On Sunday, June 29th Lawrence will be one of seventeen cities across the country that help launch the new U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) with an interactive event we're calling an "Imagining." It will take place from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at Stidham Union on the campus of Haskell Indian Nations University. The event is free and open to all, young and old, who are passionate about Lawrence.
Our Imagining will be a
vibrant, arts-infused gathering in which we envision Lawrence's ideal
future and identify creative tactics to get there. Part performance,
part facilitated dialogue, part celebration,
this first Imagining will bring together diverse groups of artists,
organizers, and community members to imagine what our neighborhoods
(and the world) might look like in the year 2034, when
art’s
transformative power has been fully integrated into all aspects of
public life.
Conceptually, our Imagining will be inspired by fellow time-travelers
like H.G. Wells, L. Frank Baum and Doctor Who, meaning we are in the
design stage of building a time portal – really. Those who come to our
Imagining will leave 2014 behind as they enter our handmade portal that transports them
to the year 2034.
After finding their
bearings in the future, groups of imaginers will work together to explore how Lawrence has been transformed after twenty years of
being infused with the
vision of the USDAC and probably a few ways in
which that vision fell short and other interests prevailed. In order to
report back to us, in the present, they’ll fashion time capsules that go in reverse,
each of them placed inside a larger vessel (a giant seed or message in a bottle?) that
will be transported back through the portal to the here and now.
You are encouraged to join us for this unique journey.
Find out more about the USDAC and all of the Imaginings here -
http://usdac.us/imaginings/
And the
Lawrence Journal-World article here.
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