be scary? These are the types of questions I’ve been asked time and again during the past 10 years working as a medical clown. The medical clowns in Israel work at the children’s ward hand-in-hand with doctors and nurses in regular weekly shifts. We assist and accompany children in many procedures – blood tests, surgeries, injections and radiations. Our goal is to bring a different voice into the room – to help relieve tension and anxiety among the children, their parents and the medical staff. Through role playing, distractions, acting out suppressed desires or anger, or imagining alternative realities, I wish to give the patients a sense of control, which is too often absent in the hospital. I believe that art has the power to relieve physical and mental pain, be it in the hospital or in other places. My goal is to share as much of the knowledge and experience that I have gained over the past 10 years working in the hospital, and to expose others to the therapeutic opportunities that art can bring.

A MARRIAGE OF ART AND SCIENCE AND WHAT MAKES IT WORK
Joel Kowit, Artist, Graphic Designer, Founder of Immunology Workshops and Professor Emeritus, Emmanuel College
As a Professor of Biology and immunologist, I created a world of scientific, but artistic diagrams and graphic designs to support my teaching and consulting with pharmaceutical researchers. As a student of art with training in drawing, painting, graphic design and glassblowing, my art was featured in exhibits, a book cover and oral presentations. Stained glass brought these two worlds together for me. With the design, creation, and execution of stained-glass pieces, showing scientifically accurate images of protein structures and cellular structures; with talks on and exhibits of my stained glass works at LabCentral (Cambridge, MA) and at Harvard Medical School; in addition to presentations to individual labs at Harvard Medical School and to groups of visiting physicians, I became a scientist and artist – lecturer and craftsman. I’ve taken both paths as I will share in this presentation.

ARTISTS-IN-LABS, SCIENTISTS-IN-STUDIOS – SAME, SAME BUT DIFFERENT?
Irène Hediger, Director, swiss-artists-in-lab program, Zurich University
While artists have been working in research laboratories for the past decade and this practice of exchange situated in laboratory spaces has been established and reflected about, there is now a growing interest among scientists to become a “scientist in the studio.” This interest raises the question of the role of space and infrastructures in Art & Science exchanges. This talk will discuss if and how it would be possible to reverse the concept of artists in laboratories to scientists in studios. What is the studio/space of the contemporary artist today? And, what could the artist studio offer a scientist? What are the conditions for professionals of art and science for fruitful collaborations? And, how can we think of a model for “scientists in studios” that allows the scientists to conduct (and continue) their research in an artist’s space?

BEAUTIFUL OR TERRIFYING? MEDICAL ART THROUGH THE AGES
Crispin Weinberg, President of Biomedical Modeling Inc. (BMI)
This presentation will explore how cultural norms both affect and are affected by depictions of anatomy and disease from the ancient world through the present COVID-19 pandemic. Depictions of human organs and internal anatomy can be both awe-inspiringly beautiful and terrifying. From ancient Egypt to today, these depictions have been constrained by cultural norms but also influence them. For example, most people in modern Europe shudder at human skulls but in Hallstat, Austria hundreds of skulls have been lovingly hand-painted and displayed in a public ossuary. The current pandemic has transformed the image of the corona virus created by Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins from esoteric to commonplace frightening. We will discuss how that image has informed and transformed the public’s thinking about the pandemic, how it was made, and what aspects are informative and what might be misleading. Finally, we will consider the role of the artist in public understanding and perception of health and disease.

LATE AFTERNOON PANELS
An Overview of Programs for Artists in Germany, The Netherlands and China.
Moderator: Megumi Naitoh, Artist, Professor, Emmanuel College
Annette Klein, Program Curator, Goethe-Institut Boston
Bojana Panevska, Senior Advisor, TransArtists, The Netherlands
Amanda Zhang, Co-Director, China Residencies

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.

PROGRAMS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Bojana Panevska, Senior Advisor, TransArtists, The Netherlands
The Netherlands has more than fifty artists-in-residency programs throughout the country. This talk will provide an overview of these.

CHINA RESIDENCIES
Amanda Zhang, Co-Director, China Residencies
China Residencies is a multi-faceted arts nonprofit and nonprofit online network of over 50 different physical spaces across nearly every single province in mainland China & Hong Kong that provide time, space, support, and funding for creative exchange. We weave ties between artists, activists, and arts administrators worldwide, creating windows for true long-term collaboration and solidarity between ever-widening disparate Internets, information flows, and ways of being. We have collaboratively facilitated and co-hosted over 100 artist-in-residents working across all fields, and with restrictions (travel and otherwise) continuing to grow, we’ll share the ways we keep virtually supporting vital work on the ground since the onset of the pandemic through remote residencies and interactive online experiences.

Radical Thinking/Paradigm Shifts, Moving Beyond Outmoded Cultural Practices
Moderator: Janna Longacre, Artists, Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Courtney Bethel, Admissions Director, MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire
Lidy Ettema, Director, Residenties in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Susanna Gyulamiryan, Co-Founder, Curator and Director, Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory, Armenia
Johan Pousette, Director, IASPIS, Sweden
Alex Soulsby, FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts); Creative Director, Artist Residency Thailand and the Prem Tinsulanonda International School

MOVING TOWARDS INCLUSIVITY
Courtney Bethel, Admissions Director MacDowell, New Hampshire
MacDowell, like many artists residency programs, spent much of the last 2 years reflecting on our mission and history, and identifying ways to advance our goals of diversity, equity, inclusion and access during this period of uncertainty and transformation. How can we stay relevant and responsive to artists’ needs in these changing times? What are the barriers to applying for and getting much needed financial and institutional support? How do we grow our target audience to include artists from historically underrepresented populations? What physical accommodations need to be made to make our campus more accessible? These are just a few of the questions that MacDowell has been asking itself and to our most important resource—our artists. Through a series of conversations with staff, board and artist Fellows, MacDowell is exploring ways to better serve artists in this moment of history as a leading artist residency program. In this session, I will report on the work that MacDowell has done and share some of the collected feedback from our artists.

REFLECTING ON FREEDOM, FEMINISM, POST-COLONALISM AND MOBILITY
Susanna Gyulamiryan, Co-Founder, Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory, Armenia
The impetus behind the founding of Armenia’s Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (Armenia) was to open up a diverse, decentralized space for artistic freedom. The term ‘laboratory’ was chosen as the name of the organization in order to imply a certain continuum, process, documentation, intervention, participation/participatory action, etc., to distinguish the work produced at ACSL from art that is mainly interested in representation, final results and commodification. Cultural Studies help us expand the analytical horizon of art, while the tools of post-colonial studies allow us to raise questions that have local relevance. This presentation will focus on ACSL’s three core directions: Feminism, Post-Colonialism and Mobility (ACSL’s residency program).

COLLECTIVELY – THINKING, WORKING, LIVING TOGETHER
Johan Pousette, Director, IASPIS, Sweden
Collectively was a forum on artistic collective practices which was organized by IASPIS in Stockholm 2019, and a book published in 2021. Both the forum and the text in the publication is a polyphony of the participants different voices, perspectives, and reflections on collaborative practice, a growing tendency in international contemporary art today. The intention behind the project was to explore alternative, collective and cross-disciplinary ways of doing, how it affects the notion of artistic creation and how it can contribute to development within art and culture. The Forum was self-organized by the 80 participants, who came from all over the world to do a three-day workshop sharing experiences. Collaboration can mean both challenges and possibilities. Artistic collectives challenge the widespread image of the sole author, and often the categorisation into disciplines. Many are involved in interdisciplinary practices between and beyond fields of art, seeing the work of art as a result of collective efforts. Working collectively can give us a platform for relationships that build upon exchange instead of competition, and on solidarity with respect for each other. Today, some believe that the artists are at the forefront of a return of collectivism in society, experiencing a time of new parallel movements in society; individualism remains, but more collectivism is evolving alongside.

SCHOOLS AS CULTURAL HUBS, ARTISTS AS EDUCATIONAL LEADERS
Alex Soulsby, Creative Director, Artist Residency Thailand and the Prem Tinsulanonda International School
How often have you noticed during a trip to a gallery, museum or other arts and culture center that they have a dedicated educational outreach function? The needs of schools are key considerations when a theatre, museum or gallery produces or presents new work, and it’s not uncommon for the educational offer to be as carefully considered as the artistic one. What happens when you flip this expectation and embed arts organizations into the center of schools and colleges? What tangible benefits and what particular learning comes about when you integrate the ideas and approaches of artists, creative practitioners and creative thinkers, with those of teachers, senior educational leaders, and young people into the learning that takes place? This presentation will look at the Galleries, Museums, Theatres & Cultural Centres model (GMTC), as explored at Artist Residency Thailand. We will explore case studies and highlight the opportunities for co-collaboration that are opened up for artists and arts organizations when schools adopt this approach. Touching on the powerful ways in which learning is transformed and how both young people and artists are empowered when they develop skills and produce work together

RESIDENTIES IN UTRECHT
Lidy Ettema, Director, Residenties in Utrecht, The Netherlands
Residenties in Utrecht started with the idea of sharing international artists and connecting them to different people and organizations in Utrecht. In the beginning, this involved mainly the cultural festivals in the city, but almost as soon as we started, the (art) schools in Utrecht joined, as did the University of Utrecht, HKU, ROC Midden Nederland and the IMC Weekendschool. Nowadays, social organizations are also involved, with the result that we can offer the city of Utrecht as a residency’s workplace. A residency usually starts with one of the organizations hosting an artist, and then we, as a platform, inform the organizations in our expanding network about this artist, attempting to make connections with as many relevant institutions as possible. It is a two-way relationship: the artist has opportunities to work with new organizations, but also to see what other connections they could make with what Utrecht has to offer. Our residency is for artists who want to share their expertise with different groups in the city. Before they come to Utrecht we are in contact with them, to see what they are expecting, and how we can plan their meetings.

How to Make (Almost) Anything
Location: TBA
Moderator: Anjali Srinivasan, Artists and Associate Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Andrew Anselmo, Engineer, Co-Shop Electronics and Robotics Lead, Artists Asylum, Massachusetts
Sarah Boisvert, founder, Fab Lab Hub, LLC and Co-founder, The New Collar Network, New Mexico
James Rutter, Technology Director, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Maine
Nasser Yari, Assistant Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts

MAKERSPACES: WHERE ARTISTS DREAMS COME TRUE
Andrew Anselmo, Engineer, Co-Shop Electronics and Robotics Lead, Artists Asylum, Massachusetts
Need a bandsaw to cut some wood? Want to learn how to use a 3D printer or milling machine? Think programming is beyond your means? Makerspaces have the people and tools to help. This presentation will discuss the rise of makerspaces, which are generally community oriented and operated workspaces, where people can get together, learn, create, and collaborate. Many are non-profits, and cater to a variety of interests, including computers, robotics, machining, fabric arts, jewelry, bicycling, 3D printing, cosplay, and others. Makerspaces provide access to community, expertise, and tools to explore and create. They offer classes to teach various techniques and how to use specific tools. At some makerspaces, individual spaces can also be rented and used like artist studios. At spaces like Artisan’s Asylum, these spaces are mostly ‘open plan,’ which fosters collaboration and discussion, especially as spaces are shared with engineers, startups, and other small businesses. Makerspaces mean interaction with other disciplines, and most importantly, a community of people who like to create, and who like to help others create.

HOW TO CREATE PATHWAYS TO ENGAGING, WELL-PAYING NEW COLLAR DIGITAL JOBS THAT CAN BRIDGE THE WEALTH GAP WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE
Sarah Boisvert, founder, Fab Lab Hub, LLC and Co-founder, The New Collar Network, New Mexico
Yesterday’s blue-collar jobs are digital New Collar jobs that utilize cool technologies like 3D printing, robotics, lasers, AI, and so much more. The New Collar Network provides skills today’s workers need to be able to support their families and conference participants will see how easily they can create a New Collar Workforce so much in demand today.

THE FAB LAB PROGRAM AT THE HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF CRAFT
James Rutter, Technology Director, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Maine
In this presentation, James Rutter of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts will discuss the Fab Lab program and how it is integrated into the studio programs at Haystack. The Haystack Fab Lab is part of an international network of digital fabrication facilities, which originated at the Center for Bits & Atoms at MIT. Digital fabrication provides new opportunities for artists and makers to develop new tools, processes, and workflows to augment their craft. Participants will learn about the various technologies available in the Haystack Fab Lab and be shown different examples of how artists have integrated this into their work.

TIMBER STRUCTURES
Yari Nasser, PhD, Engineer, Assistant Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
Over the past 35 years as a practicing engineer, I have gained tremendous appreciation for the natural beauty of wood structures. Timber structures are majestic and their ability to provide a sustainable alternative to steel and concrete is enormous. Timber substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the building construction sector, lowers pollution and costs associated with construction, and above all, can create a more physically and psychologically pleasing to the eye healthy environment. In recent years, tall timber buildings have made a comeback across North America, thanks to sustainability and mass timber. Sustainability is a major factor—The Brundtland Commission of United Nations in 1987 defined sustainability as, “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Though it may seem strange, the hottest new material in sustainable building is wood.

DAY 2, NOVEMBER 5
MORNING PANELS

A Considered Balance in Cultural Exchange: The Host and the Hosted
Moderator: Glenn Williams, General Manager, Boston Neighborhood Network Media
Shaarbek Amankul, Artist, Curator and Founder of B’Art Contemporary, Kyrgyzstan
Pieranna Cavalchini, Curator Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Roger Colombik, Artist and Professor, Texas State University
Riley Robinson, Director, Artpace San Antonio

THE TIME AND LAND WHERE EAGLES FLY FREELY
Shaarbek Amankul, Artist, Curator and Founder of B’Art Contemporary
B’Art Contemporary is an artistic project that considers art as an essential facilitator of critical dialogue on environmental, social, economic and cultural issues faced by the societies of Central Asia. B’Art Contemporary was founded as an artistic research project aimed at developing and promoting contemporary art as an alternative to the traditional view of and approach to art. Since 2007, B’Art has developed collaborative projects; produced workshops, public art projects and competitions for communities; and created opportunities for exhibitions to support the next generation on its way to create a sustainable future, focused on social interaction and collaboration involving people from various backgrounds and generations. Since 2011, B’Art Contemporary implemented the Nomadic Art Camp project, which has convened artists and creative people from different countries to develop art projects on the shores of mountain lakes in the Tien Shan foothills on the Silk Road. They stay in nomadic Kyrgyz yurts and travel to well-known, local, natural attractions to research this multi-ethnic country’s amazing nature, rich history, spirituality, culture and biological diversity, encompassing traditional nomadic culture, shamanism, holy places, fauna and flora in a post-soviet setting. The participants were also encouraged to partake in various aspects of the ecology and culture as a source for pure foods, recreation, detoxification, mental awakening, and restorative health from the medicinal properties of plants, music and folklore. The setting itself is an artistic muse.

A DAZZLING PRESENCE: EDUCATION, PROTEST, COMMUNITY & THE SPECTACULAR IN INDONESIAN CONTEMPORARY ART
Roger Colombik, Artist and Professor, Texas State University
This paper presents an introduction to Indonesian contemporary artists with a focus on sculptors and social practice cultural producers. Moving through three distinct geographical territories and communities in Java, artists address a range of relevant concepts, from ethnic identity in the Chinese minority community, women’s rights and empowerment, use of traditional materials in monumental constructions to humor that is universal. The art communities are mutually supportive and interconnected. The university programs that train each subsequent generation of cultural producers are upheld as paragons of professional training in the arts. Within this discussion is the role of US artists serving as cultural ambassadors, the ability to make a contribution without becoming cultural imperialists. In many ways, I think of this work as a contribution to how we can think about what a residency can be in regards to working in divergent cultures.

THE DELICATE BALANCE OF ENCOURAGING RISK
Riley Robinson, Director, Artpace San Antonio
Programs for artists, including residencies, clearly wish to support artists. Most provide time, space and, sometimes, funding for artists to produce new work. At the same time, these programs have a responsibility to their founders, funders and, if government money is involved, the public. What to do then, when a program provides artists with a space to work, encourages them to take risks and then, at the end of the residency, there is no work for a formerly agreed upon deliverable, such as an exhibition? Does the artist have a responsibility to the institution? What ways are there to avoid such situations? Riley Robinson will discuss this difficult dilemma using Artpace as a case study. Artpace is a nonprofit residency program that encourages artists to take risks. It supports regional, national, and international artists in the creation of new art. As a catalyst for artistic expression, Artpace engages local communities with global art practices and experiences.

Promoting Cultural Diplomacy through University Exchanges
Moderator: Mariana Smith, Artist, Associate Professor of Visual Art, Stockton University, NJ
Ryann Casey, Independent Curator and Adjunct Professor of Photography, Art History & Critical Theory, Stockton University, NJ
Elizabeth Gerdeman, Artist and Lecturer, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
Dr. Benoit Granier, Professor, Coventry University, Composer, (ethno) Musicologist, Visual and Sonic Artist, UK
Fatima Martinez Gutierrez, Photographer, Journalist, Independent Curator, and Professor at the Universidad Del Rosario, Colombia

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, VISUAL ART, AND THE FUTURE OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY
Ryann Casey, Independent Curator and Adjunct Professor of Photography, Art History & Critical Theory, Stockton University, NJ
This paper will address the importance of the university gallery and curatorial practices in relation to the transcultural exchanges and engagement. Included will be an analysis of the US higher education trends and strategies when engaging with political and controversial subject matter like migration crisis or Armenian Genocide. The presentation will also evaluate the role of the exhibition as an engagement strategy and a space for critical and creative thinking for the students and broader community.

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, VISUAL ART, AND THE FUTURE OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY
Elizabeth Gerdeman, Artist and Lecturer, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany
This paper will discuss examples of the international projects and strategies at the university in times of uncertainty and turbulence in Colombia and her work with students in journalism and documentary photography covering the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous peoples’ displacements, and 2021 National Strikes in Colombia.

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, EMBRACING A NEW LEARNING EXPERIENCE THROUGH COLLABORATIVE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL LEARNING PROJECTS
Dr. Benoit Granier, Professor, Coventry University, Composer, (ethno) Musicologist, Visual and Sonic Artist
The Music Technology course at Coventry University has developed a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project with partners that have led to the creation of many collaborations with students from different institutions. In 2021, the course was awarded the Alliance, recognizing the program’s commitment to collaborative working. The awarded project focused on developing a music project between three institutions, three countries and two continents. In 2021, we decided to take the opportunity to work with Bezalel Academy and set a multicultural and inter-art program focused on collaboration to create a better understanding of culture. This paper will present our approach to both collaboration and cultural diplomacy and discuss its benefit to education, the student experience and the university’s role in changing world perceptions. Additionally, the presentation will share insights on the effect of the pandemic on the studies of Art and Design and present examples of learning in conflicted situations – for instance, Palestinians and settlers studying together while a violent conflict erupts, and meanwhile the pandemic is still very much present.

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, VISUAL ART AND THE FUTURE OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY
Dr. Fatima Martinez Gutierrez, Photographer, Journalist, Independent Curator and Professor at the Universidad Del Rosario, Colombia
This paper will discuss how the projects and strategies centered on visual art address the migration crisis and climate change crisis. The presentation will also highlight the German higher education institutions’ initiatives, federal support, and roles of non-profit organizations in working with community engagement.

EARLY AFTERNOON PANELS
MFAs Abroad, The Ultimate Cultural Immersion
Moderator: Erica Puccio O’Brien, Director, International Education Center/IEC, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Anne-Karin Furunes, Artist and Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway
Amy Giese, Artist and Program Director of the MFA in Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Dr. Benoit Granier, Professor, Coventry University, Composer, (ethno) Musicologist, Visual and Sonic Artist
Irène Hediger, Director, artists-in-lab program, Zurich University
Krishna Luchoomun, Artist, Founder of pARTage and Professor, School of the Fine Arts, Mauritius

KiT, THE TRONDHEIM ACADEMY OF FINE ART, NORWAY
Anne-Karin Furunes, Artist and Professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Norway
KiT, the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art is a department at NTNU, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. KiT has the unique situation of being embedded in one of Norway’s largest universities frequented by 40,000 students and over 8,000 employees. Being a new type of Art School offers exciting opportunities of cross pollination, bridging Art and Science. Students are encouraged to blur the boundaries between diverse modes of knowledge production and practice. KiT’s strategic research areas in Art and Ocean and Art and Technology explore the potentials of artistic involvement and collaboration with renowned partners from both, science and technology as well as the world of art and culture. KiT’s International MFA program at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art is a two-year program made for artists and artistic researchers. Together, students and faculty at KiT set out to redefine the role of art in society today, engaging in societal and environmental challenges, modes of trans-disciplinary collaboration and experimentation to further knowledge transfer and social change. Current teaching faculty comprises artists and educators working in the fields of forensic architecture, ocean, cosmopolitics, material practices, painting and beyond, art and common space, performance and pop culture, expanded media practices and AI. There are no tuition fees, also for non-EU/EEA students. Teaching language of all courses is English.

MFA IN FINE ARTS AT MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
Amy Giese, Artist and Program Director of the MFA in Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art and Design
The MFA: Fine Arts (low residency program) offers working artists and educators who thrive in a cross-disciplinary, collaborative community a 60-credit terminal degree, earned in two academic years and three summer residencies on the MassArt campus in Boston’s arts district. In the fall and spring semesters, students push their studio work in dialogue with an artist-mentor; in both semesters, students also take remote research and writing courses along with electives. For five days every January, students participate in a theme-based, credit-bearing Colloquium and Review, where they present their work and engage with a range of makers and thinkers around a thematic set of ideas and questions. The six-week summer residency in Boston immerses students in an intense studio environment and fosters creative collaborations. During their time in the program, MFA Low Residency Students develop an independent body of work, which could involve a combination of media, technologies, and techniques. Students graduate with a deepened practice, a clear sense of their relationship to contemporary art, and a network of support for their work and their lives as artists.

COVENTRY UNIVERSITY
Dr. Benoit Granier, Professor, Coventry University, Composer, (ethno) Musicologist, Visual and Sonic Artist

TOWARDS TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN EDUCATION – ARTISTS-IN-LABS MASTER SERIES
Irène Hediger, Director, artists-in-lab program, Zurich University
Since 2019 the artists-in-labs program and the Master in Transdisciplinary Studies of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) offer Master Students in Art and Design the possibility of Art & Science residencies to work with scientists for an extended period of time on topics of their choice. This presentation will offer insight into the making of the Master Series for students – from idea to implementation, first results and lessons learnt. It will elaborate on the potential of such practice-based Art & Science projects for students and how to make it work despite the dense curricula of Master programs in University structures.

THE SCHOOL OF THE FINE ARTS AT THE MAHATMA GANDHI INSTITUTE, MAURITIUS
Krishna Luchoomun, Artist, Founder of pARTage and Professor, School of the Fine Arts, Mauritius
In Mauritius, the Visual Arts is an exciting sector that has known constant growth over the last few decades, with increasing professionalization, from creation to display and consumption. The School of the Fine Arts at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute offers a M.A. in Visual Arts with specializations in painting, printmaking, sculpture, new media, art theory and interdisciplinary art practice; and a Master Degree in Media Arts (by Research). The objective of the Master Degree in Media Arts is to provide an academic space that allows for both reflection and innovation in the field of the wider media arts (video, animation, television, internet, gaming, VR/ AR, print and advertising, etc.). The deeper underlying objective is to foster strong analytical and critical skills as well as mature aesthetic sensibilities in the graduate student, and to lay the groundwork for young researchers to eventually embark on PhDs at the School of Fine Arts. The objective of the M.A. in Visual is to address the needs of a category of local and potentially regional/international students who have already completed an undergraduate course in the visual arts, and who want to develop the specialized skills and competencies required for a more sophisticated artistic production which can find its place in global contemporary artistic trends.

Reporting from the Field: The Caribbean, India, Ukraine, Lapland and Burundi
Moderator: Neil Leonard, Composer, Musician and Professor, Berklee College of Music
Purva Damani, Founder and Director of 079 | STORIES, India
Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Founder and Senior Curator, Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
Hanna Isaksson, Manager, ASC, Artists Support Center, Luleå, Arctic Sweden; and Founder, Swedish Lapland AiR
Liudmyla Nychai, Ukraine, Independent Researcher, Art Critic, Curator-at-Large, Lite-Haus Gallery Berlin and curator, Nazar Voitovich Art Residence (NVAIR, Ukraine)
Shabani Ramadhani, Musician, Bass Player, Songwriter, Festival Organizer and Rounder, Marahaba Music Expo, Burundi

079 | STORIES, Ahmedabad, India
Purva Damani, Founder and Director of 079 | STORIES
079 | STORIES is an art gallery, workshop and art and cultural space with an amphitheater, designed and created by Khushnu and Sonkje Hoof, Partners to Pritzker and Padmashree Awardee Shri. Balkrishna V. Doshi. Its mission is to revive fading art techniques by promoting emerging contemporary Indian artists’ works. Since its inception, the gallery has hosted multiple shows of young contemporary artists along with modern masters of international and national fame, while also giving a platform to emerging artists. It is Damani’s endeavor to create a platform for bringing art and culture together and making it accessible to the people.

DIASPORA VIBE CULTURAL ARTS, A CARIBBEAN FORCE FOR ARTISTS
Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Founder and Senior Curator, Diaspora Vibe Gallery and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
A presentation on Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s commitment to artists of Caribbean and diverse cultures ensures they receive validation, visibility and professional opportunities. Our artists break boundaries of traditional forms and work outside of institutionalized systems, they often must create new systems and infrastructures to sustain their practice. We promote, nurture and exhibit the diverse talents of emerging artists from the Latin and Caribbean Diasporas through an artist-in-residence program, international exchanges, community arts events and a dynamic exhibition program collaborating with art spaces and inhabiting the virtual landscape. We also help artists with our Farms to Studios program, providing boxes of fruits and vegetables to artists in need.

SWEDISH LAPLAND AIR – HOW TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE NETWORK IN ARCTIC SWEDEN
Hanna Isaksson, Manager, ASC, Artists Support Center, Luleå, Arctic Sweden; and Founder, Swedish Lapland AiR
Swedish Lapland AiR is a network for residency organizers based in arctic Sweden, covering a quarter of the total area in Sweden, with a population of 250 000 people. Swedish Lapland AiR is run by Resurscentrum för konst konst (Contemporary Art Development Center) in partnership with artists, cultural institutions and municipalities. The residencies are located across eight different places in the region. Shaped by their unique identities, the different sites offer a diverse cultural and natural environment, engaging participants with local culture, art, history and nature. Every residency is a one-of-a-kind experience shaped by the context they are in, spread out from the coast line towards the mountains in Norway and the east border to Finland. Since the first year, the network has been running between 4-8 residencies a year through sharing the work, learning together and helping each other. It’s a network based on solidarity and sharing. The network is broad in the sense that everyone is welcome, some of the residencies are artist run, some others are run by institutions or municipalities, and some are run in a collaboration between all of these partners. The goal with the network is to build sustainability and flexibility with the organizers, so they can be the best hosts for the artists.

NAZARIY VOITOVYCH ART RESIDENCE, UKRAINE
Liudmyla Nychai, Member, Crypto Art Community of Ukrainian Artists; and Curator, Nazariy Voitovych Art Residence, Ukraine
In the fall of 2020, the building of the Nazariy Voitovych Art Residence became empty, and the only activities we could afford were the presentation of exhibitions in virtual 3D galleries. That is, we had minimal means to communicate in this physical absence. This situation then became a framework for our first program in which we explored what part of the creative process the artist is willing to delegate to technology or coincidences that may occur outside the artist’s will. Part of our program took place on the Mozilla Hubbs platform, as we smoothly moved to virtual 3D galleries on the Internet. We also realized that this became an opportunity for artists to remain in a comfortable environment – in their own studios – while still being a part of the international community and communicate on an equal footing with all participants in the program. Now, our Virtual Art Residence the “Artist is Absent” has expanded its partnerships and geography of artists, and we are including a research program and the process of creating our own accounts for artists for the Internet 3.0. By the time of the Conference, we will have the results of this program. The international Open Call is currently underway, the program is scheduled for February – March 2022. Note: This abstract was received in November 2021.

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 communication and cultural meeting point. And 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.

Social Challenges, Artistic Interventions
Moderator: Tiffany Shea York, Artist-in-Residence Manager, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Massachusetts
Miguel Braceli, Multidisciplinary Artist, Venezuela; and current Fulbright Scholar, NY
Khalid Kodi, Artist and Professor: Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Boston College
Mitch Ryerson, Artist, Member of the Global Design Initiative; Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Doris Sommer, Harvard Professor, Author, Founder and Director, Cultural Agents

ART PLATFORM FOR RADICAL LEARNING IN PUBLIC SPACE
Miguel Braceli, Multidisciplinary Artist, Venezuela; and Current Fulbright Scholar, NY
La Escuela___ is a platform for radical learning in public space. It understands creation as a form of knowledge production and education as an artistic practice in itself. La Escuela brings together universities, institutions, and communities to create experimental projects in public spaces throughout Latin America. La Escuela seeks to bring educational spaces closer to reality, to transform their structures and actively engage with their contexts, so as to learn and act on them. Through the development of public learning spaces, La Escuela proposes an interdisciplinary program where diverse forms of practices coincide in the transformative capacity of education. La Escuela___ is a platform for free education that stands for open access and collective participation. Through a hybrid system of online laboratories and classrooms immersed in urban contexts, La Escuela develops artistic projects of a formative nature to transcend the institutional walls and bring creators, schools, and localities together in the construction of knowledge. This community seeks to structure a translocal network of experimental methodologies, while building an archive of learning, researching, and project production resources, based on the possibilities that arise from the crossings between art and education. La Escuela___ is a proposal by the artist and architect Miguel Braceli, developed in collaboration with Siemens Stiftung International Foundation. It links Siemens Stiftung’s initiatives in the cultural field in Latin America—developing co-creation programs and artistic interventions—with Braceli’s work within social practices in public spaces.

REBUILDING IN THE SUDAN THROUGH ART
Khalid Kodi, Artist and Professor: Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Boston College
Since the early 1990s, Kodi Kodi has been traveling and leading projects and teaching art in refugee settlements and warzone areas in Africa to advance sustainable peace between communities with diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds and histories. He introduces refugees and war survivors to international artists and art practices relevant to their survivors’ conditions. These projects and programs, often targeting youth, child soldiers, and women as agents of transformation, have involved participatory approaches to help communities rebuild and overcome individual and collective trauma resulting from war.

GLOBAL DESIGN INITIATIVE FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN
Mitch Ryerson, Artist, Member of the Global Design Initiative; Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
This talk will present the Global Design Initiative (GDI) for Refugee Children, a knowledge community of the Boston Society of Architects and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Since 2016 GDI has been working on designing playgrounds in refugee communities around the world. From the initial project in Lebanon, to current work in Greece, Uganda and Mexico, the goal has been to create a safe space for children to be themselves and find some joy. Many children spend their entire childhood in these “temporary” spaces, other children are being shuffled through in a constant bureaucratic shell game. By collaborating with NGOs, nonprofits and educators, GDI tries to create designs that match specific situations and needs. This presentation will showcase examples of several different playgrounds that GDI has worked on, and describe some of the upcoming projects.

LATE AFTERNOON PANELS
“The Road Less Traveled – Lesser-Known Opportunities for Artists,” Part 1, Funding
This presentation will focus on lesser-known opportunities, going where other artists don’t usually go or finding an opportunity when it is just starting out or before too many other artists know about it. The panel will emphasize creating the future yourself by networking, keeping contacts and initiating ideas. Each presenter will share about opportunities (some with stipends) to be an artist-in-residence at residencies that help to cover your expenses (in the US and/or abroad), and how to find grants and exhibition opportunities that are less known and open to applications without entry fees. As the panel moderator, Allen will introduce the other panelists and what each one will talk about in particular. For Part 1, the presenters will speak about funding opportunities, including the Fulbright Scholar Grants and Fulbright Specialist Grants for professional artists (Jane Ingram Allen); independent foundation grants to individual artists that are less known such as Chenven Foundation, which will be introduced by Peter Bunten; the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which will be introduced by Linda Lighton; and a special employment opportunity Vacation with An Artist (VAWAA) by Geetika Agrawal. Part 2 will focus on artist-in-residencies that are less well-known, such as Newnan Art Rez presented by Chad Davidson and Monson Arts by Chantal Harris; and CEC ArtsLink’s program by Susan Katz.

Moderator and Speaker: Jane Ingram Allen, Visual Artist, Independent Curator and Art Writer
Geetika Agrawal, Founding Director, Vacation with An Aritst (VAWAA)
Jane Ingram Allen, Artist and Speaker for the Fulbright Specialist and Fulbright Scholar Program
Peter Bunten, President, Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, New York
Linda Lighton, Artist, Founder, Lighton International Artists Exchange Program

When Pandemics Strike: Strategies for Keeping Lines between Others Open
Moderator: Alberta Chu, Founding Director, ASKLabs
Mark DeGarmo, Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of Mark DeGarmo Dance, New York
Flurin Fischer, Research Associate, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
Chen Chia-Lan, Executive Secretary of Taiwan Art Space Alliance (TASA) (Chen Chia-Lan’s presentation is supported in part, by TransCultural Exchange’s Margaret Shiu Memorial fund)
Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, Assistant Professor, Colonial Latin American Art, University of Illinois at Chicago; and recurrent Lecturer and Board of Directors Member, Arquetopia Foundation, Mexico, Peru and Italy
Dr. Christine Veras, Experimental Animator, Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication (ATEC), University of Texas Dallas and Founding Director, experimenta.l.lab

DANCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social CHANGE
Mark DeGarmo, Founder, Executive and Artistic Director of Mark DeGarmo Dance, NY
Mark DeGarmo Dance’s MDD’s Virtual Salon Performance Series for Social Change, founded in 2010, celebrates its 12th season in 2022. VSPS is a curated opportunity to view and engage with original dance and movement works-in-progress of under-resourced and under-represented New York City and global dance and movement artists. Its innovative facilitated audience response approach is an encouraging and supportive way for the general public to actively participate in the creation of new dance and movement work. It also models tested artistic and audience development and marketing approaches for noncommercial dance and movement artists whose work is largely experiential, nonverbal, and nonlinear. Demystifying the creation of often undervalued and misunderstood dance and movement arts and providing developmental artistic and marketing support to noncommercial dance and movement artists are goals of the series. The 2020-21 season featured 263 artists/performers in 12 salons from 23 countries and 16 U.S. states held virtually on Zoom. The works spanned time zones with both live and pre- recorded presentations.

ARTISTS-IN-LABS PROGRAM OF ZURICH UNIVERSITY OF THE ART
Flurin Fischer, Research Associate, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
This presentation sheds light on some of the challenges and opportunities for the artists-in-labs program’s international collaborations during the Corona pandemic. As the pandemic spread around the globe at breakneck speed and brought many social activities to a standstill, ongoing or planned artists-in-labs residencies and exhibitions in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and South Africa were also affected. Within a short time, decisions had to be taken – go through, postpone or cancel? After the first lock-down, which offered an opportunity to reflect on the situation, several international projects could be continued – under very volatile conditions. The presentation will elaborate on how the program adapted its strategies to allow artists access to national and international laboratories, to pursue an exhibition in South Africa and implement a project week with students from St. Petersburg and Zurich. Background: Initiated in 2003, the artists-in-labs program of Zurich University of the Arts facilitates sustainable and long-term collaborations between artists and scientists through its residencies in Switzerland and around the globe.

ADJUSTING TO COVID
Chen Chia-Lan, Executive Secretary of Taiwan Art Space Alliance (TASA)
With the pandemic, the Taipei Artist Village first tried offering virtual residencies since travel was severely curtailed; however, we found that artists felt stressed in the virtual environment. It was so unreal to them. Still, we have not given up on trying to find a better solution in the virtual realm. This next year, we are attempting to do an exchange again with Capacete in Brazil. At the same time, instead of receiving international artists, we started working with visually impaired artists and wheel-chaired artists. This helped us to consider how we can improve our facilities and residency program to be accessible to more artists. For, although The pandemic situation changed everything, including ways of exhibiting and presenting performances, it also benefited wheel-chaired audiences. They could spend more time online to “see” the exhibit instead of undergoing the difficulties of visiting the galleries. My presentation will focus on some of these things that we learned during this time.

THE END OF THE GRAND TOUR? VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM ON ARTIST RESIDENCIES: AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSNATIONAL DIALOGUE
Dr. Emmanuel Ortega, Assistant Professor, Colonial Latin American Art, University of Illinois at Chicago; and recurrent Lecturer and Board of Directors Member, Arquetopia Foundation, Mexico, Peru and Italy
Around the world, artist residencies have had a prominent role in the production and dissemination of art and artistic ideas, which were severely affected by the events of the year 2020. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arquetopia Foundation organized and hosted “The End of the Grand Tour? Virtual Symposium on Artist Residencies: Future, Place and State,” including the perspectives of 18 organizations from 5 continents. The symposium was highly successful, becoming a transnational dialogue addressing the invention of place, mobility, tourism, and their historical roots, at the intersection of artist residencies. This critical reexamination of the practices of traveling, revealed the dark fantasies of destinations and ways in which the Grand Tour still inhabits artist residencies. Discussions about art and the ethical implications of artistic mobility, local communities and the roles of art organizations, generously contributed to the conclusions for the symposium. The work of prominent scholars participating as keynote speakers and moderators, including Kirsten Pai Buick, Sharon Holland, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Emmanuel Ortega, Karim Kattan, and Francisco Guevara provided the framework for such discussions.

EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION: CATALYZER FOR INCLUSIVE CULTURAL PARTNERSHIPS
Dr. Christine Veras, Experimental Animator, Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication (ATEC), University of Texas Dallas and Founding Director, experimenta.l. lab
The inspiration for animation may come from the most unusual places. One may be inspired by a story they have heard, an experience, or a process, sometimes completely unrelated to the daily practice of animation. This presentation will showcase the virtual exchange project developed between my students in the United States and students from Brazil. My students were studying experimental animation, and they connected with international students from Brazil, studying Agronomical Sciences, focusing on food technology and fermentation. Although the Brazilian students were studying fermentation in the biological sense, students from animation in the United States were encouraged to find ways to connect fermentation and animation. Both considered transformative processes that influence culture, encouraging social engagement and art. The questions that students were invited to reflect on were “How can ideas start to ferment?” and “If fermentation transforms microorganisms into something new, in what ways can the fermentation process be discussed in terms of animation?” The exchange with the international partners inspired the animation students to create unique artwork through various techniques and experimentations with animation. In that sense, their experimentation catalyzed new inclusive cultural partnerships as inter-cultural dialogs in times of social distancing.

Music of the Spheres Remix
Who are some of the leading visionaries in sound art today and how do they define their practice? This two-hour panel will introduce four scientists and artists—Markus Buehler, David Ibbett, Mary Sherman, and Jana Winderen – whose experiments with sonification and electronic technologies reflect an astonishing array of interdisciplinary sources and collaborative approaches to artistic production. Although sound gained currency as an art medium in the 1960s, its origins can be traced to the classical tenet of musica universalis, an all-encompassing metaphysical description of celestial motion based on the principle that mathematical relationships express qualities or “tones” of energy evident in numbers, shapes, and sounds through proportional patterns. Today, the field is recognized as a unique manifestation of time-based art, offering an abstract emotive scape that is sculpted with sound and transcends geographic, linguistic, and cultural barriers. Ranging from Markus Buehler’s musical compositions, using proteins and viruses that investigate similarities and differences across species, scales, and between philosophical and physical models; David Ibbett’s electro-symphonic music that draws on exoplanets and black holes to create a fusion of classical and electronic styles performed live; Mary Sherman’s sonification of data taken from a painting’s surface to expose its inherent aural and tactile presence; to Jana Winderen’s eco-inflected, sound installations that are sourced in natural environments and living creatures across the planet, Music of the Spheres Remix explores the ever-expanding boundaries of sound art and the opportunities it presents for cross-disciplinary residencies and audience engagement.

Panel Organizer and Moderator: Sarah Tanguy, Independent Curator and Writer
Markus J. Buehler, Composer and McAfee Professor of Engineering, MIT
David Ibbett, Composer, Musical Advocate for Science, and Visiting Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Mary Sherman, Artist, Professor, Boston College
Jörg Sϋssenbach, Director, Goethe-Institut Boston
Jana Winderen, Artist, Norway

SATURDAY KEYNOTE
ARTISTS UNDER ATTACK, ARTISTS AS POLITICAL ACTORS
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape society at all levels, authoritarian regimes are exploiting the sense of “national emergency,” leading to ever more crackdowns on artists and those who creatively dissent, often criminalizing artists under the guise of “spreading disinformation.” In the face of these challenges, artists have emerged as political actors and protest leaders, developing powerful new ways of resisting, mobilizing, and educating. In Cuba, Myanmar, and Belarus, artists have been at the forefront of mass demonstrations, supplying protest anthems and posters while drawing international awareness to human rights abuses in their countries. Government and state security forces have retaliated against artists with harassment, censorship, detention, forced disappearances, and other forms of persecution. In this panel, we will explore the relationship between COVID-19, authoritarianism, and the role of artists as political dissenters. We will discuss the increasing number of threats facing artists around the world in light of these challenges and how artists can best prepare themselves to address risk, and what unlikely opportunities may arise out of times of unrest. We will also provide an overview of the available resources for artists-at-risk, including opportunities for funding, relocation, and legal assistance.

Moderator: Julie Trébault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a project of PEN America
Tania Bruguera, Cuban Artist and Activist
Liudmyla Nychai, Ukraine Artist, Curator and Community Activist
Omaid Sharifi, Afghan Street Artist

DAY 3, NOVEMBER 6
MORNING PANELS

“The Road Less Traveled – Lesser-Known Opportunities for Artists,” Part 2, Residencies and Exhibition Opportunities
This presentation will focus on lesser-known opportunities, going where other artists don’t usually go or finding an opportunity when it is just starting out or before too many other artists know about it. The panel will emphasize creating the future yourself by networking, keeping contacts and initiating ideas. Each presenter will share about opportunities (some with stipends) to be an artist-in-residence at residencies that help to cover your expenses (in the US and/or abroad), and how to find grants and exhibition opportunities that are less known and open to applications without entry fees. As the panel moderator, Allen will introduce the other panelists and what each one will talk about in particular. For Part 1, the presenters will speak about funding opportunities, including the Fulbright Scholar Grants and Fulbright Specialist Grants for professional artists (Jane Ingram Allen); independent foundation grants to individual artists that are less known such as Chenven Foundation, which will be introduced by Peter Bunten; the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which will be introduced by Linda Lighton; and a special employment opportunity Vacation with An Artist (VAWAA) by Geetika Agrawal. Part 2 will focus on artist-in-residencies that are less well-known, such as Newnan Art Rez presented by Chad Davidson and Monson Arts by Chantal Harris; and CEC ArtsLink’s program by Susan Katz.

Panel Organizer, Moderator and Speaker: Jane Ingram Allen, Visual Artist, Independent Curator and Art Writer
Suzanne Ball, Representative, CODAworx
Geraldine Craig, Artist, Writer, Professor and co-Founder of Mother’s Milk Artist Residency, Kansas
Chad Davidson, Board Member, Newnan Art Rez, Newnan, Georgia
Chantal Harris, Director, Monson Arts, Maine
Liudmyla Nychai, Ukraine Artist, Curator and Community Activist
Susan Katz, Program Director, CEC ArtsLink

Augmented/Virtual Reality as a Tool for the Arts
Moderator: Dana Moser, Artist, Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Anna Calise, PhD Candidate, IULM University of Milan
Luc Courchesne, Artist, Designer, Associate Professor, École de Design Industriel, Université de Montréal; Lecturer, McGill University, Montreal
Alain Thibault, Curator, Composer and Founder of ELEKTRA; the BIAN, International Digital Arts Biennial, Montreal; and EVM, Elektra Virtual Museum
Urbonas Studio, Artist Team, Lithuania/Massachusetts

THE DIGITAL MUSEUM AS AN EPISTEMIC DEVICE: HOW TO DESIGN A DEMOCRATIC CULTURAL SPACE
Anna Calise, PhD Candidate, IULM University of Milan
The past 30 years have witnessed a dramatic change in our experience, championed by the evolution of information and communication technologies. Within this scenario, museums have started to dislocate their content and production online, entering a completely new context. Their historical premises, of being fundamentally a curated physical space, are called into question online: by definition a non-space where a plurality of users and voices endangers institutional authority. This paper, starting from Foucault’s theorization of apparatus (or devices), analyzes museum’s new digital existence, investigating to what extent their online presence employs technologies to exercise power in the cultural field or whether, on the other end, technological developments are incentivizing a more horizontal construction of knowledge. The aim of this research is to outline ways in which museum digital interfaces can be designed to counter cultural dominance and historic power relations, aiming at a more horizontal and democratic space for culture.

VIENNA CHIAROSCURO: EPHEMERAL ONTOLOGIES
Luc Courchesne, Artist, Designer, Professor, Associate Professor, École de Design Industriel, Université de Montréal; Lecturer, McGill University, Montreal
What if the design of the spaces we visit or inhabit was the work of algorithms? In computer apparatuses, ontologies expose explorable architectures of information. Ephemeral Ontologies is a framework for the construction of algorithmically generated explorable worlds. It allows for the creation of assets (dataset) and of algorithms interpreting the metadata to construct explorable architectures in real-time. Vienna Chiaroscuro is an immersive VR experience constructed in the Ephemeral Ontologies framework. The project is to document today’s Viennese society through interviews of people and visits of the places they inhabit.

EVM – ELEKTRA VIRTUAL MUSEUM
Alain Thibault, Curator, Composer, and Founder of ELEKTRA; the BIAN, International Digital Arts Biennial, Montreal; and EVM, Elektra Virtual Museum
What is the future of virtual museums? In order to answer this question, Elektra has created in 2022 the EVM – Elektra Virtual Museum – a 3D museum complex composed of three pavilions. Focusing on the creation of a high quality virtual exhibition space dedicated to contemporary digital arts, its director will share with us the different phases of development of the project, past and future, in connection with the Metaverse or not.

Urbonas Studio, Artist Team, Lithuania/Massachusetts
The Swamp Observatory, a project by Urbonas Studio, is an artistic intervention in urban planning and a form of environmental pedagogy. By engaging with the planned stormwater ponds on the Gotland island in Sweden, the project suggests an instrumentarium for a change of perspective. For a number of years, the artists have worked with the concept of swamp as a form of intelligence and as a model through which we can look at the coexistence of life forms and their complex relationships. Swamp unfolds as a perfectly organized biosphere and a habitat with its own pluriverse of historic, cultural, cybernetic ontologies that can help us to grapple with the mess of the new climatic regime. By suggesting a set of artistic instruments, the Swamp Observatory seeks to expand on what is seen and known in the life sciences and to contribute to the so-called ‘shadow biosphere’ hypothesis. By developing an AR app, the artists propose a new model for art in public space that engages communities and facilitates their sensorial engagement with the site before the planning process has physically affected the place. The Swamp Observatory encourages observation of the environment – physical and imaginary – through tinkering with AR technology in order to find a new ethos of coexistence and to recognize the poetical power of the ecologies surrounding us.

Art from the Writer’s Point of View
Moderator: Claudia Fiks, Development Director, Society of Arts and Crafts; Founder of Arts Administration Association New England (AAANE)
Rita Fucillo, Associate Publisher, Art New England
Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief, The Arts Fuse, Boston
Susanne Mueller-Baji, Art Critic, Germany

ARTS CRITICISM IN CRISIS
Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief, The Arts Fuse, Boston
The world is in crisis, from climate change to the weakening of democracies. Art can deepen our understanding of these realities and writing about the arts, particularly incisive criticism, contributes to public dialogue by articulating when art is — or isn’t — succeeding. But with the curtailment of arts coverage in newspapers and magazines, arts criticism itself is in crisis — vanishing altogether or losing its independence. The value and definition of arts criticism is under attack as corporate and institutional powers shape the media landscape, social and otherwise. What is judgement? Who can judge? Isn’t a google algorithm enough? The Arts Fuse magazine is my attempt to supply an online alternative to the current malaise, to grapple with the opportunities and challenges presented to arts criticism.

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY TO CREATE A PRINT MAGAZINE
Susanne Mueller-Baji, Art Critic, Germany
As in the U.S., local newspapers have been vanishing in Germany. The remaining ones barely cover life and culture any more. To try to address this issue in Feuerbach – one of Stuttgart’s outer districts – a website agency and a freelance journalist greatly extended the existing online platform, but it quickly became clear that a print issue was needed for people who did not have internet access. As a result, “FeuerbachGo” started to appear twice a month, making local culture one of its (main) focuses. The revenue through advertising has started to look promising and in time “FeuerbachGo” will pay for itself as, surprisingly, most people prefer the print version of the publication over the online issue. Some even felt inspired to get involved. “FeuerbachGo” has, thus, turned into a community project with volunteers contributing to the magazine or helping to distribute it. “FeuerbachGo” is now considering workshops on related subjects and to involve local schools and youth centers.

EARLY AFTERNOON PANELS

Residencies: Providing Artists Direct Access to Understanding Climate Change
Moderator: Jane D. Marsching, Arts, Professor and Sustainability Fellow, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Ute Meta Bauer, International Curator; Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University; and Founding Director of the NTU CCA Singapore
Janeil Engelstad, Founding Director, Make Art with Purpose; Embedded Artist, Institute of Innovation and Global Engagement, University of Washington
Gordon Knox, Founder, WEAVE: Ecology-based International Learning Spaces
Giovanni Morassutti, Giovanni Morassutti, Founder and Artistic Director of Art Aia – Creatives / In/ Residence, Italy

MAKE ART WITH PURPOSE / EARTH SENSES LAB
Janeil Engelstad, Founding Director, Make Art with Purpose; Embedded Artist, Institute of Innovation and Global Engagement, University of Washington
Artist, Curator and Educator Janeil Engelstad will talk about how collaboration, human centered design, story-telling, technology and community engagement have been at the foundation of her nearly three-decade career working in art and social practice. Engelstad will present projects that illustrate how she has engaged these methodologies and processes to address social and environmental concerns and created a measurable, positive impact on issues ranging from gun violence, to homelessness, to equity and inclusion, to political histories. Reflecting on her work as an independent artist, as well as through her organization Make Art with Purpose, Engelstad will also introduce her current international project, Earth Senses Lab. An on-going census of the Earth’s systems and sensations through images, videos, field recordings, compositions, and scents of nearly every aspect of the earth as organism in a specific place. Over time the Earth Senses Lab will be an Evidence Based Archive that will assist in the understanding of how species and the planet are responding to Climate Change in various locations around the world. At the end of the talk attendees will learn how they can join the Earth Senses Lab project with a take away to get them started.

WEAVE: Ecology-based International Learning Spaces
Gordon Knox, Cultural Innovator, Founder, WEAVE: Ecology-based International Learning Spaces
WEAVE: network of locations of knowledge exchange and community creation was inspired by evolutionary learning and based on the social form of artist residencies. With partners at Dartington Hall UK, upstate New York, the Kyrgyzstani steppes and Liberian farmland, Weave is both global and deeply local. WEAVE’s conceit is simple: start with an ‘acre of land’ and approach it as a learning platform, classroom, community center and site of research. Learning starts by asking of a place, ‘what do we need to learn?’ and seeking that knowledge by listening and by sharing local traditions, historical bioregional knowledge, current scientific revelations, diverse approaches to social cohesion and digital information systems. Each acre and associated community and cohort learn from each other, transmitting and receiving insights that emerge from the mosaic of acres across the globe. As a whole, these active locations of learning are woven together into a network of evolving knowledge of community-building around ecological and environmental coordinates. The goal of WEAVE is to imagine and assemble new forms of organization and collaboration that result in enduring, resilient, and sustainable communities connected to the global whole, and operating with the greatest respect for local health and harmony.

AIA – CREATIVES IN RESIDENCE FOCUSING ON ENVIRONMENTAL, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND SUSTAINABLE ART PRACTICES
Giovanni Morassutti, Founder and Artistic Director of Art Aia – Creatives / In / Residence, Italy
Every summer, Art Aia-Creatives / In / Residence, an international art residency located near the commune of Sesto al Reghena in the north-eastern Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, offers a cross-disciplinary Artist in Residence program open to international artists that culminate with an exhibiting event, which is generally open to the local public. This paper will present strategies for enforcing activities and opportunities for cross-disciplinary projects incorporating art, theatre, science, environmentalism, and business by sharing his experience as the producer of several art events, including artist residencies, exhibitions, and theatre production on the topic of climate change and sustainability in the arts. Since 2018, Art Aia – Creatives / In / Residence collaborates with the Arts Territory Exchange in the Residency in Sustainable Practice, which is an off-shoot program that has been formed in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA). In 2021 this international art residency became part of Climate Change Theatre Action, a project promoted by the CSPA and the Arctic Cycle that invites local communities to take action and to raise awareness of the climate emergency. Additionally, Art Aia – Creatives / In / Residence collaborates with the Artist-Led Open Collective Uronto Artist Community affiliated with Art Initiative Bangladesh-AIB.

Dissident Artists in Exile Share their Stories
Panel organized by the Artists at Risk Connection, PEN America
Artists who experience threats as a result of their creative work — including verbal or physical harassment, detention or imprisonment, and even death threats — are often forced to leave their countries to protect themselves, their families, and their livelihoods. Artists seeking asylum assistance and/or looking for support in exile make up a substantial portion (13 percent) of ARC’s requests from at-risk artists. Although the experience of exile can be isolating, confusing, and emotionally taxing, many exiled artists are able to acclimate to their new homes and find new creative communities. Opportunities to relocate can give threatened artists another chance to continue to create their work and have their voices heard even across borders. In this panel, artists currently in exile will share their experiences relocating and discuss the opportunities enabled their relocation, providing valuable insights into how they obtained visas, applied to international residency and relocation programs, and more. They will also delve into the struggles they have faced in acclimating to new environments — which can often entail the loss of a support system, learning a new language, and recovering from psychological trauma — and how they have continued their creative endeavors during their time in exile.

Panel Organizer and Moderator: Julie Trébault, Director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), a project of PEN America
Mai Khoi, Vietnamese Singer and Activist
Ahmed Naje, Egyptian Novelist

NFTs, the New Cultural Currency
Moderator: Catheline van den Branden, artist and former president and executive director of the French Library/French Cultural Center
Bolor Amgalan, Designer; Professor, Northeastern University; Founder, FABERIUM
Sébastien Beaucamps, co-founder & CEO of laCollection and co-founder, NFT Factory
Jingjing Lin, Artist
Liudmyla Nychai, Member, Crypto Art Community of Ukrainian Artists; and Curator, Nazariy Voitovych Art Residence, Ukraine
Paul-Yves Poumay, Artist, Former Financial Analyst

OTHER VALUES FOR NFTS BESIDES MONETARY
Bolor Amgalan, Designer; Professor, Northeastern University; Founder, FABERIUM
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded in the arts and entertainment sectors in the past two years, creating the sense that if one is not actively participating or engaging with NFT communities, they are missing out. Enthusiasts are rushing to bid on an NFT that is affordable but unique enough to generate significant investment return in the long term. Yet, much like how things operate in the fine art world, there is no definitive way to guarantee that an NFT will go up in value, let alone sell. Aside from the monetary value they represent, what other values do NFTs and the participation in an NFT community embody? With a CAMD Strategic Seed Grant, my colleagues and I are studying NFTs and their respective communities through a craft materiality lens in an effort to define artisanal craft for digital wares fabricated from virtual materials. This work will shed light on how attributes that we ascribe to valuable physical artifacts also have counterparts in the digital marketplace, and how these attributes can be leveraged to design for long term value.

laCOLLECTION
Jean-Sébastien Beaucamps, co-founder & CEO of laCollection and co-founder, NFT Factory
laCollection is a digital platform that aims to connect a new generation of art lovers and collectors from more than 150 countries to contemporary artists and world-renowned cultural institutions such as the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Founded in 2021, laCollection was created by art and technology enthusiasts to allow as many people as possible to experience art and culture in a new way and to support institutions and artists through innovative projects harnessing the potential of blockchain and NFT technology and leveraging their cultural assets. Blockchain and NFT technology open new ways for museums and artists to generate new revenue sources and to develop new audiences and engaged communities of collectors, interacting directly with them.

HUMANITY IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Jingjing Lin, Artist
How technology is changing human relationships, reshaping our humanity, and what it means to be human. If our desires can be met without limit by technology will we become unreachable, unable to think, and unable to communicate? Will we be trapped in a post-human wilderness, becoming a cruel and ridiculous species? Lin Jingjing explores the depths of social and personal identity in the context of modern society, often examining themes such as confusion and quest, existence and absence, constraint and resistance through a lens of paradox. Of particular focus is how individuals define themselves amongst the effects of the outside world, vis-à-vis culture, politics, history and the economy. Her artwork spans performances, installation, painting, mixed media and video. She is also well known for layering thread over painting, installations and other mixed media to create dazzling worlds. The surreal effect created via this method immerses the viewers into another consciousness.

CRYPTO ART COMMUNITY OF UKRAINIAN ARTISTS
Liudmyla Nychai, Member, Crypto Art Community of Ukrainian Artists; and Curator, Nazariy Voitovych Art Residence, Ukraine
As a member of the Crypto Art Community of Ukrainian Artists, this has become another mobility program for me. We explore DAO together as a way of creating art formations in a completely new form. The community lives in Telegram and Twitter and organizes joint activities and weekly calls. We have already organized several physical exhibitions of NFT art and are supporting new participants.

HOW CAN ART BRING INTO QUESTION THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND CHANGE OUR CURRENT SOCIETY?
Paul-Yves Poumay, Artist, Former Financial Analyst
The Art World Institute (AWI) is going to create a global campaign for currency equivalence to free the world from speculation and the hegemonic power of finance. Without denying the societal advances linked to the current global development, our intuition leads us to show via art – which is a universal symbol connecting people in time and space – that financial industrialization is a failure of historic proportions and is responsible for the destruction of the earth’s resources and for the exploitation of the weakest. Building a fairer and more sustainable world and contributing to human progress are the main goals of AWI Foundation. In order to ensure the maximum well-being for all living creatures, the AWI collective will create a team of researchers, intellectuals, artists and free thinkers to develop every potential new organizational form that could be applied to our communities. In order to make AWI an essential partner which makes its voice heard in the debates currently reserved to a few powerful organizations, a massive popular support for this project and substantial financial funds are both necessary. The capital will be first supplied by selling each milligram of my sculpture “The Return of Don Quixote.” All the purchasers will become co-owners of the world’s most expensive work of art. Both a single man and a single milligram are insignificant, illustrating the inability to act alone.