Sara Edwards of City Arts Fest Dishes About Genre Bender Tonight

This week, City Arts Fest came out of the gates with a big bang, with no fewer than 40 events and shows to choose from. We were disappointed to only get to take in six or so, but until self cloning becomes real, we're just going to have to pace ourselves. Regardless of what you've already got on tap tonight, though, you'll want to make time to get to On the Boards for an evening of mind-melting performances by some of the area's most exceptional multimedia talent.

The visual arts programming at FRED is a tremendous addition to the fest this year and Sara Edwards, Culture Club Curator/Programmer has come up with an interesting way to leverage the strengths of visual and performing artists by producing tonight's "Genre Bender", a pan-discipline hybrid display that's sure to explode your brains. We had some time to catch up with Sara about what’s in store for us.


How was "Genre Bender" hatched?

Last spring I was brought on as the curator for arts programming of the festival. I was interested in City Arts Fest creating a platform for social interactions, new collaborations, individual artists, and interdisciplinary artworks.

Particularly I was looking for a format to bring together artists of different disciplines to encourage cross pollination between artists and audiences. Early in my brainstorming process, my friend Josef Krebs and I were chatting about what we love about art in Seattle. The thread of interdisciplinary work and collaboration kept cropping up in the conversation about our favorite local art projects. Dancers collaborating with visual artists, theater artists collaborating with DJs. But how many artists and audiences continue to affiliate with one primary genre. We wished there were more opportunities to introduce artists and invest in collaboration, experimentation, creating new work. And Josef said “not just new work… new genres.” I was like “A-ha! That’s it. What kind of showcase can we put together to encourage new genres…”

Who are your partners in crime?

I teamed up with choreographer Amy O’Neal early in the process to help conceive the format of the night and brainstorm participants. Amy has a long history of collaboration and making interdisciplinary work with her performance group locust (which was collaboration with musician Zeke Keeble) so she was a perfect co-conspirer. She is serving as host for the showcase, and partnered with filmmaker Wes Hurley to make a short film for the project.

Eventually we brought on the artists and helped pair them up:

Amy O’Neal (dance) & Wes Hurley (film)
Mark Haim (dance) & Casey Curran (visual art)
Karen Finneyfrock (poetry) & Joanna Lepore (food)
Mike Pham (performance) & Gretchen Bennett (visual art)
Rainbow Fletcher (dance) & Sean Johnson (visual art)
Evan Flory Barnes (music) & Jennifer Law (visual/scenic art)

Have any of the your performers worked together before?

Several had never even met or heard of each other (Evan and Jen, Karen and Joanna)

Several were aware of each other but never worked together (Amy and Wes, Mike and Gretchen, Mark and Casey)

One pair is a romantic couple, but haven’t created a duet together before (Rainbow and Sean)

What do you think folks should know about the evening that isn't self evident?

The artists were invited to take maximum risk.
They were told this would be a supportive place to try something and fail.
One of the creations might be edible.

Might be edible? Sounds like it's definitely worth checking out. For more information, you know what to do.