PC: Michèle Steinwald (National Performance Network conference,
San Francisco, 2017)
Conversations
role: researching and holding space for difficult conversations toward field-wide change
October 10, 2022
It Starts Here: Program Design for Equity, Disability Justice, and Intersectional Identity Politics
In collaboration with Haowen Wang and Laurel Lawson
Presented at Grantmakers in the Arts conference, New York
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The Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists (DFA) program provides direct support to artists in recognition of the impact of their artistic practice for social change. Seeking to uphold intersectional identity justice and with designed care for equitable accessibility, this program has been reimagined to be responsive to the field of practitioners it funds.
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Inaugural Director of Regranting, Haowen Wang, will illustrate the program’s evolution, informed by reparations and intersectional justice principles. With program advisors Laurel Lawson and Michèle Steinwald, the session will interrogate how data collection has historically limited grantmaking’s reach and upheld hierarchies. We will examine how open-ended demographic questions informed data visualization which guided accountability measures, pushed against tidiness/embraced messiness, and created interchange with information provided by the applicants. Expansive definitions of Art for Change, dance, and identities including gender, sex, artistic form, race, ethnicity, and disability were developed and carried forward into responsive, emergent program design.
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Taking the program as a case study, the presenters will address application structure, language, and the review process with particular emphasis on equitable accessibility and the complexities and choices made in striving for intersectional disability justice. We will also discuss the idea of an emergent programming design that is led by artists’ individual and collective desires.
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Presenters: Haowen Wang (Director of Regranting, DanceUSA), Laurel Lawson (program advisor, DanceUSA and Founder, Rose Tree Productions), and Michèle Steinwald (program advisor, DanceUSA and Founder, 44 Arts Productive)
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January 4, 2019
Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the Era of #MeToo
In collaboration with Emily Marks
Presented by Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference in partnership with American Realness, New York
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In response to #MeToo and other social justice movements, artists and artistic communities are developing codes of ethics to hold themselves and others accountable, as instances of implicit bias and of explicit harassment gain greater recognition in society and in our field.
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Panel: Elaina Di Monaco (Philadelphia Theatre: A Code of Ethics), Laura T. Fisher (Not in Our House), Emily Marks (Memphis Performing Arts Coalition), Imani Uzuri (We Have Voice), Taja Will (Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Earthdance), with Michèle Steinwald (facilitator).
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http://americanrealness.com/portfolio-type/michele-steinwald/
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Saying No in a Culture of Yes: Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the #MeToo Era article: https://circustalk.com/news/saying-no-in-a-culture-of-yes-artists-building-a-code-of-ethics-in-the-metoo-era
December 14, 2018
Building a Code of Ethics
In collaboration with Emily Marks
Presented by National Performance Network conference, Pittsburgh
Following the #MeToo movement and addressing aesthetic biases based in racial prejudice, communities of practice are building their own explicit codes of ethics to hold themselves and others accountable in response to this time of exposing the perpetrators in our field. Session will include case studies and calls for action.
Panel: Emily Marks (Collaborator/Memphis Performing Arts Coalition), Laura T. Fisher (Co-Founder/Not in Our House), Nia Benjamin (Committee Member/Philadelphia Theatre: A Code of Ethics), Video contribution from Taja Will (Facilitator/Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Earthdance), with Michèle Steinwald (facilitator).
January 4, 2019
Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the Era of #MeToo
In collaboration with Emily Marks
Presented by Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference in partnership with American Realness, New York
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In response to #MeToo and other social justice movements, artists and artistic communities are developing codes of ethics to hold themselves and others accountable, as instances of implicit bias and of explicit harassment gain greater recognition in society and in our field.
​
Panel: Elaina Di Monaco (Philadelphia Theatre: A Code of Ethics), Laura T. Fisher (Not in Our House), Emily Marks (Memphis Performing Arts Coalition), Imani Uzuri (We Have Voice), Taja Will (Diversity & Inclusion Committee at Earthdance), with Michèle Steinwald (facilitator).
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http://americanrealness.com/portfolio-type/michele-steinwald/
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Saying No in a Culture of Yes: Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the #MeToo Era article: https://circustalk.com/news/saying-no-in-a-culture-of-yes-artists-building-a-code-of-ethics-in-the-metoo-era
October 5, 2018
Building Accountability in the Dance Field: An Interview with Michèle Steinwald
In conversation with choreographer Hope Mohr
Published by Hope Mohr Dance blog
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April 3, 2018
Decolonizing Curatorial Practice 101
Presented by Interrarium Curator’s Symposium at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
A guided conversation adapted from previous collaboration with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea
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January 15, 2018
Difference and Description: Power, Politics, and the Words We Use
In collaboration with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea
Presented by Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference in partnership with American Realness, New York
How do we understand “innovation,” “cutting-edge,” and “contemporary?” How do artists working with non-mainstream, “culturally specific” aesthetic traditions relate to these categories? This session examines invisible cultural biases in the language we use.
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January 12, 2018
Decolonizing Curatorial Practice 101
In collaboration with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea
Presented by Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference in partnership with American Realness
A group dialogue based in Bryan Brayboy’s “Four Rs,” exploring how to build “Relationships based on Respect and Reciprocity and taking seriously our Responsibility” when presenting individuals and their art works. The session will include practical steps toward breaking down Colonial patterns in curation.
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http://americanrealness.com/portfolio-type/decolonizing-curatorial-practice-101/
December 16, 2017
Decolonizing Aesthetics and Curatorial Practices in Dance: A guided discussion to identify collective first steps in making a difference
In collaboration with Dr. Ananya Chatterjea
Presented by the National Performance Network conference, San Francisco
This workshop will begin with an acknowledgement that all contemporary aesthetics emerge from specific locations. We will examine invisible cultural biases. We will identify the issues around historically centered whiteness in order to decolonize our inherited curatorial practices. Based in Bryan Brayboy’s motto of the Four Rs, together we will discuss how to build “Relationships based on Respect and Reciprocity, and taking seriously our Responsibility” when supporting artists and their work.
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