At the conclusion of 2015, you met several of our staff through our Cool Beans: 12 Days of Coffee series, a celebration of our favorite buzzy beverages. And at the end of 2014, we shared plenty of staff quirkiness with our 12 Days of Cocktails series. (The Vine videos still crack us up.)
This year, we decided we were thirsty for something else, so we’re featuring something we all really love: our member artists! Fractured Atlas is a nonprofit technology company that helps artists with the business side of their practice. And guess what? Most of the people who work here also have a creative practice. You could say that we’re pretty devoted enthusiasts and admirers.
For the next 12 days, get ready for Fractured Atlas staff to gush about some of the most engaging, inspiring, and moving work they saw produced by our members in 2016. Learn a little bit about the folks who work here, and see what three emojis best illustrate their reaction to the art they saw. Tune in every day until New Year’s Eve to see who we’re freaking out about!
Day 12: Courtney Duffy, Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow
Who knocked your socks off this year?
I’m thrilled to highlight the work of New York-based LubDub Theatre Company.
What about their work is so important to you?
As the Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow, I’ve loved getting a chance to train artists how to advocate for themselves and their communities more effectively. LubDub actually contributed to one of my favorite advocacy projects: a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on the importance of broadband access to the creative community.
Artistically, LubDub has also been busy creating some intriguing and engaging work. They recently produced The Doubtful Guest in partnership with Guild Greene Gallery in Brooklyn. It was an intimate evening of magic and spirits. Following cocktails paired with local ghost stories and sleight of hand, the evening culminates in a séance designed to summon a final guest. Circling themes of host and guest, the performance draws inspiration from American spiritualist history and tradition within magic.
Are there upcoming opportunities to catch more work?
They have all sorts of mischief coming up in 2017, including continued development of The Doubtful Guest, as well as a new experiential piece designed to get audience members moving. Sign up for their mailing list to get updates. Artists looking to learn a little more about LubDub should check out their Open Artist Sessions.
Day 11: Dianne Debicella, Senior Program Director, Fiscal Sponsorship
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Wilderness in Los Angeles, CA.
What did you experience and why was it memorable?
I went to see Wilderness’s production of The Day Shall Declare It in the Arts District in Downtown LA. The show is in an old warehouse that was configured into a couple of different sets — a kitchen, a bar, a weird room with sand, and a clawfoot bathtub. We never sat down and instead were led from room to room, following dreamy dialogue and hypnotic dance by the performers. The show took me completely out of the everyday and transported me to a bizarre and magical world. Sometimes I find immersive theater to be too in-my-face, but The Day Shall Declare It was a perfect balance for me of drifting through an immersive play without having to become part of it.
Are there opportunities to catch the same work?
Not right now, but keep checking their website for new work.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
I can only say one thing?!? Being part of something that makes a difference in the world. And getting to interact with co-workers at all levels of the organization and across all teams. And learning new things that challenge me. And getting to see art that our members make. And…
“The Day Shall Declare.”
Day 10: Amanda Keating, Program Specialist, SpaceFinder
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Brooklyn Folk Festival in Brooklyn, NY.
What did you attend and why was it memorable?
The Brooklyn Folk Festival is an annual festival of folk, blues, jug band, bluegrass, Irish, Balkan, and old-time string band music, located in the beautiful, funky, cozy St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights. I’ve gone to the festival a couple times, and have always enjoyed the laid back crowds, delicious baked goods and beers, and incredible music (favorites include the Down Hill Strugglers, Jeffrey Lewis, Spirit Family Reunion, and Jerron “Blindboy” Paxton).
Are there future opportunities to catch the festival?
Yes! The festival is annual and happens in May every year. It’s also produced by the Jalopy Theatre, located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where these same artists (and others who are also amazing!) perform regularly.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
As the Program Lead for SpaceFinder, I love getting to know artists’ workspaces. The spaces where we make work says so much about the work itself, and it’s inspiring and fun to be part of the process that artists go through to find space. As artists, we’re undeniably challenged by the process of finding space to work — financial complications, building code complexities, and compromising conditions abound. Despite this, the arts thrive in spaces of all shapes, sizes, and quirks, and connecting with these spaces and the artists who inhabit them is both humbling and fun.
Brooklyn Folk Festival.
Day 9: Aisha Jordan, Program Associate
Who knocked your socks off this year?
UNIVERSES Theater Company based in Ashland, Oregon.
What did you see and why was it memorable?
I attended their production of Party People at The Public Theater. It is the perfect depiction of the revolution that lives inside of me and is played out on the only battleground I call home — the stage. Using their unique style of mesmerizing lyrical flow and rhythms to tell a personal and reflective story, this production uses a present day setting to tell the stories of revolutionary acts by the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. Taking a look at the young revolutionaries who honor the past, “Party People” brings to light the beautiful struggle of failure and triumph while also portraying the personal paths of these individuals. It is a perfect display of generational intersectionality, connecting the experiences of those who have come before me to my present self and struggle. I am blessed to call these individuals my mentors and family.
Are there other opportunities to catch their work?
Party People closed December 11th and (fingers crossed!) we should see it on Broadway in the coming years. Their new work, UniSon, is going up in April of 2017 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. UniSon is high-energy, multimedia, music-filled theatrical experience exploring the poetry of August Wilson.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
Fractured Atlas has a high level of integrity for art and artists in conjunction with business that elevates me as a staff member and as an artist myself. My favorite part of working for Fractured Atlas is the ability to be fully myself at work, helping artists while being an artist.
Day 8: Lisa Niedermeyer, Director of Client Development
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Alice Sheppard, dancer and choreographer. It can be hard to pin Alice to one region (she’s a global citizen and always on-the-go) but she is based out of San Francisco, CA.
What did you attend and why was it memorable?
Alice Sheppard’s work as a choreographer and performer has helped me fall in love with dance all over again. Her newest work Descent From Beautytakes place within an environment that propels the dancers into motion at all times. (Think: ice skating or aerial work where one initiation by the dancer can be harnessed kinetically because of the unique physics of the environment.) The set is an intriguing piece of architectural design, made in collaboration with Olin College students (see photos of that process here). And the dancers, Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson, move through this stage landscape in titanium wheelchairs.
I was lucky enough recently to see a run-through of the work and was caught off guard by my reaction. I didn’t realize how much I craved seeing two women partner each other with such athletic abandon and chemistry; it touched a nerve I didn’t realize was so raw in myself. Above and beyond my interest in the performance itself, I’m also learning from Alice how to invite audiences to experience dance in a variety of ways. This includes, for example, audio descriptions for blind or visually-impaired people (experience a short video excerpt of audio descriptions of Alice and Laurel dancing here). Another example is her idea of 3D printing the ramp that is one stage, so members of the audience can understand the slopes and ridges, by touching it with their hands, and imagining dancing on it themselves.
I first saw Alice Sheppard in the documentary film Invitation to Dance about the life of disability rights activist Simi Linton. I then read Linton’s book My Body Politic in which Sheppard shares the story of being challenged by dancer Homer Aviles to take her first dance class. I finally met her in person when Fractured Atlas was asked to participate in Dance/NYC’s programming and advocacy around disability and dance. Alice’s work opens my thinking in exciting ways and I’m thrilled she chose to come to become a member of Fractured Atlas and to be fiscally sponsored for this new work and its tour.
Are there opportunities to catch the same soon?
Descent From Beauty is hosting an open showing of the work-in-progress on December 30th at Counter Pulse. RSVP to attend here.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
In general what I value most is that my ideas have been met with respect and, when relevant, have been supported with resources. I feel heard and seen as an individual, as well as empowered to do my best work. In terms of what activities I really love… at the top of the list is coaching artists to ask for money. We humans are pretty darn repressed and dysfunctional when it comes to talking about money, and because of this, there is incredible personal growth on the other side of getting good at it. Fundraising is deeply personal, and I enjoy that aspect of my work in championing artists.
Day 7: Natasha Jones, Software Developer
Who knocked your socks off this year and where are they?
I’m really impressed by Bmore Art here in Baltimore, MD. It’s an amazing feat of independent journalism and community-building for Baltimore City.
What did you experience and why was it memorable?
It’s hard to say how I became aware of the project. Cara Ober’s writing has been on my periphery since I was an art student around 2008 or 2010. However, over the past couple of years I’ve watched her work grow very quickly into what is now a beautiful print and online journal with her at the helm and a long list of contributing writers and editors. The process of watching someone create something from nothing is enchanting and I have a huge crush on what she’s doing.
The most recent journal in particular is leaving a strong impression on me as I work my way through it. This isn’t your typical privileged monied art-world speaking to itself — the tone of the entire project is transformative. Without being antithetical to the ‘traditions’ of gallery and museum ‘high art,’ its contents are inclusive and grounded in the people who create, collect, and define art in our city. This is the type of work that I find revolutionary.
Where can people go to see more?
You can purchase the journal online or by going to one of the many local galleries and bookshops that stock it in Baltimore or on their website. It’s beautifully printed and worth every cent! You can also donate and help support her work through her profile on the Fractured Atlas Website. Supporting independent journalism is one of the most important things that we need to do in the current climate.
Tasha: I couldn’t pick just one so they let me do two!
Who else knocked your socks off this year?
Submersive Productions is another project in Baltimore that I’m really excited about.
What did you see and why was it memorable?
I first encountered Submersive Productions when I went to see Broken Bone Bathtub, which was a one woman play that took place entirely in the bathroom of a Baltimore row home. I think the bathroom could fit about 6 audience members and the play beautifully moved from moments of intimate familial-conversation with the audience to structured monologue. That play has since moved on to other cities but it was coordinated by Submersive Productions and I’ve since watched them start putting together their next immersive theatre project HT Darling’s Incredible Musaeum.
These types of theatrical performances frequently have little to no financial return for the artists and, when you’re in a show as small as Broken Bone Bathtub, you can do the math. In contrast, the return for the audience is huge. Experiential theatre can change the way you move through the world if not permanently, then for the duration of the performance. So I make every effort to support them when I can. This work is one of love and commitment and I can’t wait to see what comes out of Subversive over the coming years.
Are there other opportunities to catch their work?
It looks like they have a couple projects in the works for 2017. Keep an eye on their Facebook page!
And finally…What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
The people! As an engineer, I work closely with members of our customer support team to ensure that our members experience is as smooth as possible. I also work closely with our product team, which is always looking for how we can better serve our constituents. I’ve never had a conversation about our software that doesn’t focus on our member artists and how we can be better for them and for ourselves.
Also: the artists! One of the most amazing experiences I’ve had while working for Fractured Atlas was going to a show and watching the artists use our ticketing platform Artful.ly. It’s a huge privilege to build software that facilitates the work they do.
Day 6: Jason Tseng, Community Engagement Specialist
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Kyoung’s Pacific Beat. They are based in New York City but also work internationally!
What did you attend and why was it memorable?
I saw their workshop production of Kyoung Park’s Pillowtalk at BRICLab. The play is a two-character drama centered around a newlywed interracial gay couple. I had seen a reading of the play a few months earlier and enjoyed the play, which felt like a lovely slice-of-life meditation on the historic nature of our new gay marriage rights. However, where the reading felt very naturalistic, the workshop production re-envisioned the entire play as a complicated and metaphorical pas-de-deux, using ballet to reinscribe the text in a completely new way. It felt like a sort of wonderful experimental revelation.
Any upcoming opportunities to catch their work?
Pillowtalk has wrapped but follow them on Facebook or check their website to learn about upcoming performances.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
I love that Fractured Atlas understands that art and technology are the same philosophical project: Radical Creativity. Almost all my coworkers are as much technological innovators as they are creative artmakers in their own right.
Day 5: Malcolm Evans, Program Associate
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Exiled Theatre in East Boston, MA
What did you see and why was it memorable?
I saw Exiled Theatre’s production of Morganna Becker’s The Threshold of Sound. It was a remount of the piece, which has been in existence since its first iteration around 2010. I’ve been fortunate enough to see the piece several times as it has evolved, and seeing what Exiled Theatre was able to accomplish was quite a treat. I grew up outside of Boston myself, but have largely thought of it as a place to see bigger shows. To see an independent theater company thriving in this area is wonderful. The event itself was also not just a production but also a fundraising event, which I thought was rather innovative. So often we think of fundraising events as parties or something similar where someone gives a speech and a toast, and donors are asked to give. Exiled Theatre specifically marketed it as a fundraising event that was also a production and it felt completely natural to me, as an audience member, to engage with the event in this way. I loved that!
Are there other opportunities to catch their work?
They typically have a number of works on the horizon. Coming up in the spring they have a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
My job at Fractured Atlas has been great because of all the amazing art I come into contact with. There are scores of events and artists that I likely would never have come across without having worked here. There are also several members we work with who I happen to know personally, and it’s been great to be able to help them connect with our products and services. Being the inside man, as it were, has given me much joy over my time here.
Day 4: Nicola Carpenter, Administrative Associate
Who knocked your socks off this year?
Caroline Kent & Bindery Projects, located in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.
What did you see and why was it memorable?
I met Caroline when I was still living in Minneapolis. She is herself an artist and also co-founder of The Bindery Projects, an artist-run exhibition space in St. Paul, MN. I was able to visit The Bindery Projects when they were installing the Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle exhibit Kentrifica is or Kentrifica Aint. I’ve always thought that it is important to have artist-run exhibition spaces, and The Bindery Project is a great addition to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Arts scene.
I was disappointed to miss Caroline’s show at Public Funtionary this past summer but it looks like people can still buy the exhibition text written by Christina Schmid (one of my other favorite people in the MN arts!) I’m eternally a painting skeptic, but these look like paintings I can get behind.
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
I love learning about our members and everyone I get to work with! I especially love how excited we all get at HQ when there’s free food.
Day 3: Selena Juneau-Vogel, Director of Product Management
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
One of my favorite things about working at Fractured Atlas is experiencing our members’ unusual artwork — a play set in a jacuzzi, a Doctor Who fanfiction musical, a massive art fair in Manhattan’s main post office, a staging of Dracula as a drinking game, a tiny museum in an old freight elevator, performances in the back of a Budget rental truck…really cool stuff.
Who knocked your socks off this year?
I’ve been quietly following Fermentation on Wheels for a couple years now. The artist behind this project is Tara Whitsitt. Her home-base is Eugene, Oregon, but she’s sort of all over because her project involves driving around the country in a custom-rigged school bus teaching people how to make fermented foods.
What did you experience and why was it memorable?
I actually haven’t experienced Tara’s work live and in-person. I’m just sort of fascinated and follow her on Instagram. I first heard about Fermentation on Wheels from my dad who lives in Maine. He was really pleased with the bread he’d been baking with a sourdough starter he got from a young woman with a bus. Coincidently, this woman with a bus happened to be one of Fractured Atlas’s fiscally sponsored projects!
I’ve been playing with fermentation projects myself for a few years and love the idea that fermentation can be art. It’s not our job at Fractured Atlas to determine what is or isn’t art — there are plenty of curators and institutions doing that — but nevertheless, it seems clear to me that Tara’s ferments exhibit conscious use of skill and creative imagination. She is making work that has an aesthetic, preserves cultural traditions, and furthers a social purpose. Plus, she makes fun illustrations of microbes and little yeasty beasties.
Are there more opportunities to catch the bus?
Tara doesn’t have any events slated in the next couple months, but she’ll be doing another bus tour on the West Coast this spring. She’s also working on a book called Fermentation on Wheels: Road Stories, Food Ramblings, and 50 Do-It-Yourself Recipes that’s due out September 2017.
Day 2: Miles Freeman, Development Associate
What knocked your socks off this year?
Composed — a documentary by the husband/wife team of John Beder (director) and Katie DeRoche (editor), based in Cape Cod, MA.
What did you see and why was it memorable?
I attended the official premiere of the documentary at the SVA Theater in Chelsea in mid October. This project originally caught my eye as it deals with performance anxiety in Classical musicians, something I saw a fair amount of while I was attending college. I majored in jazz performance but took a few classes with classical performance majors, notably an Alexander Technique class, and was taken aback by how many of my classical-musician classmates seem to be stricken with intense performance anxiety, much more than my jazz classmates, and how it seemed to be a very taboo subject for them.
This film sheds much needed light on this issue and explores it through interviews with multiple musicians — highlighting their relationships with music and performance anxiety, with a myriad of ways of dealing with it — and experts in the field of combating it. The evening was wrapped up with an engaging Q&A with some of the musicians and experts featured in the film, offering more insights about their experiences and allowing the audience, of mostly classical musicians, to discuss this issue out in the open. It was an eye opening experience and I would highly recommend the film to all performers, regardless of discipline, and anyone who has dealt with performance anxiety in its various forms.
Are there opportunities to catch the same work soon?
They’re currently touring!
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
I love coming to work everyday to work in a office full of people — some practicing artists themselves, others, simply art lovers — who understand how vital of a part the arts are to being human. And everyone, from the program staff to the engineers, approaches their work with the shared understanding that what they’re doing is in the service of letting artists focus on their creativity as much as possible. That makes me feel good inside.
Day 1: Courtney Harge, Member Advisor
Who knocked your socks off this year?
As a transplanted Michigan native, I’m always excited to get to shout out some home state heroes making great art. It’s even more awesome when that hero is my cousin: Jennifer Harge of Harge Dance Stories in Detroit, MI.
What did you see and why was it memorable?
Because we live and make work in different states, it’s not often that I get to experience Jennifer’s work live. Luckily, I was able to witness “mourn and never tire,” a movement installation conceived by Jennifer and Harge Dance Stories, this fall in Brooklyn. In this installation, “the dancers are stationed at different levels on the stairs, reading names, dates, and locations of black victims of police violence. They read and run in place, keeping pace and losing breath.” It was moving and powerful to witness.
I enjoy how Harge Dance Stories wrestles with how what happens in the world affects our bodies and selves. The work is always connected to how we embody our experiences and place in the world. I’m proud to get to witness this work and lucky to be related to its creator.
Are there opportunities to catch this work again?
Detroit-area folks have the opportunity to take classes with Jennifer year-round. I believe there will be other performances in the spring. Sign up for their mailing list and see what’s coming up!
What do you love most about your job at Fractured Atlas?
I love that my job at Fractured Atlas allows me to connect with and empower artists at varying stages in their careers. I believe everyone can enact their creativity and make art that expresses their stories and experiences. Fractured Atlas allows me to actualize that belief in service of creative folks all of the time.
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