July 11–31, 2016
Brown University
Providence
Rhode Island 02912
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Brown University announce the launch of CoLAB: Innovations in Performance Practice, a new three-week summer institute designed to incubate innovative performance and research practices.CoLAB runs July 11 to 31, 2016 at Brown University.
Bringing together graduate and undergraduate student artists in a laboratory environment, CoLAB is designed to create the conditions in which innovative performance and research practices can grow from within an interdisciplinary field of artistic exploration. With the support and mentorship of resident performance artists, visual and performing arts faculty, along with visiting artists and scholars, students are invited to investigate, expand, and create new models and approaches to live arts practice in an intensively collaborative program. CoLAB will function as a practice-based “think-tank” for the development of as yet unseen forms of expression in performance. Participants from Brown, RISD and elsewhere, who enrolled by application in May, will be immersed in an experience that is carefully crafted to offer them specific training in movement and staging, alongside classes that provide context for contemporary performance theory and practice. In addition, the program will offer guided workshops and mentored collaborative studio sessions. The public will be invited to participate in the development of participants’ creative process through a series of open studio showings of works in progress and critical feedback sessions.
The program is hosting resident artists Gob Squad and Third Space Laboratory Theatre and is supported by teaching faculty including Emanuelle Deppich, Sara L. Brown, and Sarah Bay-Cheng. Visiting scholars including Dr. Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, Wendall Harrington, Amelia Jones, and Narcissister will further enhance the range and depth of the program. Michael T. Williams and Francesca Montanile will serve as teaching assistants.
CoLAB is co-led by Creative Directors Kym Moore (Associate Professor, Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University) and Jane South (Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design).
“CoLAB is focused on incubating creativity and research at the interface of the performing arts, critical scholarship, visual art, and design practice. No prior experience in performance is necessary. We are interested in creating an environment that emphasizes process, experimentation and risk, in which participants from diverse disciplines collaborate and explore the potential of performative work.”
“In 1920s Paris, and in the Greenwich Village of the 1950s, creative individuals seeking to challenge convention and make new work gathered in cafes and taverns. Artists living and working in these dynamic communities questioned the creative practices of their time, and their collaborations gave birth to radically new forms of music, art, literature, and performance. This is the environment we hope to re-create with CoLAB.”
*Image above: Gob Squad Art’s Collective, WESTERN SOCIETY. © david baltzer / bildbuehne.de.