Art Is Movement: A Conference Exploring Art & Social Change

“I wish to go more and more outside to be among the problems of nature and problems of human beings in their working places. This will be a regenerative activity; it will be a therapy for all of the problems we are standing before.... I wish to go completely outside and to make a symbolic start for my enterprise of regenerating the life of humankind within the body of society and to prepare a positive future in this context.”

-Joseph Beuys In America: Energy Plan for the Western Man

Welcome! We’d like to invite you to participate in Art Is Movement, the first Think OutWord event to focus entirely on an embodied study of the cultural realm, from Rudolf Steiner’s ideal of a threefold social form. Through activities, discussion and peer presentations we will explore the creative and artistic forces at work in and around the social organism of New York City. One focus of our work will be Joseph Beuys’ notion of “social sculpture,” and we will explore Manhattan as an embodiment of this idea. What does this city have to say? Can we hear the language of this place? In this place where individuals traverse ant-like paths down cement sidewalks one hears music and the screech of wheels on steel reverberating from underground. People speed through space and time on subway cars, glide up elevators, and wait at corners for lights to change; all of these bodies confined to a grid like island structure where all of humanity can be found-“if you keep your eyes open and your head above water.” Because of the dense human activity in New York City, we have been given a wonderful gift: to explore and become conscious of the evolving social sculpture that mirrors Joseph Beuys’ idea that “art is movement.”

We will work closely with Dawn Stratton who draws upon her experience as a Waldorf educator in Olympia, Washington and student of clowning and play. Dawn has recently begun developing the art of the holy fool. This new art, born out of anthroposophy, encourages one to meet the self and the other with a child-like sense of heightened, open awareness, objective observation and compassionate conversation.

Saturday we will spend the day at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) taking in some of Joseph Beuys’ work and gaining a deeper understanding of his biography and importance within a larger artistic context.

Following our morning in MoMA, Credere Fund grantees "the new forms project" will set up the parameters for small group missions in creative inquiry, where we will be turned loose in Manhattan to put our bodies (and hearts and minds) into active participation with the social sculpture in which we find ourselves.

Registration: Please register asap so we know how many people to expect (you won’t have to pay until you arrive). You can register until April 24, after which you will have to contact us directly if you want to participate.

**By paying the higher end of this scale, you allow for someone else to attend who might not otherwise by able. Cost includes Saturday breakfast and dinner (please bring approximately $5 - $10 for you to purchase lunch in NYC on Saturday) and Sunday breakfast and lunch. The price also includes a roundtrip ticket from Spring Valley into New York as well as admission into the Museum of Modern Art.

Pre-reading Packet: We have assembled an awesome pre-reading packet which you can find here. It’s relatively brief, but enormously important for our work together. Please do your homework:)

Miscellaneous: The fee includes food, admission to our guided tour at MoMA and train tickets. Please bring a sleeping bag and mat, as some of you will be on floors and couches. Also, raingear might come in handy because we will be outdoors. Lastly, bring a dish that will feed a few people because Friday night is POTLUCK.