Performer-Multicultural Specialist Marty Pottenger to be First Guest in Hyphenated Artist Series

Who: artist, playwright, and union activist Marty Pottenger
Where: The Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St
When: Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
What: free public demonstration and discussion of her work
Why: part of the Hyphenated Artist Series

Award-winning solo performance artist, playwright, and union activist Marty Pottenger will host a public demonstration and discussion of her work on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m. at Syracuse University's Warehouse (350 W. Fayette St.) as part of the recently announced Hyphenated Artist Series, sponsored by Partners for Art Education (PAE) and Imagining America.   Pottenger currently works out of Portland's (Me.) City Hall where she uses theater, media, and oral histories to encourage people to think about issues, ask questions, and engage in dialogue with others in their communities.  This free event features excerpts from her solo performances as well as a discussion of her current work, which addresses long-standing issues of discrimination and perceived prejudice within Portland's city government and the school system, with the objective of increasing equity.

Pottenger’s other community-engaged performances include "home land security," a post-9/11 community arts project with political, civic and religious leaders of Portland; "Abundance," a multi-media theater work focusing on economy and financial resources from in-depth interviews with people ranging from minimum wage workers through billionaires; "Just War," from interviews with Yugoslavian veteran soldiers/paramilitary and their families with Director Ana Miljanic and the Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade Yu; and "City Water Tunnel #3," an Obie award-winning multimedia performance and visual arts exhibit about New York City's 60 year long public works project, as told through the collected stories of the people building the tunnel.

Pottenger’s current work in Maine is in partnership with the city’s Department of Equal Opportunity & Multicultural Affairs and the School District's Multicultural Affairs Department. One of their programs trains local artists for long term residencies in city, school, and community agencies to both make art & lead workshops – attaching a poet to the fire department, a painter to the school board, one photographer to the teachers union and another to the Department of Public Health, a musician to the mayor's office, and a storyteller to the state Christian Coalition.

Pottenger will also facilitate an arts workshop with members of the SEIU union while she is Syracuse. They will create a performance about SU workers’ lives for the 2008 Ray Smith Symposium for the Humanities that will take place from April 22-24. The theme of this year’s Symposium is “Art Works: The Role of the Arts in Workers Struggles." (See http://wrt.syr.edu/newsarchive/ray_smith/ ).

The Hyphenated Artist Series is a collaboration between PAE, a Syracuse-based organization that provides funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the arts for students, teachers and artists, and Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a national consortium of colleges and universities based at SU committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design. The series will enhance and promote the region’s cultural activity by exploring expanded opportunities for artists in combinations such as artist-educator and artist-organizer.

The Hyphenated Artist Series is supported by a grant by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. For more information, call 443-8590.

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Partners for Arts Education inspires learning and leadership for arts in education in Central New York and throughout New York State. We provide funding and support to deepen and enrich educational experiences in and through the arts for students, teachers and artists.

Partners for Arts Education
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