Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP) is a feedback system based on the principle that the best possible outcome from a response session is for the maker to want to go back to work. Whether returning to the studio, the desk, the kitchen, or the laboratory, CRP gives tools both to people who are making work and people who are responding to that work. In use for over twenty years, CRP has been embraced by artmakers, educators, scientists, and administrators at theater companies, dance departments, orchestras, science centers, museums, and beyond. The Process has deepened dialogue between makers and audiences; it has enhanced learning between teachers and students. It has proven valuable for all kinds of creative endeavors, work situations, and collaborative relationships within and beyond the arts, from kindergartens to corporations. In 2012 Liz taught intensives at the University of Georgia, to theater practitioners in both Ireland and Scotland, and with the Blue Touch Paper new-works series of the London Sinfonietta. In 2013 she’ll travel to Australia to teach CRP intensives on both coasts, and return to Scotland and to London for further CRP work. CRP workshops and intensives can be designed to last anywhere from two hours to four days, depending on the size of the group, the desired amount of work on display, and whether facilitator-training is included. CRP is a process of response, so we need things to respond to: a dance-in-progress, a draft of a paper for a conference, a new lecture that a faculty member wants feedback on. Liz will discuss all of this with you to get an appropriate range.

Led by facilitator, Jill Waterhouse,  Proteges Jennifer and Danielle enjoy their critical response session.

CR Event in 2013  Barbara Bridges

Found in our Water

Plato asked the question  “What is beauty?”
Over 2000 years ago.  Has that question been answered?
Certain individuals, embedded in their  own arrogant world view as THE truth, believe they can answer.

Not me.

I, as an artist,  seek the “never before seen”.
I try not to think out side the box, but instead,

LIVE outside the box.  Wedding my concern for the environment with my creative process,

 I present:
Fabulous Flotsam  This series creates charming homes for your body  wear when not being worn. 

Castine, Maine  Earrings  3W” X 4T”,
Mixed Media, Marine gasket, beads, waxed thread

SOLD

Dynamic Tension
8” W X 4” T,
Mixed Media, Drift wood, glass beads,
Rhine stones, waxed thread, beads

Barbara came to Mill City Museum in early 2012 with her newest project Ode to Gluten.  I immediately saw the opportunity to have something a little different that what we had had in our museum for installation exhibits for some time.

It was an interesting piece presenting ample opportunity for conversation and creation!  When we installed it in the rail corridor area of the public space in the museum it fit so well it livened the space and created new conversations right away. Part of being an exhibiting artist at Mill City Museum usually requires some form of public engagement and seeing as Barbara is an educator we decided to ask her to create a family day event around her piece.  Barbara is a great idea generator and together we came up with a plan to invite families to create their own pieces from memories, images and objects.  Barbara was adamant that these pieces should not be just “make and take” things that would get tossed out on the way home but instead created and brought materials that would spark children and families to really think about art.  What creating art is – how to make it important to you – the basic concepts of art. Her program was highly successful because she put many hours of thought into how to fit her goals into our parameters of time but still make the experience valuable and meaningful to the young creators.  She has a wonderful sense of how to encourage and guide at the same time.  I enjoyed both working with her and admired her work with families on our Ode To Gluten Family day. Wini Froelich, Education, Mill City Museum 

The Power of Collaborative Creating: Social Practice Art

1. Art and artists play many roles in contemporary society. Some artistic practices support just socio-political practices and processes. At other times, artists ignore or even encourage injustices.
2. We are members of a demographic cohort that has tried for a half century to be involved in positive social change.
3. We are also beneficiaries of a society that has given us a certain amount of financial freedom and security. And we intend to use that freedom, not to indulge ourselves but to facilitate our commitment to social change through artistic practice.
4. The characteristics of our proposed artistic practice include:

A. We will stimulate and be involved in positive social action

B. We will provide constructive criticism

C. We will denounce and oppose, when needed

D. We will maintain our commitment to bettering the world

E. We will use our time energy and experience for our constant improvement.

F. We will work collaboratively with others

G. We are willing to teach and mentor but we will never stop learning from others, including those younger than us.

H. We will always look to the future, focus on the present, as we reflect on the past.

Johnathon Liv: Boston Harbor  2014

Mixed Media: Adirondak, Seagull, plastic bottles, cigarette packs, shells, rope

Barbara Bridges seeks to empower all people to embrace the creative process. She makes art from artist fabricated components in a variety of media and rescued power objects. She organizes the objects to create meaning and provoke discussions and reflection on a wide variety of social topics including Ode to Gluten (agricultural practices), Onion/Academia Nuts, (Hi Tech/HiTouch in academia) Found In Our Water (water quality), and Talking Chairs (recovery/worldview truths). Invite her to your school.

Johnathon Liv was created for the Route One: USA, part of  the Found in Our Waters project.
Our concern for the quality of our water should be an international dialogue. I seek collaborators to stage panel discussions, exhibitions with local artists, student workshops, school visits and adult events around the planet.

Wollaston Beach in Quincy, MA was a pungent experience when I stepped from the car.  I saw many
people running and playing and swimming in the water but it smelled of chemicals to my nose.  I spent
quite a bit of time trying to verify and identify any studies done on water quality. Studies exist but you need to be a scientist to read them.

The Working Waterfront (a Maine fisherman weekly) and other publications, claim the striped bass (stripa’s- as they are called Down East)  are in decline. Details  PropTalk ( Chesapeake Bay Power Boating) claims they just had the best “rock fish” season ever. Perhaps they caught all the rock fish in Maryland before they are reaching Maine?

On page 17 of the June 2014 PropTalk, Zach Ditmars has a fix for the Chesapeake Bay invasive fish- the Snakehead. Rename them the ” spotted channa” and eat ’em – he directs and gives a recipe including breading and deep fat frying.

Orange Roughy was once called ” slime head.”  I would challenge the Mississippi waterways wardens to run a cooking contest for the “invasive carp” (renamed in Minnesota to avoid offending the Asians) . Then let’s eat ’em.  Click here for one idea. We homo sapiens seem especially skilled at eating most everything which walks, crawls, swims or flies!