Welcome to the USDAC!
Offered by: Adam Horowitz
At-a-glance: A playful, galvanizing performance-lecture sharing the story, purpose, and underlying values of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture.
Description: Learn about the why, what, who, and how of the people-powered department In this dynamic performance-lecture. In character as the Deputy Secretary Norman Beckett, Horowitz combines stories, images, and video from the USDAC’s national antics to make a compelling case for cultural democracy and an urgent call to creative action. This lively talk introduces audiences to an array of concepts—cultural agency, creative placekeeping, large-scale creative organizing, high-impact low infrastructure initiatives, and much more—and gives them concrete steps they can take to enact cultural shift, locally and nationally. Versions of this performance-lecture have been delivered at universities, conferences, and cultural organizations; both the duration and thematic content can be adapted to match the context in which it’s offered.
How To Love Your Enemy
Offered by: Dave Loewenstein
At-a-glance: Use subversion and street theater to expand your audience.
Description: Looking for new creative ways to stir up energy around important issues in your community? In the lead-up to the 2014 Imagining in Lawrence, KS an anti-USDAC group known only as the “Grays” emerged with a series of posters and public demonstration intended to discredit and besmirch the very core of the USDAC’s purpose and vision. By understanding their motivations and examining their tactics we will gain a greater understanding of how the USDAC is being received in the broader public. Join an ex-Gray in a hands-on workshop to explore the creative possibilities that lie in the gray areas between subversion, satire and street theater.