Identities, Memory, and Community
The Spartan Art Project: How a Mid-Century Travel Trailer brought the Arts to Twisp, Washington
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellen Avitts
Twisp, Washington, sits in the foothills of the Northern Cascades. The closest major cultural center, Seattle, is 200 miles to the southwest. This paper tells the story of how, through the work of a few dedicated artists, Twisp, a town of 900 residents, became an artistic hub of north-central Washington. The Spartan Art Project began in 2012 when three artists, disheartened at the local gallery’s focus on “tourist art” took matters into their own hands. They purchased a 1951, 36’ Spartan Imperial Mansion travel trailer that was in distressingly horrible condition and through hard work and community involvement turned it into a successful art venue. To date, the Spartan Art Project has featured nationally acclaimed fine artists, scholarly presentations on the arts, and musical performances. Community support and engagement is so strong that the trailer is typically overly full, with event goers spilling out onto the surrounding patio during venues. The goal of the project is to provide a space where art can do its job, which is, according to its creators, catharsis. It is a space that the community feels a part of, rather than just visitors to. It is a self-proclaimed artist’s free zone, where artist can exhibit and perform without censorship and without having to bend to the demands of consumerism. According to Jeff Winslow, one of the founders, it is about taking a chance, creating a no-overhead art space so that the organization can respond to the needs and desires of the community, not the landlord.
Act I, Scene I: Endless Journey Back Home
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elif Bas
The world is witnessing the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. Many theatre practitioners around the world are responding to this humanitarian crisis in different ways. Young Turkish playwrights are also grappling with this issue but in a more unique perspective as Turkey is a country of both emigration and immigration. One of the interesting aspects of contemporary Turkish plays is that they interrogate the concept of “home” differently than foreign playwrights. Like many playwrights, Turkish plays also reflect the lives of refugees who have no hope of returning to their homes that were destroyed by war. But they also put forth the futile search of home in one’s own country which is physically there but is nonexistent to a segment of the Turkish society. As the plays show, the escalating polarization and the repressive policies of the government are not the “only” reasons that brought about this situation. Accordingly, this paper examines the plays of young Turkish playwrights, puts forth their understanding of home and identity through interviews and questions the role of theatre in times of such great crisis.
Immersed in the Tradition or Submerged by Tradition?: Sean-nós Singing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Joe Mac Donnacha
This paper I will describe the tradition of Sean-nós (Old Style) singing in the Irish language and its current status. I will be questioning whether this form of singing (and similar art forms) has a future as a performance art form that has relevance to the modern age or whether it can only exist as a cultural relic of a society that no longer exists. I will be questioning whether these art forms suffer by being labeled as ‘traditional’ or ‘heritage’ as this leads to a social and academic discourse which tends to focus almost exclusively on their importance to the ‘tradition’ and on what is ‘traditional’ about the art form. This discourse tends to lose sight of the fact that all art forms, if they are to remain vibrant and dynamic and relevant to the society which nurtures them, must be allowed to evolve and change and that each generation has the right to recreate the art form in its own image.
