#dramaticimagination

The curators of the USITT Exhibit for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space recognize that the United States is a nation of immigrants and celebrates our diversity. The majority of individuals living in the U.S. today have immigrant roots. Those immigrant roots, together with the people that can trace their ancestry back to one of the 500 plus Native American tribes, are the cultural DNA of the artists who create the work in our theatrical communities. This rich cultural diversity and wisdom contributes to the creativity, ingenuity, and knowledge that we find inspirational and which we desire and struggle to share through this The curators of the USITT Exhibit for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space recognize that the United States is a nation of immigrants and celebrate our diversity. The majority of individuals living in the U.S. today have immigrant roots. Those immigrant roots, together with the people that can trace their ancestry back to one of the 500 plus Native American tribes, are the cultural DNA of the artists who create the work in our theatrical communities. This rich cultural diversity and wisdom contributes to the creativity, ingenuity, and knowledge that we find inspirational and which we desire and struggle to share through this exhibition.

With this in mind, the curators have selected work for this exhibition that represents the finest in artistic achievement presented in the U.S. in the last 4 years and to showcase the cultural DNA of the artist behind the work. We recognize the importance of focusing on the work and representing a diversity of work from different corners of the American theatrical landscape. We have attempted to feature work from a variety of individuals, genres, presentation styles, disciplines, regions, and institutions. This process included actively reaching out across our vast population and geography to acquire a broad cross section of work as we attempt the near impossible task of representing a country as large and diverse as the United States.

In addition to the selected work, the exhibition incorporates the oral history of the designers, positioning them in relationship to the field and their own work. This comprises the designer’s own background, their connection to performance design, their mentors and influencers, who they have mentored and influenced, and how these factors have affected their approach to design and the designs themselves.

The exhibition space design, Concordance, began as abstracted shapes of each region of the United States north, south, east, and west to create the perimeter elements of the exhibition space, which in itself is evocative of sacred spaces of our indigenous cultures. The center sculpture is comprised of quotes from our forefathers in theatrical design. It also represents the unifying concept of art, thought, inspiration and symbolizes the source of creativity: the Idea.

Website:
pq19.usitt.org/professional

Country/Region USA

Presenting Organization USITT

Curator Kevin Rigdon

Curatorial Team Ian Garrett, Vince Mountain, Cherelle Guyton, Allen Lee Hughes, Porsche McGovern, Joe Pino, Fereshteh Rostampour, Alejo Vietti, Donyale Werle

Team Exhibit space design: Paige A. Willson, Ellen Doyle Mizener, Clint Allen, Erich Keil