Questions of Practice

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As a hub for the exchange of ideas and ongoing dialogue about issues critical to artistic practice, we produce an extensive collection of resources, both online and in print. Our Questions of Practice research series features interviews with and essays by noted field leaders and thinkers, as well as in-depth publications that grow out of our experience as grantmakers and connect Philadelphia’s cultural community with peers nationally and internationally.

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Composer Ari Benjamin Meyers on Authorship, Collaboration, and Rehearsing Philadelphia

Francis Kéré on Architecture and Community Collaboration

Webinar Series: Archivists, Curators, and Scholars on Archiving Black Culture

Philadelphia Orchestra's Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the Joy Inherent in Live Music

Museum Director Robert Hicks & Artist Matt Adams on the Relevance of Pandemic History

Poet & Pew Fellow Sonia Sanchez Discusses Her Creative Life & Legacy with Major Jackson [Full Interview]

Photographer Zanele Muholi on What it Means To Be a “Visual Activist”

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang on Public Art and Ephemerality

Artist Ann Hamilton on the Relationship between Production & Consumption

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Explore our Topics

Audience & Connection

Co-Authorship

Curating Now

Composer Ari Benjamin Meyers explains his approach to the nuances of connecting strangers through music and why he asserts his authorship in pieces like Rehearsing Philadelphia.

Questions of Practice: Opera Director Yuval Sharon on Modern Opera Techniques

Questions of Practice: Technologist Dr. Suse Anderson on the Cultural Implications of Digital Technology

Questions of Practice: Curator Adriel Luis on Community Engagement and Technology

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Nora Chipaumire on a Dancer’s Skin

Philadelphia Orchestra's Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the Joy Inherent in Live Music

Questions of Practice: Artist Cai Guo-Qiang on Audience Participation in Public Art

Questions of Practice: Phoenix Art Museum's Amada Cruz on Engaging Bilingual Communities in Museums

On Urban Parks and Civic Life: Insights from Leaders at PA Horticultural Society, Trust for Public Land, High Line, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation

Jeanne van Heeswijk on why we must “let go of this unholy marriage between authorship and autonomy.”

Questions of Practice: Ernesto Pujol on Reciprocal Relationships with Communities

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

Questions of Practice: Artist Song ErRui on Collaboration

White Box Residencies: Dan Blacksberg & David Gutkin

Questions of Practice: Curator Helen Molesworth on Authorship

J-Sette and the Collaborative Process Behind Jumatatu Poe's Private Places

Push Me, Pull You: Questions of Co-authorship

Push Me, Pull You: Ain Gordon

Former Mütter Museum director Robert Hicks and artist Matt Adams talk about why the history of the 1918–19 flu pandemic is relevant today and how they designed an exhibition about it.

Writer and Curator Laura Raicovich on “Not Normal” Museum Practices

Questions of Practice: Bisi Silva on the Contemporary Curatorial Practice in Africa

Questions of Practice: Curator Lumi Tan on Cross-Disciplinary Curation at The Kitchen

Designing Museum Galleries for Contemporary Audiences: Darielle Mason & Dan Spock in Conversation

Questions of Practice: Bisi Silva on considering “the Local” and “the Global” in Curatorial Practice

Questions of Practice: Curator Lee Tusman on Curating Performance

Questions of Practice: FringeArts' Nick Stuccio on Curating Performance

Questions of Practice: Musician & Curator Argeo Ascani on Experimentation

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Performance in Museums

Practice & Process

Restaging & Reconstruction

Maria Hassabi: PLASTIC (2015-16), Installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, January 31–March 1, 2015. Courtesy the artist; Koenig & Clinton, New York; The Breeder, Athens. Photo credit, Thomas Poravas.

Choreographer Maria Hassabi on how performance work changes from a theater to a museum setting.

Questions of Practice: Poet and Performer Tracie Morris on Preserving a “Feeling of Liveness” in a Museum Setting

Questions of Practice: Barnes Foundation’s Thom Collins on Unpacking the Museum’s Collection Through Performance

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

Questions of Practice: Walker Art Center's Philip Bither on Curatorial Choices

Questions of Practice: Visiting Scholar Kristy Edmunds on the Role of Audiences in Preserving Performance

Questions of Practice: Dance Critic Claudia La Rocco on Dancing in Museums

Questions of Practice: MoMA's Thomas Lax on Dance in Museums

Questions of Practice: Simon Dove of the Crossing the Line Festival

Director Josephine Decker discusses the shift from filmmaking to live theater production and the nuances of translating the experience of pregnancy into performance.

Questions of Practice: Curator Koyo Kouoh on Transdisciplinary Practice

Questions of Practice: Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Leadership

Excerpt from The Sentient Archive: Artist Sarah Crowner on Painting and Dancing

Questions of Practice: Choreographer and Dancer taisha paggett on the Relationship Between Art and Politics

On Frank Zappa’s “Relentless Pursuit of Interesting Sounds:” An Interview with Orchestra 2001’s Jayce Ogren and Zappa Expert Joseph Klein

Questions of Practice: Poet and Performer Tracie Morris on “Serving Her Muse”

Questions of Practice: Actor Dulé Hill on Nat “King” Cole’s “Quiet Revolution”

Questions of Practice: Francis Kéré on Creating Architecture that “Serves Humanity”

Curator Ruth Estévez on why the practice of restaging may be both “interesting” and “dangerous.”

Questions of Practice: Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on Contextualizing Classical Works

Mind, Movement, and Memory: Douglas Crimp and Peter Eleey on Choreographer Trisha Brown

Transmitting Dance Across Generations: On the Making of A Steady Pulse: Restaging Lucinda Childs, 1963–78

Again, In Another Time and Space

Questions of Practice: "What is Reconstruction?"

Fighting Like a Man: A Conversation with Civil War Reenactor Wendy Ramsburg

Second Preface for The History of Madness

Putting Jason Back Together Again

QoP Term Row 3

Social & Community-Based Practices

Tradition & Translation

Grantee Interviews

The performances featured more than 60 performers, nearly all of whom were non-professional actors from Norristown with personal stories to tell.

Questions of Practice: Farm for the City Participants on What Urban Farming Can Do for a Community

Questions of Practice: Ernesto Pujol on Pursuing Aesthetics

Questions of Practice: Curator Koyo Kouoh on Politics and Socially Engaged Practice

Questions of Practice: Photographer Zanele Muholi on Museum Accessibility

Questions of Practice: Artist Mariam Ghani on Collaboration in Socially Engaged Art

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar on Art and Social Justice

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Faustin Linyekula on Creating Accessible Art

Questions of Practice: Cohabitation Strategies on Authorship and Community Engagement

Art historian Kristina Van Dyke discusses the potential for technology to foster new perspectives on old works.

Questions of Practice: Visual Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock on the Social Connotations of Dolls

Questions of Practice: Choreographer Reggie Wilson on the “Cultural Retentions” of Sacred Spaces

Who Gets to Be Contemporary? Brooklyn Museum's Catherine Morris and Arcadia Gallery's Richard Torchia on Pati Hill

Questions of Practice: Composer and Pianist Vijay Iyer on Musical Lineage

Questions of Practice: Conductor Donald Nally and Violinist Hanna Khoury on Blending Musical Traditions

God Must be a Dancer

Just Say It or Think It and It Is So

"Whose Passion Are We Hearing?:" On Mendelssohn's Revival of the St. Matthew Passion

Composers Raven Chacon and Jacob Cooper discuss their musical origins, the role chance plays in their work, and the environments in which they make music.

Pew Fellows Chat: Mark Thomas Gibson and Alex Smith on the Power and Capacity of Comic Art

Pew Fellow Chat: DJ Rich Medina on Black Joy and Philadelphia’s “Living Icons”

Pew Fellows Chat: Visual Artists Rami George and Didier William on Personal Histories in Art-Making

Pew Fellows Chat: Shatara Michelle Ford, Karyn Olivier, and Brett Ashley Robinson on the Art and Audiences That Matter to Them

Pew Fellows Chat: Emily Bate, Tom Quinn, and Eva Wǒ on Artistic Practice

Performance in a Pandemic: Two Music Directors on COVID Adaptations and Returning to the Stage

Pew Fellow of the Week: An Interview with Lighting Designer Maria Shaplin

Meet a Pew Fellow-in-Residence: Interview with Playwright and Director Tina Satter

QoP Term Row 4

Center Publications

Programs at the Center

Site Read: Seven Curators on Their Landmark Exhibitions features essays from exhibition makers on the site-based innovations in now-iconic exhibitions they organized.

Site Read: Seth Siegelaub in Conversation with Teresa Gleadowe

Site Read: Innovating Sites by Bruce Altshuler

Excerpt from The Sentient Archive: Choreographer Gregory Maqoma on Expressing Cultural Identity

David Gordon Reads Two Artist Statements from The Sentient Archive

Balanchine Dancer Allegra Kent Reads "My Discovery of Dance" from The Sentient Archive

In Terms of Performance, A Keywords Anthology

danceworkbook: A Steady Pulse: Restaging Lucinda Childs, 1963–78

An Experiment in Five Acts

Earle shares her perspective on the value and potential of archives in the arts and her ambitions for her term as Visiting Scholar.

Danger and Discovery: Cauleen Smith and Linda Earle on Potential in Archives

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage’s Pew Fellow Artist Residencies

Reflections on the Black Cultural Archive Project

Webinar Series: Archivists, Curators, and Scholars on Archiving Black Culture

Dr. Suse Anderson and the Visiting Technologist Program

Pew Fellowships in the Arts at 25

Kristy Edmunds and the Visiting Scholar Program

An Experiment in Five Acts in Review: A Conversation with Ain Gordon

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