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Vol. XIX No. 5 February 2004 |
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With a Rip and a Roar … Artists Get Inspired at Juilliard Artists Inspired is a new group formed just last fall at Juilliard. This gathering of highly energized artists is interested in sharing visions, goals, and creative processes with friends and colleagues. By meeting with one another, we are seeking to look beyond life's routines to inspire ourselves in profound ways. Through conversation and activity, Artists Inspired is interested in exploring all kinds of artistic ideas—not just among students, but also with the faculty and staff of Juilliard.
Our second incentive was to share ideas across the borders of the different artistic disciplines represented at Juilliard. As a group (and I believe, as a school), we feel the need for collaborative discussions among actors, musicians, and dancers. These conversations feed and inspire us in ways that speaking merely in groups within our own discipline cannot provide. Artists Inspired provides a forum for that to take place. Last, Artists Inspired members want to have fun. Without fail, every meeting has been an extremely joyful experience. The simple act of coming together as artists with a common goal, to discuss important issues we face daily, creates a time together that is impossible not to enjoy. We discuss art. Art is what we do. Art is a part of who we are. And art is definitely fun. So far, we have had four junkets, filled with ideas and exchanges among all disciplines. In our first, "Finding Your Own Voice," we explored ideas about finding uniqueness in our art and in ourselves, and finding ways to tap into our own creativity. We engaged in many fun games, such as one in which we went around the room creating words, movements, and sounds. This game was a way to see how well we express our own unconsciousness, and also how we respond to our surroundings. In the next junket, "Performer Prepares," we exchanged ideas about how one physically, mentally, and emotionally prepares for a performance. (Did you know that one of the best way to ensure a good performance is to fantasize about that performance going well in all kinds of different ways, involving sound, smell, feelings, and sight?) In "Beyond the Fourth Wall," we talked about audience-and-performer relationships. Do we break the fourth wall, do we bring the audience in? There were many fascinating ideas! Last but not least, in our last junket of the first semester, we had our very fun "Collage Your Insides Out!" Fueled by ice-cream, we spread all kinds of magazines, papers, and scissors all over the 11th-floor lounge, and we cut and glued all night long to make collages that we can call our own. It was fun, and it was a creative outlet for ourselves to inspire and bring out our imagination! We have planned a host of events to get dialogue, fun, and creativity flowing for our new year. We will begin with a junket discussing the inspirational book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It shares an in-depth program to uncover, discover, and recover your own creative juices and ensure your own artistic growth. While discussing the practices and activities presented in the book, we'll find ways to gear them toward our lives. Junkets planned for the spring semester include one in which, after riffing off the contrasts and parallels between everything "classical" and everything "contemporary," we will venture on a walking tour through Chelsea's gallery district. Following this, we will go bowling (yes, bowling!) at Chelsea Piers to round out our artistic adventure. To get a better idea of what everyone spends time doing in the Juilliard building, we're excited to open the floor and invite group participants to share a bit about their disciplines. One might demonstrate or talk about the mechanics of an instrument, or commanding the body, or projecting a voice. Other topics to be explored will include the potential of the arts to promote change in our world today. Finally, we want to finish the year off with a rip and a roar. Following intuitive impulse, everyone is welcome to join in the Jam Session of the Year, with drums, contact improv, spoken word, and any instrument, voice, idea, or rhythm you would like to bring. We're encouraging everyone from our community here at Juilliard and abroad to attend any of these junkets. Let's talk, let's mess around—and let's find new ways to explore ourselves and our artistry. To obtain more information or offer suggestions, contact us at artistsinspired@yahoo.com.
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