Blog - 04-2021 Archive

Erie Arts & Culture, in collaboration with the CHROMA Guild, hosted the first annual Arts + Agency Week, during April 11-17, 2021. During this week, artists, cultural organizations, and advocacy groups explored the ways the arts are being leveraged to raise awareness of systemic issues, amplify under-represented voices, and generate creative solutions to societal challenges. EAC hosted a total of 14 virtual presentations.

Thank you to all who streamed on Zoom and Facebook! Below you will find all of the recordings from the 14 presenters. Included under each video are key takeaways submitted by community members and EAC staff. Next year’s Arts and Agency week will take place April 2-9, 2022. 

Teaching artists are critical to much of the mission of Erie Arts & Culture. Many of our programs rely on the unique expertise of teaching artists. Both those with extensive classroom and community teaching experience as well as artists who are interested in learning how to incorporate teaching into their practice are eligible to become a teaching artist. We invite individuals from across the teacher-artist spectrum to learn more and to apply below. The deadline to apply is May 28, 2021. Panel interviews occur in June and new teaching artist orientation and training is held in July and August.

We invite you to read and share our 2021 Q1 Impact Report!  Download the pdf to learn about our most recent programs, services, and impact on the community.

We're taking a slightly different approach with our Impact Reports this year. By drastically reducing the text density found in our previous reports, we strive to say more with less. We use data and pictures to tell stories and communicate our outcomes and impacts. 

The expERIEnce Children’s Museum partnered with six New American families and a family from Puerto Rico to create a video series titled “expERIEnce My Home.” Each video welcomes the viewer to learn about a specific culture, from a child’s eye view. The viewer is invited to learn about the Bosnian pastry called pita, a traditional Syrian wedding dance, the celebration of Diwali, how Congolese carry a baby on their back, traditional Puerto Rican attire, and ancestral drumming from Nepal. Children share greetings in Swahili, Spanish, Arabic, Bosnian, and Tamang.

For many of us throughout the last year, we’ve had to learn to quickly adapt and shift our plans and expectations. This situation was no different for rostered teaching artist, Marquis Wallace, who recently completed a residency at the Booker T. Washington Center Development and Education Center.  Marquis Wallace is a dancer, visual artist, and writer based in Erie.  Marquis collaborated with filmmaker and photographer Alex Staley, dancer, instructor, and choreographer Mariah Johnson, and certified Yoga instructor Katie Adiutor to develop a series of programming for senior citizens. With these partners, Marquis created a set of 10 different fun and relatable videos that challenged participants in a positive, healthy manner.

Two new American Rescue Plan grant programs will provide emergency relief to humanities organizations and professionals affected by the pandemic.

Please join us for our next PRO Network webinar entitled "Connected Narratives: A Presentation and Conversation with Kedgar Volta" on April 29 at 6 PM.
Kedgar Volta will host a conversation centered around three pieces of seemingly different works that have a common underlying foundation. The first piece dates back to 2013 and the most recent one is still in the works. Kedgar will explore the process behind each piece and their evolution as they progress to completion.