This experience isn’t for or about artists, per se. It’s about tapping into the creative power that lives within each of us. And using that force to better solve problems in our families, our communities, our jobs, our selves.
Each space along this art-making journey will include a hands-on element. Audience members will engage directly with the artists and each other and will then use the Plaza Art Participation Stations to create a hand-bound art booklet to take home. These booklets are one small way we can keep the conversations going, long after the festival has ended.
To see a list of participating artists and businesses, and to RSVP for your FREE pass to the festival, please click HERE!
How Did (Up)Rising Come About?
As an organization, we began to think about the ways in which artists find the strength – courage, if you will – to tell stories of struggle and oppression through creative means. Whether it is with a paintbrush, a drum, a pen and paper, or a pair of pointe shoes, artists have a unique opportunity to literally MAKE change happen. So we thought, “What would it look like if we were to supply the DC community with an artillery of creative firepower to tackle social issues that are important to us?”
More specifically, how do those of us who face our own struggles but don’t feel comfortable speaking up, or out, find strength through other means to actively participate in positive change-making? In our own lives. Our families. Our neighborhoods. Our cities. Our nation. Our world. And thus, (Up)Rising was born.
What matters to you? What strengths or characteristics do you already possess that allow you to make a difference? What skills can you learn to make you more successful at being a creative force for good?
Throughout the course of the festival, performers will be sharing their creative responses to these questions. They will dance, sing, tell stories, mix music, show films, present visual art, and more in order to offer insight into their process. They will also ask participants to help them in creating on-the-spot material as well as assist festivalgoers in creating their own works of art to take home. The entire process is completely voluntary. Attendees have the ability to choose when and how much they participate and can come and go from one space to another as they wish. This is a space to take risks and grow. This is also a place to find comfort and unity. No one will be asked to take part in any aspect that makes them feel uncomfortable.
What is ReCreative Spaces?
recreativespaces.com
ReCreative Spaces is a place for communities to gather and share their passion for art of all kinds. We foster: Creativity. Collaboration. Community. ReCreative Spaces works with property owners and developers to drive awareness and traffic into unleased spaces. We create site-specific programming and events that cultivate artistic expression, community building, social collaboration, and civic participation. We have a dual mission of (1) providing low-cost, high-awesome creative programming to ALL, regardless of income level and (2) paying artists fairly for their work, which is equally as important.
What is Rhode Island Avenue NE Main Street?
riamainstreet.org
As one of eight Main Street programs across the District of Columbia, RIA-NE Main Street is working hard to help with the positive redevelopment of the Rhode Island Avenue corridor.
Rhode Island Avenue NE Main Street focuses on
What are the neighborhood benefits?
What about the Funds?
ReCreative Spaces has carefully selected a total of eight groups or individuals to create work within one of the four vacant properties. These artists have been tasked with creating an entire vision for their part of the festival – a new installation or performance, plus a participatory component with the audience. All of these artists have already begun working on their final pieces, and they will be on-site up to one week before the festival, to carry out their visions. The majority of the funds we raise will go directly to paying the artists fairly for the substantial amount of work we have asked them to produce. We will also be supporting the art installations and performances within the participating businesses. The remaining funds will be allocated for renovation of the four spaces (with temporary, easily removable materials), to create a print and online marketing campaign, and to offer stipends to the tireless team of revolutionaries who will make (Up)Rising happen.
And the Best Part about Your Contribution?
It keeps on going. Just like the Energizer Bunny.
The funds don’t stop on May 24. Your support allows us to continue our work year-round by creating the opportunity for thousands of people to engage with us and the artists we’re showcasing; and those people will tell other people and the ball will keep rolling, and we will keep growing. All because of you. We will also be able to grow this into a yearly festival with more and more art! And, most important, your dollars will allow the participating artists to continue to make work (and share the work they’ve created for (Up)Rising) that challenges, and changes, us all. This is a two-day festival that has the ability to spark long-term change. By working closely with community stakeholders, we will continue our programming with local businesses and artists for ongoing economic and creative development.
It’s not all heARTs and rainbows. It’s good cents, too.
Case Study: Art & Creative Culture Temporary Event as Economic Driver
In 2010, the DC Office of Planning (DCOP) initiated the first of its temporary urbanism concepts with a “temporium” marketplace inside of a former library kiosk on H Street NE. DCOP’s 2010 Retail Action Roadmap identified the H St. NE corridor as a ‘transitioning’ neighborhood. The H Street NE corridor is in the process of rebounding from decades of decline and disinvestment into a nightlife hot spot with new bars and restaurants. Despite the corridor’s new reputation as a trendy entertainment district, the neighborhood has struggled to attract significant retail investment. The H Street Temporium showcased 20 local artists and designers, creating a unique retail outlet for creative entrepreneurs to sell their products. In just four weekends, more than 1,600 people visited the temporium, 75 percent of whom were not local neighborhood residents. Following up on the success of the H St. NE temporium, DCOP funded two additional temporiums in the Shaw and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods in 2011. These three pop-up retail stores drove $55,000 in sales to local artisans, crafts, and designers. By supporting local artists, animating underutilized storefronts, and testing an innovative economic development strategy, the temporiums provided evidence of the potential for these neighborhoods to attract more diverse retail options.
Driggins, K.C. & Snowden, R. (December, 2012). Revitalizing Neighborhoods Through Temporary Urbanism. Public Sector Digest. Retrieved February 26th, 2015.
Click HERE for link to the case study.
Join Us?
We are learning that there’s no such thing as dreaming too big. If you had asked us even just a year ago if we would be running ReCreative Spaces and bringing together some of the most brilliant, creative, engaged thinkers and makers we know to start an Art (Re)volution, we wouldn’t have believed it ourselves. But we DO believe so deeply in stimulating community engagement through the arts that, well, here we are.
And now we’re asking YOU to think (Up) with us! To dream out loud.
Say you’ll join us? You Super Human, you.
See you at (Up)Rising 2015!
Photo credit, in order of appearance:
Rose Jaffe, from “Collecting the Dream” series, Michal Bilick (DJ M Dot), Ganzeer, “Not Yours to Touch,” Steve Connell, Sheldon Scott, Contradiction Dance
Emily Arden Eakland
Co-Founder, Chief Creativity Curator, ReCreative Spaces
Creative Soul, Dancer, Educator, and Idealist.
Emily has a passion for all things slightly off the beaten path. Her wanderings have taken her from California to New Orleans, Washington State to Philadelphia. She continues to return to Washington, DC, her second home, where she has had the privilege to work with a multitude of artists – from DJs to chefs – to create entertaining and thought-provoking events and opportunities.
She has also been deeply involved in working with young people, in both traditional educational settings as well as in arts-related programming. Emily is passionate about supporting art and artists, as well as making art accessible to communities. This, and her love of designing spaces (she did study architecture after all), have been her driving forces behind ReCreative Spaces.