
FotoFocus is pleased to announce its partnership with Creative Time for The Convening, a series of critical dialogues, artist interventions, and performances.
FotoFocus is pleased to announce its partnership with Creative Time for The Convening, a a series of critical dialogues, artist interventions, and performances in Cincinnati, featuring artists, critics, curators, and other distinguished guest speakers. A welcome event and performance will take place at Mecca on Friday, October 20, 2023, followed by a full day of discussions held at two venues: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Contemporary Arts Center, on Saturday, October 21, 2023.
Structured loosely around three earth-based thematics—land, waterways, and trees—The Convening will bring together national and local artists, activists, and thinkers whose work considers histories of land, particularly American histories that coalesce in the Cincinnati region. Through discussions, workshops, and performances, participants will explore issues of land sovereignty, access, and stewardship as well as the histories and enduring legacies of forced migration in the United States. The Convening is a significant collaborative effort designed to discuss thinking about land-use and self-determination through contemporary art practices, including photography.
This event is free and open to the public, but we encourage you to let us know that you plan to attend.
RSVP for Welcome Reception on October 20
RSVP for Symposium on October 21
For the latest schedule and more speaker details, please visit FotoFocus.org/Symposium.
Afternoon Session: Borders and Exchange
Contemporary Arts Center, 44 East 6th Street, Cincinnati OH
The border between the United States and Mexico has become increasingly contentious in recent years, symbolizing the inequities intensifying over our dwindling natural resources. Simultaneously, the concept of borders plays an outsized role in the human psyche, defining—often arbitrarily and harmfully—boundaries between not only nations but cultures, genders, species, and generative forms of shared knowledge between these entities.
1:30pm
Wave Pool/The Welcome Project Lunch
The Welcome Project bridges relationships within neighborhoods, and empowers Cincinnati’s refugee and immigrant population while connecting, assisting, and inspiring all through art and food. This special iteration is grounded within The Convening themes and presents a meal alongside an artistic response and participatory engagement.
2:30pm
Workshop Performance: The Well
Sound Intersections: a collaborative new music commission uplifting Appalachian, African American, and Native American musical traditions within the Ohio River Valley featuring: Nate May, Composer, Oakland, CA; and Talon Silverhorn, Cultural Educator, Yellow Springs, OH; in sonic conversation with Cincinnati-based musicians Jay Bolotin, Kathryne Gardette, and Baba Charles Miller
3:30pm
Keynote Conversation with Nicholas Galanin, Artist, Sitka, AK; and Ronald Rael, Designer and Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art Practice at the University of California Berkeley, La Florida, CO and Oakland, CA
4:30pm
Performance by Guillermo Galindo, Post-Mexican Visual and Sound Artist/Composer, Oakland, CA
ADMISSION INFO
Free and open to the public.
INDIVIDUAL DATES & TIMES*
- Oct 21, 2023 at 01:30 pm (Sat)