Arts & Entertainment
Join the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History's New Participatory Performance Art!
The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History's new performance art program will feature five different artists who will invite audiences to actively contribute to, co-create or directly engage in a performance piece.
Courtesy of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History
Aerial rope tricks. Opera. Live video. Interactive composing. We all engage differently. We’re bringing five radically different artists to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History to engage you. Each artist has paired with a relevant MAH event best suited to their performances; they will be inviting audiences to participate this fall at the MAH’s first Participatory Performance Artist-in-Residence (PPAIR) program.
Why is a museum that focuses on visual art and history working with performing artists in this way? Many organizations throughout the visual and performing arts world are striving to create more participatory, active audience experiences to help people make more meaningful connections with art. The MAH is well-known for our hands-on approach to audience engagement, and our goal with this project is to create partnerships with performing artists in which they can develop their own participatory skills while bringing extraordinary new work to our community. The Participatory Performing Artist-in-Residence program is a three-year project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
At the events listed below, audience members will actively contribute to, co-create or directly engage in a performance piece. The artist’s piece will not be a typical performance product for MAH audiences; instead, the artist will develop a participatory experience with MAH audiences.
Friday, August 16th, 2013 – Santa Cruz Music Night
Lanier Sammons will showcase his audience-interactive composition installation. Musicians will be in each gallery interpreting visitor responses to create a collaborative composition. You can request to changes to the tempo, alter the pitch or describe your favorite sound for the musicians to respond to.
Saturday, October 19th, 2013 – GLOW: Digital Art Night
Allie Cooper will be developing an aerial dance performance in conjunction with this night of digital art and Drew Detweiler will be engaging visitors in video workshops to place the art of video performance in everyone’s hands. The MAH’s 3 story building will be back-lit with digital and light art and a blacklight crafting explosion.
January 2014 – Winterpalooza
Alex Stein and Erin Bregman will be creating a large-scale collaborative opera piece to appear with this day of winter-inspired crafts and art activities for the whole family.
