(Sample) BU Arts Initiative Welcomes Three Artists for Residency

(Sample Post) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 2017 through November 3, 2017
CONTACT: Sarah Collins, (617) 358-0489 or Sarahkc@bu.edu

(Boston, MA)—We are pleased to announce that the Boston University Arts Initiative – Office of the Provost, Boston University Art Galleries, and the Boston University Dance Program will welcome Dahlia Nayar, Margaret Sunghe Paek, and Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, for an artist residency Tuesday, October 31st through Friday, November 3rd , 2017 on the Boston University Charles River campus. The residency will include public performances on November 2nd and 3rd of their piece entitled 2125 Stanley Street held at 808 Gallery (808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215). Performances are free, and open to the public, but a rsvp is required. RSVP and artist biographies are available at bu.edu/arts/dahlia.

Working with collaborators Margaret Paek and Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, in 2125 Stanley Street, choreographer and dancer Dahlia Nayar examines “home” as an archaeological site where minimal artifacts offer points of departure for the re-imagination and reconstruction of a domestic space. They excavate the everyday and the mundane in search of a poetic consciousness. Household objects transform into potential sources of revelation and reflection. Basic tasks are infused with virtuosity and nostalgia. Fragmented lullabies and nursery rhymes create an evocative soundscape. Ultimately, the installation invites the audience into a home that unfolds through movement and sound, a home that exists in the present moment through intimate exchange, a home that is both familiar and yet cannot exactly be located. Downeast Magazine awarded 2125 Stanley Street the 2015 Best of Stage and Screen noting that “2125 Stanley Street gorgeously explores domesticity and notions of home using mops, laundry, and other domestic props in beautiful and unexpected ways.”

During the residency, the artists will be conducting workshops and visiting classes, including professor Regina Hansen’s Rhetoric class in the College of General Studies. Hansen says “One of the goals of the Rhetoric course is to think critically about terms and concepts we take for granted, terms such as beauty, monster, city, and in this case ‘home.’ How we interpret and express supposedly simple concepts contributes to the arguments we make about ourselves, our beliefs our understanding of the world. And not all such rhetoric takes place in the form of an essay.  To see the concept of home expressed and interrogated through sound and movement will
be of great value to my students.”

The Boston University Arts Initiative in the Office of the Provost was created in the fall of 2012 to ensure that the arts are a vital component of the student experience at Boston University by working to deepen the presence and impact of the arts in the academic life of the university. Our programming reflects interdisciplinary, global, and urban nature of Boston University.

The presentation of 2125 Stanley Street is made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

More information on 2125 Stanley Street at Boston University including artist biographies is available at bu.edu/arts/dahlia/. Press photos can also be made available.