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Lewiston, NY — Artpark has announced a new festival celebrating its connections to the Western New York community and visiting artists from around the world. Free and open to the public on August 19th, the Artpark Bridges Festival will highlight ongoing collaboration with community groups and organizations including People, Inc., Empower WNY, Buffalo Parkinsons, Artisans Edge and Buffalo Workplace Literacy Center in collaboration with regional and international artists in residence at Artpark. The festival will present new work in progress by Jon Lehrer Dance Company (NYC), David Glass (UK), Sketchbook Theater (NYC), Kateřina Šedá (Czech Republic), Plasticiens Volants (France), local and regional poets and writers and engage the public in the creative practice itself through informal conversations.

“Artpark was founded on the principle that public art is a public good, and the belief that our natural surroundings in Western New York power experiences that could only happen here," said Artpark President Sonia Clark. "We’re proud to welcome everyone to experience and celebrate the Artpark Bridges program, which reaches out into the community and ensures that all have access to our extraordinary setting and the art created and performed here every day.”

Residents Present New Work in progress and discuss their practice

Many of the performances on August 19 will include work that resident artists and groups developed in partnership with Artpark Bridges and participating organizations. 

Jon Lehrer Dance Company  now in it’s 6th annual creative residency at Artpark, will present a new work developed in partnership with the local Parkinson’s community initiated through Artpark Bridges’ ongoing relationship with the Parkinson’s Foundation. Performed on the beautiful new outdoor Emerald Grove Stage, this performance will also include favorites from JLDC’s world-renowned repertory.

David Glass, a UK-based theater artist and founder of the David Glass ensemble, in collaboration with New York City-based Sketchbook Theatre, will present work resulting from “Alchemy of the Extraordinary,” a devised theater and creative practice workshop for professional and community actors. Since 1979 David Glass has been performing and creating across the world, and then in 1990 he established the David Glass Ensemble as a pioneering physical, devised and applied theater company. Creative learning and engagement with artists and audiences around the world is central to the company's ethos, while vivid, celebratory storytelling sits at the heart of the company's values and process. This is the second residency of David Glass with Artpark and the first for the Sketchbook Theater, whose mission is rooted in the spirit of artists coming together to make work that values uncompromising honesty, an enthusiastic commitment to prod and question, and a shared respect for the power of thought and the complicated beauty of the human heart.  Anyone who wishes to join the week-long workshop with David Glass is invited to email to: cpegado@artpark.net to get more information and sign up.

Poet and Literary Resident Robert Giannetti and Artpark Bridges Director Cynthia Pegado and Artpark Bridges workshop participants will present new work based on “Sensing Resonance,” a series of outdoor poetry workshops and performances open to the general public and members of our WNY community writing from perspectives of sight impairment, progressive neurological disease, or mental health wellness challenges, in collaboration with local human service agencies. 

Julianne Neely, a poet from Artpark’s inaugural literary residency, will debut an audiovisual installation, “Deepfake Translation Poems,” inspired by Katie Holten’s Language of Trees and Tree Workshop, created this summer to be performed at Artpark.

Plasticiens Volants, a 47-year-old performance troupe based in Tolouse, France, presented three North American premieres at Artpark to date and is now in residence at Artpark during this week in partnership with the Seneca Art and Cultural Center of the Ganondagan, Artpark and Rochester Fringe Festival, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Join the artistic leadership team, Marc Beaureau, Jean-Philippe Hemery, Marc Etieve and Fanny Anger Abadie in a conversation about the legendary French company’s history, work and their creative process.

Katerina Seda, a social practice artist from the Czech Republic in residence at Artpark funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, working on a project that involves engaging people of Lewiston and the area about their experiences at Artpark curated by Claire Schneider’s CS1 Cultural Projects. Katerina Seda designs experiences for communities that create and foster connections. Seda begins with research that explores relationships between people, places, and issues within a community. Seda then devises collaborative actions (sch as games, activities, or competitions) that alter how individuals within the community perceive social constructs; these can range from synchronizing the routines of local people, asking neighbors to draw views from their front doors, or inventing a holiday for a small village to celebrate together. Join Katerina in a conversation to create a Lewiston project!

Schedule of Performances

  • 4-5:30 Robert Giannetti and Cynthia Pegado: “Sensing Resonance”
  • 4pm - 5pm: Katerina Seda, a conversation with community, picnic table by Murmuration (facing the Niagara River)
  • 4pm - 5pm: Plasticiens Volants will discuss their creation process in conversation, picnic table by MainStage Theater
  • 4pm - 5pm: Resident Poet Julianne Neely will present “DeepfakeTranslation Poems,” location  TBD
  • 5:30-6:30 David Glass/Artpark Bridges will be performing with Sketchbook Theater, Emerald Grove Stage
  • 6:45- 8pm: Lehrer Dance Company with Artpark Bridges + Lehrer Dance Company 
  • Light snacks and beverages will be available at the ArtBar.

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The Earl W. Brydges Artpark is being operated by Artpark & Company, Inc. for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation under a long-term collaborative agreement.

Contact: Andy Dulski, Director of Marketing & Sales, Artpark
716-583-4292

adulski@artpark.net