Artist Talk

In Conversation: Arts & Environmentalism

Name: In Conversation: Arts & Environmentalism
Start: 2021-04-02T12:00:00-04:00
End: 2021-04-02T13:00:00-04:00
Location: Online

Open To The Public

A Bass Connections project team shares how the arts can support public advocacy and education in support of meaningful climate change interventions. They worked together to create an art installation opening in the Ruby courtyard in April 2021.

Join us for this special lunchtime conversation series that takes the spirit of Arts & Context and Ruby Friday programs onto Zoom!

Date & Time: April 2, 2021 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
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Admission: Free; no RSVP required. Everyone welcome. Join Event on Vimeo!

Venue: Online

Description

Bass Connections projects, courses, and summer programs give Duke students a chance to tackle complex societal problems alongside faculty. The 2020-21 project team “Arts and the Anthropocene: Crisis and Resilience in North Carolina Waterways” explored how the arts can play a role in public advocacy and education in support of meaningful climate change interventions.

The Anthropocene has been framed by scholars and activists as the current geological period during which human activity has had a fundamental influence on the climate and environment. Coastal communities in North Carolina are grappling with how to plan for and respond to monumental changes in ecological systems that are causing storm surge, sea level rise, flooding and contamination. Life in coastal communities is precarious.

The “Arts and the Anthropocene” project team spent last semester listening to local scientists, artists, and environmental activists and researching climate change, the Anthropocene, and environmental humanities and justice. They then imagined how arts-based interventions might best illuminate or reimagine various ecological and social relationships of urgency here in North Carolina.

Join this panel of Duke faculty, artists, and students to discover how they applied art to environmental advocacy before their installation debuts in the courtyard behind the Rubenstein Arts Center.

Join program on Vimeo, no advance registration required.

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About the Panelists

Raquel Salvatella de Prada

Raquel Salvatella de Prada (Bass Connections team leader) is a computer artist and assistant professor of the practice of Visual Arts at Duke University. She practices graphic design, motion graphics and video design. Her work often focuses on integrating computer animation and motion design with different traditional art forms by collaborating with artists of diverse backgrounds such as printmaking, painting, installation art, poetry, puppetry, theater, and musical performance.

Jonathan Henderson

Jonathan Henderson (Bass Connections team leader) is a North Carolina-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, writer, producer, and educator. A PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at Duke University, Jonathan is active as a scholar-artist. He has produced albums in North Carolina and Senegal, and designed sound art for film, theater, and art installation.

Henderson’s research is featured by Duke Interdisciplinary Studies: “Producing Mande Music in the Black Atlantic“

About In Coversation

This free online public conversation series is presented by Duke Arts and Duke Performances (Fridays at Noon, Jan 29 through April 16). Join faculty-invited visiting artists and artists from Duke Performances virtual Spring 2021 season for behind-the-scenes insights into their work.

Before life moved onto virtual platforms like Zoom, Duke Arts and Duke Performances hosted casual artist talks in Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center and in a variety of Durham community venues like the Pinhook and Cocoa Cinnamon. We miss these opportunities to connect with our audiences and artists, and we hope you’ll join us for this new venture.