This year we continued to see ripple effects from our June 2018 Theatre in the Age of Climate Change convening, co-organized with Chantal Bilodeau (the Arctic Cycle), Elizabeth Doud (Climakaze Miami/Fundarte), and Roberta Levitow (Theatre Without Borders). With some HowlRound support, this group and others organized a climate-focused retreat in Miami, which culminated with a Theatre Communications Group pre-conference program around climate justice which was part of a suite of programming organized by the 2019 Conference Committee on Climate. As an outgrowth of this work, we also supported a delegation from the 2018 convening to attend the Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentro in Mexico City. The group recently shared a reflection from their time as part of the working group called Becoming Porous: Performing with(in) Climate Chaos.
In the last twelve months, we have been proud to partner with organizations all over the world to livestream 117 events on HowlRound TV.
Breaking Geographic Barriers
Last spring, HowlRound cultural strategist Vijay Mathew and I traveled to Hungary and Romania to plant seeds for a new HowlRound TV project with artists and theatre companies we have come to know over the past five years. As a result, this fall we launched a pilot commons-based livestream infrastructure project in Central and Eastern Europe, operating in Budapest, Cluj, and Bucharest. The goals of this project are to enable regular live programming of talks and performances from that area, foster closer ties within the region and to the United States, and model a reduced ecological footprint as we continue to connect, share, and learn from each other. Learn more about this project and the content we have streamed to date here.
In the last twelve months, we have been proud to partner with organizations all over the world to livestream 117 events on HowlRound TV, which are now available to watch in our video archive. Some of the field-wide conferences and symposiums captured in 2019 were on caregiver support in the performing arts, culture mobility in the time of climate change, equity in and through the arts, and mixed reality and performance. So much more can be found on this compiled list.
A New Decade Begins
There is so much to look forward to in the year ahead. In just a few weeks, we’ll head to upstate New York for a retreat with the Arts, Culture, and Commoning Working Group, with whom we’ve been collaborating for over a year. This group co-authored the essay “The Promise of the Commons,” which outlines our collective vision. Last September, we hosted scholar and activist David Bollier, who shared his thoughts on arts, culture, and the commons. We’re also planning a convening this spring around curation and civic engagement with our partner ArtsEmerson on the occasion of their ten-year anniversary, and we’re beginning to think about our own ten-year anniversary in 2021.
Over the next year, we’ll continue to amplify the efforts of the JUBILEE, a celebration for all theatres—professional, community, university, and high school—where everyone is invited to examine what voices, perspectives, and stories have been marginalized in their dominant framework and place one, some, or as many of those voices as possible at the center of their programming in the 2020–21 season. Lisa Channer recently detailed efforts at the university level to create JUBILEE season programming. It’s not too late to get involved as an individual or an institution—we would love to have you as part of this movement!
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thank you for this detailed update, and for all the tremendous work you and the team continue to do. Wishing you all a good start to the new year.