Essays and Commissioned Writings

Writing about Civically Engaged Art

Critical Relations in Community-Based Performance: The Artist and Writer in Conversation [PDF]
by Sonja Kuftinec

Animating Democracy, in collaboration with Alternate ROOTS, commissioned theater writer, scholar, director, and dramaturg Sonja Kuftinec to write this article, prompted by the Writers Institute at Alternate ROOTS's spring 2002 FOCAS conference, where Sonja also presented. The conference provided artists and writers a chance to explore concerns and interests about critical and reflective writing related to civically and socially engaged art. Kuftinec weaves conversations from this gathering and other recent ones, demonstrating momentum on this subject and offering a context for Animating Democracy’s Critical Perspectives effort. Critical Perspectives fosters experimentation with different approaches to reflective and critical writing via teams of writers associated with three of Animating Democracy’s Lab projects.

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A Threshold Moment:  Summary and reflections from a gathering of
Critical Perspectives writers [PDF]
by Andrea Assaf

In November 2002, a meeting of the Critical Perspectives writers and invited guests was held at the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.  The intent of the meeting was to give writers an opportunity to share challenges and questions they were encountering in the process of writing about Animating Democracy projects, and more broadly, to discuss issues related to writing about civically engaged art.  Animating Democracy Program Associate, Andrea Assaf, documents and draws out key discussions and areas of inquiry that emerged from the meeting.

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