August 17, 2020

Alumni TIES:  #ExchangeAlumni Making a Difference

screen_shot_2020-08-17_at_3.46.51_pm_1.png

Team Razvan experiments with visual effects, sound and biometrics as a part of Art-a-Hack's Special Edition 2020 COVID19, "Dancedemic."
The positive impact that artists are having on communities during this pandemic is nothing short of extraordinary. This is true for the U.S. alumni who participated in the December 2019 Alumni TIES on “Art, Culture, and Transforming Conflict” whose innovative work continues to build community resilience in lockdown. 

Dancedemic, the creation of Ellen Pearlman (American Arts Incubator to Ukraine, Fulbright Specialist to Latvia) and Jonathan Hollander (Arts Envoy, Fulbright Specialist and Scholar), is using lockdown and isolation as catalysts to imagine interactive live performance in new ways. Funded by an Alumni TIES grant, Dancedemic will showcase two immigrant dancers in collaboration with 30 technologists exploring the intersection between dance and the latest technological advances. Watch the resulting performance live on August 21 at the 39th Annual Virtual Battery Dance Festival.

Learn more about the Alumni TIES participants and their stories in their own words.  Check out Laurie Eldridge's story on her Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching exchange program, where she shared her Cherokee arts and culture with Sámi students in northern Finland. Watch our #ExchangeAlumni social media space for more of these inspiring videos over the next weeks!