Creative Process

What drives cultural practitioners to experiment, discover, and create?

PRESENT TENSE, performed by the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Photo © Naoya Ikegani Saitama Arts Foundation, 2006.

Questions of Practice: Writer and Dancer Wendy Perron on the Meaning of "Contemporary"

Writer and dancer Wendy Perron evokes Trisha Brown to explain why contemporary dance is open to multiple meanings.

A “Poetry Bureau,” created by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, Westwood Village, 2013. Featuring a group of volunteer poets who write a spontaneous verse for visitors, the bureau appears outside the theater prior to a related performance. Photo by Phinn Sriployrung

Questions of Practice: Visiting Scholar Kristy Edmunds on Philadelphia's Collaborative Arts Ecology

Visiting Scholar Kristy Edmunds on Philadelphia's Collaborative Arts Ecology

Janine Antoni, Anna Halprin, Stephen Petronio, Rope Dance, 2015. Photo by Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy of the artists and The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Stephen Petronio and Artist Janine Antoni on Performance in a Museum Setting

Choreographer Stephen Petronio and artist Janine Antoni on how visual arts organizations can invite audiences into performative experiences.

Artists of Pennsylvania Ballet in Trisha Brown’s O zlozony/O composite. Photo by Alexander Iziliaev, courtesy of Pennsylvania Ballet.

Questions of Practice: Writer and Dancer Wendy Perron on Trisha Brown and the Body

Writer and Dancer Wendy Perron on Trisha Brown and the Body

Holding It Down, Harlem Stage. Photo by Mark Millman Photography. Courtesy of Kimmel Center, Inc.

Questions of Practice: Composer and Pianist Vijay Iyer and Librettist Mike Ladd on Improvisation

Composer Vijay Iyer and librettist Mike Ladd on how improvisation functions within their creative process.

Rea Tajiri, 2015 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

Fellows Friday: Q&A with Filmmaker Rea Tajiri

We spoke to filmmaker Rea Tajiri (2015), who is devising new approaches to storytelling that embrace the murky spaces of memory, history, and public consciousness.

Benjamin Volta, 2015 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

Fellows Friday: Q&A with Visual Artist Benjamin Volta

We spoke to visual artist Benjamin Volta (2015), who creates intricate public murals and sculptures through participatory methods, often involving education, restorative justice, and urban planning.

Merián Soto, 2015 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

Fellows Friday: Q&A with Choreographer Merián Soto

We spoke to choreographer Merián Soto (2015), whose 40-year career in performance has been marked by a concern for the body—most recently manifested in a somatic, conceptual, and process-based practice that investigates the living body and its relationship to consciousness.

Micah Danges, 2015 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

Fellows Friday: Q&A with Visual Artist Micah Danges

We spoke to visual artist Micah Danges (2015), whose work hovers between image and object and pushes the limits of what a photograph can be.

Chopin Without Piano at FringeArts, produced by Centrala, Warsaw, conceived and written by Michał Zadara and Barbara Wysocka, directed by Michał Zadara. Chopin performed by Barbara Wysocka. Photo by JJ Tiziou. Courtesy of Swarthmore College.

Questions of Practice: Centrala's Michał Zadara and Barbara Wysocka on Intersecting Contemporary Theater and Classical Music in Performance

Director Michał Zadara and actress Barbara Wysocka on creating an innovative adaptation of Fryderyk Chopin's two piano concertos performed without a piano.