Artists on Artists

Collaboration in the Arts:
A Panel Discussionction

Event: The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) of Gloucester continues its Artists on Artists series on February, 2006 at 7 PM with participants Lara Lepionka, Sarah Slifer, and Susan Erony. The panel will be moderated by Susan Erony

When: Thursday, February 23, 2006, 7 to 9 PM

Where: West End Theater, 2 Main Street, Gloucester

Admission: Free to members, $5 for non-members. Beverages will be served.

Artists have always collaborated, and always dealt with difficult issues around doing so. Though the rewards can be great, the challenges can also be so. As an organization dedicated to the idea of pooling resources and working together, and at a time when the issue of collaboration is so important, seARTS is taking a moment to look at artistic collaboration as a laboratory for thought and discussion. Questions of initial agreements, working procedures and credit will be addressed as well as the all-important phenomenon of the ego and its needs. Ownership, privacy and control are all emblematic of the art-making process, but when one collaborates, those givens must be reevaluated.

Who:

Susan Erony, seARTS Executive Director and Community/Visitor Education Series Director

Susan Erony is the former Associate Curator for Exhibitions at the Cape Ann Historical Museum in Gloucester. Erony brings expertise from over twenty years of leading arts initiatives, organizing exhibitions, consulting, writing, teaching and lecturing on art, and exhibiting internationally. She consulted on the role of art in society and in education to Facing History and Ourselves, an international human rights organization with a focus on developing curricula to educate students on civic responsibility. Erony is a dedicated art educator who has taught students from grammar school age to doctoral level. An accomplished artist, Erony was the first American artist to show in Leipzig, Germany since 1933 and is a guest member of the Berlin Society for Women Artists. For the past ten years, she has collaborated with a German-born artist on a project addressing the Jewish Holocaust, work that led her to Bosnia to facilitate dialogue between Muslims and Serbs. Erony received her MA in psychology from Lesley University, BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and attended the University for Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, Holland.

Lara Lepionka, seARTS Development Director and Partner with an Artist Director

Lara Lepionka has spent the past ten years working in arts administration, recently serving as Executive Director at Yellow School Center for the Arts in Byfield, MA and previously as Director of Development at Columbia College Chicago Office of Community Arts Partnerships. Before joining the seARTS staff, Lepionka was vice president of the organization. She is also an inter-disciplinary, community-based artist and arts director who mounts large-scale community projects. She has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group shows in Chicago, New York and New England, and was an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Vermont Studio Center, and Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the recipient of an Artists Fellowship Award from the Illinois Arts Council and two Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program grants. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BA from Bard College.

Sarah Slifer, Gloucester New Arts Festival Director

Sarah Slifer has directed and curated multi-disciplinary arts events internationally since 1998 with a focus on bringing performance to new or under-served audiences and siting work in alternative spaces. Slifer created and directed the 2005 Gloucester New Arts Festival, which brought over 40 experimental artists to Gloucester for four days of performances and events. She also directed the art component for the annual Gloucester Schooner Festival, incorporating contemporary art into an existing cultural event. An accomplished dancer and choreographer, Slifer has danced with Maida Withers Dance Construction Company in Washington DC, Vincent Cacialano in Amsterdam, and Jose Mateo at Ballet Theatre of Boston. She has taught Dance at George Washington University, The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, and Dance Base in Edinburgh. She received her BA from George Washington University.

For more information: contact Susan Erony at erony@searts.org

The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Adams Arts Fund for Cultural Economic Development. Artists are the engine fueling the Creative Economy on the North Shore

Past Artists on Artists Lectures