Destiny Bailey LAS VEGAS — AiR TOUR — Issue 9 Art by Destiny Bailey Destiny Bailey sM | How do you think this program, and this exhibit, fits into the artist community in Las Vegas? DB ── There are so many artists in Las Vegas who’d love to even know about this opportunity, never mind actually experiencing it! I am one of them. Not many artists can say that they actually get paid for doing their craft; not many can say that they’ve sold a piece. This Artist-in-Residence program offers a platform for the creators, the inventors, the innovators. It supports anyone who wants even a chance to have their voices heard. It offers a space to just be. We need more spaces like this one that offers Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. any artist an opportunity to get themselves out there. I believe that wholeheartedly. sM | What have you accomplished in your residency? DB ── Oh goodness, there are so many things I’ve done this month that I never thought I could. I talked to thousands of people as they came in and out of the exhibit, some staying long enough to hear my story and share their own stories about various subjects like their mental health struggles and artistic struggles. Through those experiences, I learned how to validate myself as an artist and let my voice be even louder than it has in the past. I sold quite a few pieces as well, to which I let every person who decided to support me know that they were “taking a piece of me with them.” I put my heart and my soul into every piece of art I create, and it’s beautiful knowing that there are people who see me. sM | What is the one social issue that your art speaks to the most? DB ── My art focuses on mental health struggles we all often go through. I personally struggle heavily with regulating my mental health, so therapy and having a healthy outlet have been extremely helpful. My pieces show where I am mentally at the time of creation. My emotions are usually spattered onto the canvas. Each stroke and colour choice tells a story. There’s a stigma around the mentally ill. Most of us shame ourselves and keep quiet about our struggles. Then there are the many obstacles around getting actual mental health care here in America that makes it almost impossible for the majority of the population to even attempt to get better. PREVIOUS NEXT

Mother Sorrow: A Work in Progress From blueprints to footprints on stage, a contemporary dance project unfolds WORDS BY ERIN BALDWIN | TORONTO | PERFORMING ARTS IN MOTION FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Photo by Mike McClung ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 Artistic productions are often concealed – literally and figuratively – behind a curtain until their debut, making it easy to forget the months and years of labour that go into bringing a performance to life. Occasionally, however, we’re offered a rare glimpse into the development process, such as when Canadian choreographer and professional dancer Jennifer Nichols invited smART Magazine to a private working rehearsal of her latest venture, Mother Sorrow. Nichols first conceived of the project back in 2018, inspired to construct a retelling of Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” that innovatively combined dance, opera, the original baroque score, and new music. Joining forces with the composer Adam Scime and the librettist, poet, and playwright David James Brock, Nichols was at last able to assemble the cast of dancers, musicians, and opera singers for three weeks of rehearsal in Toronto towards the end of 2022. On a brisk, overcast December afternoon, a small group gathered inside the Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church and Centre for... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Michelle Mansour Executive Director of Root Division WORDS BY MIDORI FURUHATA | TOKYO | VISUAL ARTS SPACES NOV 11, 2022 | ISSUE 8 Michelle Mansour by Olga Nabatova ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Prioritizing artists and young students is a big part of what Root Division brings to San Francisco’s art community. Founded by three MFA graduates as a way to create a space for emerging artists and expand on arts education in schools, Root Division has been enriching the lives of not only students, but their community as well. From their MFA exhibition series—featuring students from different walks of life—to curating professional exhibits for young students in their yearly New Growth exhibit, Root Division allows emerging artists of all ages to see the value in their work, giving them the confidence to pursue a career in the arts. I had the opportunity to interview Michelle Mansour, Executive Director of Root Division, where we discussed Root Division’s mission to empower artists and youth, their struggles during the pandemic, and how art has been a safe haven for the community of San Francisco. sM | With all the talk of ‘essential work’, do you think Covid affects the value of the work artists do? Would you say there’s an even greater need for the comfort of that work? MM ─ t’s kind of amazing actually, with people spending so much time at home, creating their office spaces and backdrops, really focusing on what surrounds them, we’ve actually done a fair amount of art sales through the gallery, art auction, and through the artist’s personal studios. So between that and the interest in online classes which has been surprisingly popular, we’re not doing badly all things considered. I think people have gone through this moment of what types of things enrich your life and that has been a sort of window of opportunity for the visual arts. We’ve acknowledged that health, safety, food and shelter come first in terms of being “essential”, but I do feel like there’s something that’s been realized with the value of what arts can bring and what artists can bring. In terms of capturing the moment and interpreting the moment, story telling and being visionaries. I think the convergence of the pandemic and more awareness of social justice issues has been an opportunity to showcase how artists are essential as interpreters, sharing very powerful content through their own lens. It’s a true privilege to be alongside so many creative people. sM | How can institutions like yours be of greater service to emerging artists, especially with the severe slashing of artistic budgets? MM ─ t’s always been true to us that artists are the core of what we do. We have the studio program, where we provide discounted workspace in exchange for volunteer service. The artists can do these services by teaching at a school, teaching adult classes or helping to organize exhibitions in the gallery. They’re giving back but also gaining professional experience in the arts, and this is very much an incubator program. The exhibition series is similarly an opportunity to showcase local emerging artists. A lot of artists have had their very first show here before they go on to show somewhere else, which is really true to MFA Now . We also have a series called MFA Never , people who didn’t go down the academic route but are making super interesting work. The premise of the show is that the artists submit one image and all of the submissions will end up in a publication. So anyone who sends us an image will be published into an archive, and we have a juror who reviews the work that will be exhibited in the gallery. We’ve had 175-200 submissions, which then becomes this really incredible resource of artists who are working on their MFA’s. This year we did MFA Revisited, which was essentially the class of 2020, so we thought we could dedicate the space to showing some of their work, and dedicate the artwork and archive to that class. In general, the pandemic has really allowed us to really focus down on what’s important, who are we supporting? And how are we supporting them? Mostly trying to give artists the opportunity to continue to make work. At the moment, for our studio spaces, we’ve been a “pay what you can” model. Many artists are out of work or are in very tentative situations, so we just wanted to do what we could in order to hold the space for them. Likewise to provide artists with a space to show their work in real life. There’s something about having an artist install their work, to be able to actually see it hung up in a gallery and for us to be able to document it. So when we pull out of all of this they can say “yeah I have this show, here are some images of it” as opposed to the thinness of a virtual presentation. sM | How has the pandemic and recent social upheavals influenced your priority for arts education in the school curriculum? MM ─ Transferring everything from in-person to digital is really stressful on everyone. A large portion of the population that we work with are part of the lower income part of the spectrum. Many of them are English language learners or immigrants from other places, specifically from Latin America. So not only have we had a learning curve, but also there’s the digital divide through accessibility and ability. We put together kits of art supplies at the beginning of the fall semester and again at the beginning of the spring semester which required a lot of pre-planning, so all the students can have their equipment at home. Typically in our program we serve up to 1000 students between the ages of 5 and all the way into their 20’s. During the pandemic it’s been scaled back based on who has been able to offer programming. Mostly right now, we’re working with Kindergarten through Middle school. The groups have been more combined, where typically we have them broken up, but because of the nature of the online scheduling it’s been more of a multi-aged group. We have two Latin-x teachers working with a new-comer program with one of our partner-sites, which is composed of students who have just immigrated from Latin America, and the entire program is taught in Spanish. The idea behind the school is to allow the students to acclimatize into a new city, country, and school while learning in Spanish, before they get moved into a full English speaking environment. Similarly we have a Filipinx teaching fellow who has been teaching the children and tweens/teens in Tagalog and we just started a Bay Area Black Artist Studio Fellowship this year. Typically every May we host something called New Growth , which we have been organizing since 2006. New Growth is our student showcase featuring all the work our students have done from the semester. In the gallery portion of Root Division, we have a program every second Saturday of the month with an event that’s open to the public and features rotating exhibitions. One section of the gallery is our youth education or ‘student gallery’ and rotates every month, giving students an opportunity to see what they’ve learned and developed. New Growth is our exhibition for the month of May which allows our youth program to have a “professional gallery experience”. So now due to COVID, we are trying to figure out a way to get the artwork from our students and possibly do a virtual gallery tour. Typically we would take our students on a little “field trip” around each of the exhibits, doing activities on site, so now we’re trying to see how to coordinate that into the online realm. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Cynthia Noble Executive Director of Art ontheMart WORDS BY NAVYA POTHAMSETTY | TORONTO | VISUAL ARTS SPACES MAR 03, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Cynthia Noble by Olga Nabatova ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ A literal light at the end of the tunnel—that is at least one way you could describe what Art on theMart has been for Chicago’s arts community. It’s the largest permanent digital installation in the world, and has provided a sense of normalcy to Chicagoans in search of socially distant artistic experiences. Situated in the heart of the city, it casts 2.5 acres worth of digital projections onto the facade of a building, featuring different types of art from a wide variety of artists and organizations. They even helped the class of 2020 and 2021 celebrate their graduation, at a time when so many were disappointed to miss out on that milestone. Cynthia Noble, Executive Director of Art on theMart, speaks with smART about their curatorial process, their constant support to the community, and what their productions have meant to the people of Chicago. sM | How have your resources been redirected to the people in your immediate community during the pandemic? CN ─ In 2020, we tried to connect with our community as much as possible. We did that through public service announcements, stay home save lives , but we also celebrated the graduating class of 2020.We are planning on doing the same for the class of 2021. We knew early on that it was going to be important to communicate with people. We worked very closely with the city of Chicago to be able to re-open in the fall of 2020, making sure it was a safe experience according to the guidelines. Our role is to amplify the work of others. We have 2.5 acres of a blank slate to work with, where we can amplify what is important to our community. Our partnerships are also key to this project. In the fall program we wanted to showcase the work of our partners, such as The Nutcracker by the Joffrey Ballet, the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibits Bisa Butler: Portraits and Monet and Chicago , and Arts of Life, an organization that works with artists with disabilities. Three different organizations, but all very important to the city. It was nice to bring these works to life and to allow those organizations to have their moment to shine in a time where they were very limited. sM | What makes Art on theMart unique as an installation? How was that affected by the pandemic? CN ─ We’re unique in terms of the singularity of scale, and the outdoor location in the heart of the city. It is a city of neighbourhoods, where we can all convene together, an opportunity to be a place of convergence. The building was built in the 1930’s in the Art Deco style and is a very salient and historic site in Chicago. We were not affected by the closures that occurred this winter as we’re always closed from January to March to do some maintenance on the projection booths. Typically we’re open for nine months a year, seven days a week. We’re not immune to the guidelines, but we do have an advantage to be able to stay open while others cannot. We were able to have a cultural experience with the public during the initial closures. When we finally understood what the guidelines were, we had to team up with our security team to figure out how we can make it happen. We had to keep an eye on how many people could be in a given area at a time. We were at capacity every night, so luckily we had the opportunity to re-configure people to different parts of the city, and people even came in their cars! We were so grateful to receive so much positive media coverage, it was a very positive step forward for everyone. Our audience also loved the organizations we sponsored. We have come to understand our public in so many ways. It doesn’t only mean on-site attendees, but our online attendees as well. We began live streaming our programs and had an incredible amount of engagement. We’ve also started to explore how we can create an online experience for those who can never be in-person. The plan is to have an ongoing hybrid experience making it accessible for people at every time. sM | What is your advice to young emerging professionals looking to network and position themselves for a post-pandemic world? CN ─ It’s true what they say that as much as things change, the more they remain the same. Networking is all about building relationships, and while that may look different in terms of the tools we use, at the same time it’s about being curious about one another, taking care of one another and paying it forward. This has always been the case and more so now. We have all found through this experience of relative separation and isolation that we are able to build great things together. sM | What are you looking for when seeking out new artists? CN ─ In addition to working with our partners, we also commission our own artists. Our 2021 calendar is a mix of those things and typically you would see individual artist work and partner work. When commissioning our own artists, we’re looking for unicorns. Artists who have the technical chops to manifest their vision on the platform but also have a very resolved and sophisticated aesthetic. You don’t always find that in one person and it’s not always a time-based media artist. It can be a painter who finds a team to digitize their artwork and is open to that idea. It is someone who is fearless and dreams big. This isn’t just a new platform, it can be a new medium. Looking at the site itself, there are so many factors or formal concerns that the artists we’ve worked with have to consider. They have to think of the site specifically, as opposed to thinking in translation. They are more so looking at this as a new medium to create something new. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

COMPOSER: Fazil Say On returning back to Bach WORDS BY EMMA SCHMIEDECKE | ISTANBUL | PERFORMING ARTS THE smART Ensemble FEB 27, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Fazil Say by Fethi Karaduman ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 Pianist and composer Fazil Say is no stranger to the concert stage or the composition page. Having taken to both at a very young age, he honed his craft through an international circuit of tutors, and undertook work that has flourished into a career spanning nearly thirty years. Born in Turkey in 1970, Say wrote his first sonata at the age of 14 and studied with David Levine at the Musikhochschule “Robert Schumann” in Düsseldorf. He went on to win one of the most prestigious prizes in the United States, the Young Concert Artists Auditions in 1994. He’s since enjoyed an active concertizing career with regular appearances on five continents and with every period and style of music─from Bach to his own compositions. In December 2016, Say was awarded the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Freedom, Poverty Reduction and Inclusion in Bonn, Germany, and in the autumn of 2017, he was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Duisburg in Germany. His latest recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations — a titanic piece of the piano repertoire — is the topic of his conversation with smART Magazine . Contemplating the legacy of Bach’s masterpiece, and how his role as a... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

The Sound of Ukraine Composer Tymur Polianskyi sets two immersive exhibits to live Ukrainian music WORDS BY LILIIA SMICHENKO | Lighthouse ArtSpace Toronto APR 15, 2023 | COMMUNITY ​ ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Tymur Polianskyi ​ When it comes to defending their home and their life, Ukrainian soldiers and artists alike have been uniting to stand guard. Among them is the acclaimed Ukrainian pianist and composer, Tymur Polianskyi, who stayed in Kyiv during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and did all in his power to maintain and protect his country’s culture and heritage. One of those important cultural landmarks in Kyiv is Theatre on Podil — where Poliansky works — was under the threat of destruction, so he and his colleagues stood their ground and turned the venue into a home. Today the theatre continues to operate in full power. Polianskyi has made immense contributions to Ukrainian culture through jazz festivals, original music for film, television, and immersive exhibits─winning awards like the GOLDEN DZYGA (The Ukrainian Oscar). Now working beyond the borders of his home country, Poliansky arrives in Canada with a one-of-a-kind immersive concert, The Sound Of Ukraine . For this special occasion, he has created an improvised musical accompaniment for two immersive exhibits: Immersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine and Immersive World of Maria Prymachenko . Speaking on his vision for this project, Polianskyi joins smART Magazine to discuss how The Sound of Ukraine unveils Ukraine’s rich culture and expands the viewer’s understanding of some of his country’s most celebrated paintings. sM | How did preparing Theatre on Podil against a possible attack bring you and your colleagues closer together as an ensemble? TP ── Well, I’d prefer that there weren’t such experiences at all. What happened happened and we couldn’t change anything. We were only sitting, watching, and reading. Some people were leaving, and some were staying. I stayed because of my parents and also my grandmother who is 97 years old. At first, the theatre didn’t work because people were leaving, but it was left without protection so we had to do something. We invited the Territorial Defense Units to help, and they kindly accepted our invitation and guarded the theatre for some time. We were staying there, spending the nights so that at least someone was there. You have to understand, our theatre is very small, just about 250 people all in all, so we lived like a family there, we were pretty close by that time. sM | The Sound of Ukraine will feature live performance, which is a fairly new component of immersive exhibits as we've had them in Canada. As a composer, what elements of the exhibit experience are you hoping to accentuate with a live ensemble? TP ── Actually, for me, this is just as new, because all the exhibits usually have a pre-recorded soundtrack and video material which is projected onto the walls and the floor. However, this time I will perform live on the piano, and then there will also be vocalists supporting me. We decided to do this because I am the composer for these two exhibits and I know the material well. The point of live music is improvisation, it anticipates that you can play and create something new while looking at the people and their reaction to the exhibit. When music is recorded, it doesn’t change because someone likes it and or not, but here you look at the people as you play. Just the way other artists look at a person and they improvise, that is what I’m going to do as well. this will be the first one for me, though I also realize that no one’s ever done that before. sM | How do you think these two exhibits, and their artists, complement each other in the same context? TP ── The first exhibit is Immersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine , so we all started to learn more about who Shevchenko was, because we usually see him as an old man with a tortured fate. He wasn’t like that, he was a completely different person. When he was young he was very attractive, he painted, read his poems, and played the piano. The Prymachenko exhibit was the last one that we did just a few months ago, and it's a completely different world of paintings and a completely different worldview. While Shevchenko was a person who got an education as an artist, Prymachenko was a person who didn’t know what painting was. Then you look at her art and understand the kind of vivid world this person had inside of her. I liked working on it very much because it is just so beautiful, and there are also so many of her paintings. Some of them are alike, and yet you look at them and they are just so mesmerizing. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Cécile McClorin Salvant Salvant soars for RCM’s “Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage” WORDS BY MILES FORRESTER | Koerner Hall MAR 30, 2023 | COMMUNITY Cécile McLorin Salvant by Karolis Kaminskas ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Cécile McLorin Salvant by Karolis Kaminskas ​ For the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage concert series, Cécile McLorin Salvant took advantage of Koerner Hall’s dynamic capacity. Her third time at the hall (having debuted in 2013 and returned in 2019) this performance follows two back-to-back albums released by Nonesuch Records: last year’s Ghost Song and last week’s Mélusine , as well as an eclectic mix of covers. Starting with Ghost Song ’s title track, a blues ballad ruminating on an undead relationship. Keeping the acapella intro, Salvant reinterpreted the intimate haunt on the album’s Rhodes-accompanied version as the third act of an exorcism, with rattling percussion by Keita Ogawa and Sullivan Fortner striking dissonant chords up and down the octaves of a grand piano. This intensity set the tone for the rest of the evening. After introducing the band—Ogawa and Fortner, as well as Alexa Tarantino on Flute, Marvin Sewell on guitars, and, audience-favorite, Yasushi Nakamura on double bass—Salvant introduced “ Dame Iseut ” a trobairitz (female troubador) poem from 12th century Southern France, translated from Occitan — the language of her mother’s ancestors — into Haitian Kreyòl by Salvant and her father. Exploring the desire to forgive, Salvant translated the sentiment of the song into English for the audience, “if you can make them repent, you can make me convert [to forgiving them].” This is the last song from Mélusine, a song cycle based on a legendary woman who becomes half-snake on Saturdays. The Mélusine’s story goes that, after marrying a sad man in the woods and granting him success and ten children on condition of him never seeing her on her snake day, he breaks their agreement. She subsequently becomes a dragon and flies out the window. Salvant also sang the album’s opener, “Est-ce ainsi que les hommes vivent ? ” a groovy chanson by Léo Ferré—based on “Bierstube Magie allemande” by Louis Aragon—sung from the point of view of the trifling husband and foreshadowing his own tragedy. Salvant has a deep knowledge of different musical vernaculars, finding and writing songs that delight and resonate thematically. Despite their song's Mediaeval setting, the music pulls from an international lexicon of rhythms and harmonies, even including a brooding Celine Dion deep-cut “Petite musique terrienne” closing on an excellent, melancholy solo by Fortner. Beyond material from Ghost and Melusine, Salvant brought a wide repertoire: including a galloping by way of Rzewski arrangement of the Judy Garland-standard “Trolley Song,” featuring Tarantino doing the part of the train; an electric Latin arrangement of “Until” by Sting, with thundering solos by Nakamura and Ogawa; and a rousing cover of Nina Simone’s “Ain't Got No, I Got Life” driven by Sewel’s guitar. Salvant would select songs as if they were a whimL “Let’s dooooo.... ‘Barbara Song,’” a Weill and Brecht parable of the dangers of waiting around for love until you wind up with an asshole. Salvant is the perfect Brecht heroine: funny, passionate, and wary of the world’s venom. Salvant has great elasticity in the textures she plays with, making any persona she inhabits turn demure or powerful by rounding or tightening her tone. She also has the range and accuracy to make every note serve a song’s narrative and still keep it surprising, even to her incredibly tight band. Her and Fortner, in particular, share a badinage that never hinders the music’s momentum, instead giving it a foundation to develop Salvant’s characterization. It’s an incredible privilege to see an artist of that calibre have fun like this. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

smART x Stratford Pt.2: Monty Python’s Spamalot An absurdly funny, absurdly fun, tsunami of laughs WORDS BY BRONTE CRONSBERRY | BUFFALO | VISUAL ARTS FOURTH WALL JUN 22, 2023 | ISSUE 12 Maria Jenson by Ella Mazur MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT DIRECTED BY LEZLIE WADE AVON THEATRE MAY 31 – OCTOBER 28 TICKETS: www.stratfordfestival.ca ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ From left A. MacPherson, J. Sermonia, J. Goad, M. Knucle and D. M. Brown in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Stratford Festival 2023. Photo by D. Hou The Stratford Production of Eric Idle and John Du Prez’s musical, Spamalot , “lovingly ripped off” from the 1975 motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail is absurdly funny and absurdly fun. Director Lezlie Wade crafts a tsunami of song, dance, and iconic sketch comedy that is nothing but two hours of wild entertainment and belly laughs. Eric Idle, an original member of the legendary British sketch comedy troupe Monty Python, weaves clever song and dance parodies through much of the original material of the 1975 original movie. Though secondary to the sketch comedy, the plot follows King Arthur as he gathers honourable men to become his Knights of the Round Table in his quest to find the Holy Grail. All the iconic sketches from the film are still there: audiences are reintroduced to the Knights who say NI!: the Knight who won’t accept he’s lost the duel despite losing all four limbs (It’s just a scratch! Come on now! Fight me!); the cute but murderous Rabbit guarding the Holy Grail; the peasants who refuse to bow to their king but rather remain part of their democratic collective; the plague-inflicted villagers who are “Not dead yet,”; and, of course, the French soldier who farts in Arthur’s general direction. Members of the Company in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Stratford Festival 2023. Photo by D. Hou In addition to these sketches, the musical includes some of the best meta-theatrical musical theatre parodies of all time. “The Song that Goes Like This” makes fun of romantic ballads; “Knights of the Round Table” takes the song-and-dance production number to absurd lengths of high-energy musical theatre performance; and ”Find Your Grail” spoofs inspirational songs like “Climb Every Mountain” or “Tomorrow.” Wade’s direction ensures that the material itself shines. There is no need for a directorial intervention for this stuff. After all, these sketches continue to make people laugh almost fifty years after first aired, garnering attention from each successive generation. Liam Tobin as Sir Dennis Galahad in Monty Python’s Spamalot. Stratford Festival 2023. Photo by David Hou That being said, the cast under Wade’s sensitive touch delivers the comedy expertly. Jonathan Goad as Arthur provides a stable and solid foundation for the mayhem to swirl around, while also delivering some impressive song and dance skills in the process. Eddie Glen, who is no stranger to the world of comedy — having been featured in Ross Petty’s yearly pantos for decades — performs deft physical comedy and expert comic mugging as the coconut-clapping squire of the mythical British king. Aaron Korhn, as the French Taunter, delivers this iconic character in a way that honours the original but feels fresh and alive. Jennifer Rider-Shaw, as the Lady of the Lake, is both virtuosic, delivering torch-songs such as “Find Your Grail,” and comic, such as when she brings down the house with “The Diva’s Lament (What Ever Happened to my Part!?) in Act Two. Members of the company in Spamalot. Stratford Festival 2023. Photo by David Hou Jesse Rob’s choreography is masterfully crafted controlled chaos. The pandemonium of the high-energy song-and-dance numbers may appear chaotic, but a trained eye can see that the well-rehearsed ensemble functions like a well-oiled machine. They are able to bowl over the audience with such spirited musical burlesques as “He Is Not Dead Yet,” “Knights of the Round Table,” and “You Won’t Succeed On Broadway.” ​ The design evokes the cartoonish imagery associated with Monty Python. When God appears to instruct Arthur to search for the Grail — and when the Grail is inevitably found — simple cartoon appendages such as God's feet and a hand grasping the Grail, are used to render the scene. The mediaeval ramparts of the set remind the audience of the time and place of the action, while never slowing down the comic commotion of the musical. ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Penelope Spyratos LAS VEGAS — AiR TOUR — Issue 10 Art by Penelope Spyratos Penelope Spyratos sM | What qualities in a portrait do you think are key in shaping a countenance? PS ── What I find is essential for getting someone's likeness is being honest with the proportion and shape of their features. When I was first drawing people I knew, there was this urge to be polite and adjust things to look “prettier”. We're so acclimated to filtering photos of ourselves that many of us are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with our appearance. So much so that I found myself doing this not only in my self portraits, but projecting these ideas I had on the subjects I painted. Doing this erased Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. the character in my faces. When I stopped making noses smaller and lips bigger, I could finally see a person I recognized. sM | What sentiment do the depictions of flower arrangements evoke the most in your work? PS ── Whenever I'm working on a piece where the subject is flowers, I try to remind myself that flowers are alive. They aren't just beautiful stationary objects, they change and move and breathe. It's easy for flowers to come off as stiff, and appear sort of perfect in an unnatural way. This is why I challenge myself to give plants a presence, with an energy and tone of their own. It almost gives them a surreal and fluid look, perpetually swaying in a breeze or tilting to follow a sunbeam. I feel placing flowers as the sole focus of a piece can still be exciting. PREVIOUS NEXT

In Focus: Xavier Dolan The celebrated Canadian film director makes his TV debut with The Night Logan Woke Up WORDS BY ZOE CLELAND | MONTRÉAL | VISUAL ARTS IN FOCUS JUN 12, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Xavier Dolan by Kalya Ramu As a fledgling director in Canada, there are few artists I could choose to aspire to as much as I do Xavier Dolan. At 16 years old, he wrote the script for J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed my Mother ), which he directed, produced, and starred in at only 19. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009 to an eight-minute standing ovation. Since then, the Québec-born director has been internationally celebrated for his diverse body of work, characterized by emotional depth, dynamic characters, and a poetic visual style. He has birthed multiple cinematic gems, including Les Amours imaginaires /Heartbeats (2010), Laurence Anyways (2012), and Matthias et Maxime /Matthias & Maxime (2019). Juste la fin du monde (It’s Only the End of the World ), starring Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, and Léa Seydoux, won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2016. Recently, while in post-production on my own film, my editor suggested that I re-watch Dolan’s Mommy (2014) for inspiration on how to imaginatively shift between aspect ratios. Mommy tells the story of a widowed single mother living with her teenage son, Steve, who struggles with his mental health. Most of the film plays out in a 1:1 aspect ratio: in other words, through a small square in the middle of our screens. The effect invokes a claustrophobia that suggests just how much the characters feel trapped inside their own lives. At one point during the film, in a brief moment of freedom, Steve pushes against the walls of the square and our screen expands to a wider perspective, perhaps inducing a sigh of relief from the viewer as we viscerally feel Steve’s world grow bigger. It’s a great example of how visual and emotional storytelling can work together in a perfect cocktail of pure movie magic. His latest venture, La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s'est réveillé (The Night Logan Woke Up ), is a miniseries about the reunion of a family after the death of their mother, years after a traumatic event ripped them apart. The psychological thriller is Dolan’s second adaptation of Québécois playwright Michel Marc Bouchard’s work. They first collaborated on Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm) in 2013. Already on the heels of his next project, Dolan took a moment of respite to speak with smART Magazine about The Night Logan Woke Up, the complexity of his female characters, and the intersection of trauma and storytelling. ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ From The Night Logan Woke Up ON/OFF SCREEN ZC | You have an on-screen role in this miniseries as Elliot, which is the case for many of the projects you’ve been involved in. How were you able to enter the subjective realm of this character, while simultaneously maintaining a less subjective role as a director? XD ── I don’t have a very sophisticated theory about this because it’s mostly instinctive. A lot of actors cannot stand to look at themselves because they become too harsh, noticing imperfections and flaws, mostly physical. I’ve had to make the decision that I cannot hate myself or love myself. And the people I surround myself with, we’ve been working together for so long, and the reason for that is that we confront each other on artistic visions and opinions. They can really advise me and can be brutally honest with me and just say, “You were bad. Let’s do it again.” And I’m not shocked or offended. I am there to work. I’m there to make the best possible scene, so my acting should never be an obstacle or an impediment; it should always be complementary to the task of directing. I could be listening to music and withdrawing and focusing, getting prepared and being more professional about my acting job. But I can’t. I’ve got to fix a dozen things that didn’t work. There’s a light there, and there’s that accessory, and there’s that piece of furniture and that curtain on the window. It’s just all these things that I have to deal with. And I’m often wondering, if I weren’t directing, would it take as much time to get into the character? Or would I already be into it? BOUCHARD ZC | This is your second project based on a play by Michel Marc Bouchard. What is it about the world he creates in his plays, and his characters, that draws you into his works? XD ── Michel Marc loves to write about estranged people coming home, and I love that setup. I identify with that dynamic of someone coming home and in need, to communicate and discuss, revisit the past, ask for answers, ask for forgiveness, ask for apologies. The theatre space is a space of creation and a different workplace than film. It’s got much more freedom and the limits are different. When I saw the play The Night Logan Woke Up , it was sort of like a hot room with no exit. It took place in only one location. It’s a very powerful play that’s built almost entirely on dialogue, and it’s based on evocation. They mention things that happened, but you don’t see them happening. But when I watched the play, all these images came to life in my mind. The storyline was great, but for me the potential lay in what was mentioned that you didn’t see. I hadn’t seen Michel Marc in many years, and when I saw the play, I was like, “Oh my God, I want to do this.” So we met for dinner at his place, which is a beautiful place. And we talked about what I wanted to do. And I said, I think I’m going to start writing this on my own, if you don’t mind. And I did. FOUND IN TRANSLATION? ZC | The Night Logan Woke Up stars several cast members from the original theatrical production in 2019. How has their pre-existing history with these characters and this subject matter interacted with your own creative process? XD ── It never really factored in because we had our own challenges. But subconsciously, it’s true that they had characters they had been living with for years. That work can never be undone. The more you work on something, the more you understand it. And so of course it probably had an impact, a positive one, which I benefited from, but it was never a starting point for our conversations. They understood it was another workplace, another space and time. I also feel like it is an automatism of the industry to buy rights from plays and then cast super-famous people in them, what they call — super vulgar — “bankable.” The actors in this play were bankable already, but had they not been, I would’ve still taken them because they were just perfect for the parts. Xavier Dolan by Shayne Laverdière GIRL POWER ZC | One characteristic of your work has been your consistent and dynamic exploration of female characters and maternal figures on screen. What drives you to mine these characters for complexities, arguably more than other male-identifying filmmakers of your generation? XD ── I started writing when I was so young that I never really questioned the gender of my protagonists. It seemed like an instinct. I was just drawn to writing female characters, whether they were central or peripheral. When I was young and found out that I was gay, you realize that it’s you against them. You feel like you’re alone and it’s going to be hard. You put the entirety of society in a box, and you feel that it’s going to be you against your family and against everyone who’s straight, because back in the early 2000s, we lived in a very different world. And the only references that I had on TV were gay people who were tortured and suicidal and battered to death. In my life I didn’t really have any gay men or queer people at all, so I turned towards other figures that seemed to be allies. Single mothers stood out, like mine. Even when I was fighting with my mother, I think I was already starting to watch her and maybe unbeknownst to myself, I started to study her. Her friends were all these strong females who would talk about men and smoke and play cards, and they had these extraordinary tempers. They were funny and sometimes bitter or snappy or jealous, but I could see resemblances in how they were treated by society, and how I thought I would be treated as an outsider because I was gay. I think I project my difference on them, and through them I can speak my mind and I can defend them, defend myself, and avenge them. From The Night Logan Woke Up I am prone (and maybe that's internal homophobia) to think that people won’t be interested in my gay story. Mommy is on the Internet, and it’s labelled as a LGBTQ film and I’m like, is that because of me? Because the movie isn’t related in any way to the queer world or community. But then that movie was so successful when it came out, and I couldn’t help but wonder … has that been an element of its popularity? I still don’t think most people want to take their cars out, even nowadays, to go watch a gay film. I feel like there’s a lot to relate to in stories about anyone from any minority. And when I think of a majority, I think of power, I think of money, I think of influence, I think of authority. And when you’re slightly different and you don’t match that exact profile, then you are out of that majority and cast into the minority, whichever your minority is. When I think of being a minority, I’m not thinking in numbers, I'm thinking about power. At a certain point in my life, I realized we’re all the same and we’re all coming from the same place, where we feel we don’t belong, and we want to belong. And we deserve to belong, but we are ostracized and treated differently. And it moved me, and it seemed like it was the only thing that I could speak about and write about, because it was the only thing I knew. From The Night Logan Woke Up TRAUMA ZC | Another recurring theme throughout your work is the subject of trauma, especially childhood trauma. What is it about the nature of trauma that you are so attracted to exploring as an artist? XD ── Trauma happens at any age. People who have experienced trauma have problems as a response to their trauma. And in these problems, there’s complexity and there’s depth, and I love these characters who are rough and rugged and dirty and harsh, and you think you’re going to hate them, but you end up loving them because no one’s just black or white, there are always these shades of gray. Do I need trauma to be involved to write something? I don’t know. It makes everything much more interesting. It’s how I feel about the films and series that I watch, so I guess I want to apply it to my own. It’s an angle. I don’t think that it’s a starting point for me, but I think it is how I see through characters. When I think of what they’ll say and how they’ll say it and what’s their next move, that is always trauma speaking, right? Trauma deciding. And at the end, it’s the question of whether trauma should or should not be appeased. ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Bruno Walpoth “My works are more a portrait of myself than the model” WORDS BY EMILY TRACE | TORONTO | STUDIO SESSIONS STUDIO SESSIONS APR 14, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Hanako (2021, Nutwood) by Bruno Walpoth ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE "Pinocchio" (2022, Nutwood) by Bruno Walpoth Bruno Walpoth In his studio based in Ortisei, Italy, sculptor Bruno Walpoth carves human figures out of blocks of wood—namely limewood or walnut. Inspired by his interactions with the people around him and driven by his persistent desire to create, Walpoth made a complete commitment to his craft 15 years ago. Though he works with live models, his creations don’t always imitate the model. Noted for their intimate yet evasive facial expressions, the viewer might just catch themselves reflected in a sculpture’s gaze. sM | The facial expressions of your sculptural creations are often subtle and understated. Do the expressions precede these sculptures or do you discover what the sculptures are feeling as you create them? BW ── All my works are created through encounters and confrontations with people. Even if the realism and the concrete reproduction of the model gives me real pleasure and satisfaction, I am not interested in creating an exact or hyper realistic image of the person standing in front of me. Rather, the model serves in its appearance as a shell for implied projections. The feelings, which awaken in me during the working process, ultimately determine the expression of the figure. One could say that my works are therefore perhaps more a portrait of myself than of the model. sM | Created from solid wood with an emphasis on anatomical realism, your sculptures take up a confident amount of space. However, they’ve been noted for the difficulty in engaging with them directly. How do you balance this sense of distance and presence? BW ── For me, every new job is a new challenge to build suspense. The mixture of presence and absence, closeness and distance is exactly what I am looking for. The physical presence of my figures allows encounters, but it is difficult to get into direct contact with them. "Nora" (2021, Nutwood) by Bruno Walpoth It is not a matter of finding a balance between these different characteristics, but it is the viewer who has to decide what they get involved in. If they are open to an encounter with themself, then perhaps the figure becomes a reflection of their soul. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

On the Opening of Little Island PigPen & Ayodele Casel WORDS BY TASH COWLEY | NEW YORK | THEATRE FOURTH WALL APR 11, 2023 | ISSUE 6 Ayodele Casel by Patrick Randak, Edited by smART Magazine ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE PigPen Theatre Co. by Thom Kaine, Edited for smART Magazine ​ Between West 13th and 14th street, crouched amidst the glinting waves of the Hudson, a curious and captivating bleach-white structure cools its feet in the river. Even from a distance, it’s easy to see that Little Island is no ordinary park. This 2.4 acre waterside wilderness is New York’s newest and most innovative effort to return live entertainment to the city. Inside, nestled between lush botanic gardens, twisting Lombard-esque pathways, and boulder-pricked grass slopes, three rustic stage spaces are welcoming performers back home. Here, musicians, dancers, actors, poets, mimes and more are returning to work among the elements in The Amph, The Glade and The Playground. Spectators are gathering to appreciate art safely again, breathing easily in the brisk riverside air, and the sense of elation is palpable. After such a long hiatus, the aching familiarity of a trip to the theatre has ignited a collective gratitude for New York’s inspirational adaptability to change. It feels fitting that Little Island’s aesthetic is modelled on the aging wooden “pile fields” in the river, the ghosts of piers past. There is a sense of rebirth here, of using the foundations of the past to build a stronger future, and of taking hold of something seemingly fragmented and nurturing the beauty that remains. 18 months into the pandemic and Broadway theatres are still impatiently drumming their fingers, awaiting their beginner’s call. However, in the absence of comfortable indoor spaces, the show has managed to go on elsewhere. When the pandemic drove everyday activities outside, entertainers adjusted to the change. The word theatre has been redefined, and al fresco venues have sprung up like budding flowers across the city, with Little Island among them. Some might ask what sets this floating hive of activity apart from its competitors? Since it’s conception in 2013, Little Island was destined to include performing arts spaces and was built to accommodate acts of every kind. However, it can be argued that the true essence of its individuality lies with four exceptionally talented Artists-In-Residence: Ayodele Casel, PigPen Theatre Co., Michael McElroy and Tina Landau. These remarkable individuals will spend the next three years breathing life, ingenuity, and joy into every inch of the island, combining their collective wealth of perspectives and disciplines to enrich our understanding of what it means to be an artist. Each will direct and perform their own work, nurture relationships with community partners, curate festivals and review artist submissions for Perform In The Park . Casel is a tap dancer, actress, choreographer, and co-curator of Little Island’s Dance Festival, alongside Torya Beard. Arya Shahi is an actor, musician, co-founder of PigPen Theatre Co., and co-curator of Little Island’s Storytelling Festival. They join us to discuss the thrill of NYC’s artistic recovery, how the festivals will challenge our perceptions of art, and the indefatigable adaptability of artists in the face of adversity. sM | What was your first impression of Little Island as a creative space? Ayodele C. I was really excited about a beautiful public park being created in the city with the explicit intention of having art in every corner. One of the things that feels most right to me is that the park is always open. Even when there are rehearsals happening for shows, people can be in the space. You’re always in community with the people there, and I love that there's no pretense, no wall between the artist and the audience. It’s unique, and in a year where we have been mostly isolated, it feels great to always have a touch point with audience members. Arya S. The pandemic has played an important role in the beauty we now find in being able to gather, so to see Little Island manifest has been magical. People sometimes criticize us for being whimsical, but it really is a magical thing! A new piece of land is just floating on the Hudson. The leadership team knew early on that it should be a vessel for people to engage with their location; parks can be very passive spaces, but I think that due to the size of Little Island, once you are on it, you're automatically engaging with it, so we keep thinking about how we can we support that. sM | How would you describe the post-pandemic atmosphere of New York’s artistic community? Arya S. I think that New Yorkers are very ready for the return to cultural spaces. As for the artists, in my opinion, making independent theater is always insane and often feels like the Wild West, so throwing a world pandemic into the mix was just another thing! I have a lot of faith in indie theatre, in the artists who are used to telling stories in that capacity, and in artists who are just now entering the community. I know many young performers who just graduated, or who just moved to New York, and anything is possible for them. There's a lot of anticipation about people’s first show back, and this will be an exciting way to re-emerge. I also think this year has been an exercise in establishing your own boundaries, whether that be as an artist or as a human being. People need to reenter the scene whenever and however they feel comfortable doing so. That being said, Little Island’s events have been selling out very quickly, so it's exciting to know that there is a hunger for shows, and that people feel safe enough to gather. Ayodele C. One of the things that I have been really inspired by is how quickly artists have innovated, across all mediums. It’s like they said, “Oh, there's a pandemic, I can't have an audience? I'm going to take it online, or offer things in this way!” Dancers have been making art in their basements, on rooftops, in the corners of rooms, on the street...they’re dancing everywhere they can. We have really tried to stay as connected as possible to our art. Even without a pandemic, it tends to be our lifeline and the thing that we turn to when we're feeling oppressed in any way. The role of Artist In Residence is one that both Casel and Shahi take incredibly seriously. Shahi described the role as becoming “arbiters of the kinds of stories you want to tell”; you need only glance at the incredible lineup of performers chosen by both PigPen and the Casel/Beard team to see how beautifully they are serving this city. By sharing Little Island’s platform with interesting, expressive and oftentimes under prioritized artists, they are making significant strides towards levelling the industry’s playing field and bringing authentic representation to New York’s stages. sM | What’s PigPen looking for when acquiring artists for the Storytelling Festival? Arya S. We wanted the festival to bring together a lot of different disciplines, because that's how our own theater shows work. We use a lot of puppetry, visual art, animation, music and more. We didn't want the pieces to be super polished; before the pandemic, we were saying, “Just come and do a weird thing – we’re in a park!” We also knew we wanted to keep it simple, and start with one person on stage telling a story, because that’s how it all begins. Poetry became an early inspiration for how we might organize the festival, and music featured heavily too. Music cuts through so much noise, literally but also metaphorically. It cuts to the heart. So we wanted amazing musicians, we wanted poetry to be there, and then theater became the third umbrella. We also knew that at points, there isn’t a lot of control over the outdoor space, so our process was about finding artists who could work with what Little Island offers and demands. Little Island has the power to become an artistic microcosm of the cultural tapestry of New York City, a diverse, inclusive platform where everyone will be seen, heard, and respected. Casel, in collaboration with co-curator Torya Beard, is working tirelessly to ensure that this vision is realised. sM | Do you feel that representation within the dance community is making progress, and how can Little Island work towards making dance an equal platform for all? Ayodele C. I do think that the landscape is shifting, by virtue of the fact that I was invited to be an Artist-In-Residence, but it's also not often that tap dancers or percussive dancers get to hold these kinds of roles. One of the things that I love about the leadership team at Little Island is that they are listening. The producers asked, “What do you want to do?” and there was no agenda other than to let me explore my vision. The same goes for the festival’s co-curator, Torya Beard. Our visions are very much aligned, so the first thing that we did was ask what is most important to us. Those things include cultural expression, authenticity, people whose work speaks to their identity—no matter what that identity is—and people who are interested in expression and communication. In performance, I think a sense of generosity is necessary in order for us to do our work successfully. We're inviting audiences into our experience, and it's a cyclical give-and-take of energy, so I wanted to have artists whose work naturally speaks to those traits. It was very easy for me: percussive dance is completely under-represented, so I wanted more tap dancers to be in these spaces, of every gender identity and ethnicity. I wanted House of Extravaganza and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia. I felt that Indian Kathak dance should be represented, that younger and older people should be there. The list goes on, and I'm really proud of it – it's a strong mix of genres and artists. Casel and Shahi share a mutual respect for the heady power of music in performance, and it’s potential as a vehicle for self-expression. Casel passionately describes the art of tap as “music in motion.” Shahi fondly remembers PigPen performances at music festivals as “some of the best days of our lives.” As a group, PigPen have an extensive catalogue of original songs; Shahi discussed the role that music plays in their work, and what it means to PigPen to be donning instruments and treading the boards again. sM | Is PigPen originally a band of musicians who expanded into more conventional storytelling, or a theatre troupe that saw music as the ultimate storyteller? Arya S. I think we straddle both identities equally, depending on what the ultimate goal is. More recently, we've gotten into the business of adapting pre-existing stories, and in that context, we get to really focus on writing music, editing, making puppets and so on. I think when we are conceiving of a story from scratch, that’s when there are fewer rules. If you come up with a song that you really like, you can come in and just play the song; then all of a sudden, that sparks ideas for a scene. And vice versa, a scene or a character can easily inspire music. We use the metaphor that somebody brings in a seed, and the rest of the company waters it. The plants that live are the ones the audiences see! Over the pandemic, we have done a lot more writing, building on seed ideas that we've had since college but hadn’t previously had time to manifest. We also wrote music, but we operated in a different way; like, “you record a bit, send it and let’s see what I can add to it.” We really learned what each of us can do in isolation to continue to fuel our company’s creativity. Originally, we weren't going to perform in this Summer’s festival, but we have changed direction on that. We're going to play a concert, but it's tough to want to go up there and take risks in front of people when you haven't performed for 18 months! When we were discussing our set list, we were more excited to play “Bremen” (a song we have played 98,000 times) than anything else because it's comfort food. Some stories are things that you never thought you'd want to return to, but then you really need them. The pandemic dealt a vicious blow to New York’s entertainment industry, but the undeniable quality of Little Island’s Artists-In-Residence program, and the three-year commitment they have made, is a hopeful sight. It is a stamp of approval, an assertion that the people of NYC still value and crave live performance after all this time. Little Island has created a unique and welcoming space for music, movement and storytelling that will be regarded as a symbol of resilience for years to come. sM | Do you foresee any future challenges in having to adapt work to meet the challenges of an outdoor, waterside stage? Ayodele C. I've performed at the Hunts Point station in the Bronx, right outside the subway platform. I've done outdoor performances with NYPopsUp across the city. I’ve performed at the White House. And to me, honestly, the space I’m in doesn't feel much different in that moment when I’m reacting to a community of people in front of me. I think what's important is what's happening right there , and that can happen anywhere. Little Island has three main performance spaces, but there are also all these overlooks where things will be happening. They aren't necessarily traditional performance spaces, but that's so New York! You might be sitting on a bench and suddenly, something is happening. You're on the subway, and then something is happening. You walk through the park, there are things happening. I feel like in that way, Little Island is little New York. It's all new, and it’s like we're invited to play, so there is no “wrong”. With that freedom, anything can happen. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Bree Stallings Artist & Community Leader WORDS BY STEFANIA CAMACI & MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK | TORONTO | VISUAL ARTS STUDIO SESSIONS MAR 29, 2023 | ISSUE 9 Bree Stallings by Jeremy Lewis ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Even over Zoom, it’s hard not to get swept up in Bree Stallings’ all-encompassing passion for the blossoming artists community in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bree foresees a bright future for the city as a hub for artistic innovation and, in her eyes, its potential lies in local artists who reflect the rich tapestry of the city’s past and present. Since stepping into her role as Art Director for the IVG exhibit in Charlotte, Bree has focused her attention on the voices of previously underrepresented Charlotteans. And when comparing what she advocates for in this interview with her own artistic work, the correlation is clear. Bree’s murals are wild landscapes of ferocious color, scaling buildings with equal parts beauty and pinpoint precision; but they also leave striking, celebratory, contemplative images in their wake, inviting the viewer to question what they believe to be true. In conversation with smART Magazine , Bree reflects on the challenges of navigating the monochromatic creative world that COVID-19 left behind, and the part she has played in expanding the list of talent in Charlotte’s artistic portfolio. Bree discusses her position within her community, how she takes care and responsibility for the environment that supports her, and why she insists on questioning the world around her and herself. We learn about The Blumenthal Artists Program, Charlotte’s tightly-knit artistic community, the historic Ford building at Camp North End, and how her own work reflects the history of Charlotte. On the Blumenthal Artist Program I've consulted for The Blumenthal for a couple of years and worked on a number of different projects with them. As a working artist myself, I understand how badly COVID affected our creative community. This time last year, I was down and out. I felt as if all the progress I had made in my own career trajectory had diminished and it felt so bad to see everything dry up. One of my biggest passions lies in hiring artists and putting creatives to work, to make things communal. I also think that having this big international exhibit here in Charlotte and not having local artists involved would just be insulting, because Charlotte has such a big artist’s community. Especially at Camp North End, where there's a bunch of artists who have their studio spaces on site. So far, I've hired 19 artists. They have worked to create murals, installations, sculptures, picnic tables… I even have a person who's painting this historic guard shack from when the army was here – it's getting Van Gogh’d! In addition to those 19 artists, we have 26 artists going into the boutique, selling their merch and their work through Lighthouse Immersive, and 10 Artists-In-Residence coming in. To my understanding, that's around triple or quadruple the standard number of local artists involved in the IVG exhibit and selling their work. We talk a lot about exposure in the arts and it gets a bad rap, but with the number of tickets that we've sold for IVG, it is great exposure. We had a whole list of people, and I didn't even get to involve a fraction of the people that I wanted to, but it felt good to offer some money and exposure to those we did bring in. I'm trying to put their names in as many places as possible, to highlight them in our magazines and make sure that their work is credited on the actual picnic tables and stuff like that. It's really important to me. I wouldn't do any of this without considering my artistic community first. On her Murals Creating murals is much harder than people imagine, but it's also meditative in a way. You have to be outside of your body to do it, or else you would be miserable the whole time! When I enter into that state of meditation, I think it feeds into the social justice issues that come up through my work. I come from a multiracial background, and that's a very interesting perspective to have in the south. In the south, everything is very black or white; literally, black or white. And to come from a family that checks the box of “other” is something that people don't necessarily know how to deal with. They don't know how to handle it, how to compartmentalize it, how to “sort” people. In addition to that, I'm white-passing, and so people who see me don't always assume that I'm with my family. They start speaking another language to my mom, and then say something kind of rude to me about her. I've had this duality in my life regarding how people will treat and interpret me, compared with my mom, my grandmother and my other family members. I don’t like to speak on others’ experiences, just the ones that I get to experience, and it comes up all the time. I am white, right? I identify that way. So when people ask me about it, it's like “Well, how much time do you have and how interested are you in understanding the fullness of how we all identify?” My mom, who's less than half white, identifies as white because it's safe. In the south, the idea is that it's better to be white than not, and so we assimilate. We lose our languages, and we lose our cultures. It's also interesting because I can speak from my perspective, but I also can't speak from a Black perspective. It's different. People of Color and Black people don't have the same experiences, especially here in the south; it's something that often gets umbrellaed, but there are different layers to the ways that people are affected by white supremacy. On the history of Charlottean Workers First and foremost, let’s establish where we're at contextually. We are in a historically Black neighborhood called Druid Hills, which developed as Uptown was being built. People were being pushed out. We are in a very interesting time now, because Camp North End is this giant construction that feels like the first Horseman of the Gentrification-Apocalypse. Things are starting to change; condos are going up (which feels like the Second Horseman) and it's very interesting to witness. As an artist, it's something that I struggle with. I contribute to these places, but then these places eventually displace people, and I don't know how to deal with that. Within my own work, that's something that I want to question. I don't know if I have enough authority; I don't own the land, so I don't really have capacity in this conversation to change it, but I also realize that I come in, I make a place cool, and then the rent goes up. That bothers me because I've also dealt with it personally; we had our house foreclosed upon when I was in college, so I’ve dealt with being in complete crisis mode on that end. That's something that my work deals with, this intersection of class and race. Additionally, the IVG exhibit does a good job of representing the working class people that Van Gogh highlighted through his work. It's not just Sunflowers , it's not just Starry Night cafe scenes. During the Dutch phase, he was just exploring people working, which is so perfect for Camp North End because this has always been a place for people to work. It was a Ford building for a long time, where they assembled Model T's and Model A's, and then it was a part of the army’s missile and ammunition warehouse. That's where the wooden floors come from; they were laid by the army 85 years ago. They're not ceramic because if they were and some of the ammunition dropped, it could spark. That's also where the camp’s name comes from; Camp North End stands for “Charlotte Army Missile Program.” After that, it was a distribution center for Eckerd and Rite Aid, so working class people have been coming here. Over the last 10 years, it's been a place for artists and small business owners but for literally a century, people have been working with their hands here, and it even predates the Ford building. On some of the fabrics displayed in the exhibit, you'll see that there are images of the landowners and the land keepers who worked here before the building was constructed. I think that if you can allow that history to tie in, it rings true contextually. On her role within Charlotte’s Artist Community At the beginning of my career, I had an exhibition called Modern Poverty, where I invited people to show their own work about living in or around poverty; it was an international exhibition, and it got a lot of media attention. From there I started working for a program called Project Art Aid, where I worked my way up the ranks from being a volunteer to Director, where I was giving out grants to artists. So very young, very quickly, I was giving out money… which means people wanted to be around me! I started meeting a lot of artists and developing the community. Charlotte is a small town; we have over a million people now, but it's all happened really quickly. There’s a lot of fluidity to people coming and going, and so within communities like the arts, music or non-profit communities, there are these staples of people that you know, over and over. Even when we were choosing the Artists-In-Residence, we were going through the list and we were all saying “yes, we’ve worked with this person!”. These circles become Venn diagrams, all overlapped. I think when I was younger and when I was coming into the scene, it was a little scarcer, and there was more of a dog-eat-dog mentality. Like, “if you get this then I can't have it.” But I think that's starting to shift now. I always try to celebrate anything good happening for the community, so when I go for a mural and someone else gets it, that's good. I'm happy because that means somebody is spending money on murals. That's not something that was happening five years ago here, and there's enough sunshine for all of us. One of the biggest roles that I took upon myself at The Blumenthal was to create an artist directory. I want to document who is here, and make sure that I'm not missing people who I haven't met yet or worked with before. I'm also trying to be more intentional about hiring people. There are some major hitters in the mural community and the arts community, probably five of us that get chosen again and again and in realizing that I'm a part of that group, I can think outside the box. For the picnic tables that we have here at Van Gogh, I chose a lot of street and graffiti artists. These are OG’s in our community, amazing graff writers who don't ever get commissioned because of their style. They are important to the art scene and the muralogy of Charlotte, but do they ever get chosen for anything? No. Because it doesn't fit in with people's perceived aesthetics. I just want to think differently about that whole process as we start to be more innovative in our approach to community arts. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Immersive Klimt Revolution A visit to the new Lighthouse Immersive Exhibit WORDS BY CAMILLA MIKOLAJEWSKA | SAN FRANCISCO | VISUAL ARTS MAR 21, 2023 | ISSUE 4 Immersive Klimt Revolution ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Gustav Klimt Immersive Klimt Revolution Immersive Klimt Revolution (IKR) is the latest production from Lighthouse Immersive, the producers that brought audiences Immersive Van Gogh , the 600,000 cubic feet projection that sold over 2.5 million tickets in North America. The exhibit promises a vibrant, electrifying celebration of the life and legacy of Gustav Klimt. Klimt, the Austrian Symbolist painter, has been most connected to the artistic movement Art Nouveau—a gothic style, moving the European art world towards unconventional, organic linear shapes, and psychedelic experimental effects. As black curtains opened and I entered the exhibition, I realized that IKR does now what Art Nouveau did in the 1900s: changing, transcending and transforming traditional ideas of what art should be, by using this new technology–focused art medium that IKR is, and the public display of eroticism. IKR is anything but predictable, it’s full of contradictions, both whimsical and challenging. The artworks of Egon Schiele are celebrated alongside Klimt in this production. In 1907, the pair worked closely, as Klimt was Schiele’s mentor. They have been referred to in history as “the masters of sex and death,” a profound and controversial reputation I found was accurately exuberated in this collaboration. IKR sees Klimt and Schiele’s work re-imagined, floating through an immersive experience filled with desperation, sensuality, and vibrant, jewel-coloured tones. In this exhibit, I found Schiele and Klimt a chilling and mesmerizing pair, taking after each other stylistically to depict their fascination with female bodies. These women are portrayed as the subject of lust, but also lonely, placid, and dreamlike in a sequence of expressionless faces—as mermaids, as children, and as lovers. As the show opens with an animated inferno blazing into dark wax, a female nude amongst nature is revealed in a serene ambiance, furnished with lions and other creatures amongst the foliage. The rest of the show evolves in an unpredictable manner, emotive and transgressive. IKR felt to me like a spontaneous step forward for Lighthouse Immersive, whose inaugural production was palatable for a wide range of audiences of various ages and expertise. Upon entering the exhibit, I noted that IKR does not seem to be targeted for everyone given the mature subject matter, but one could even say it does not have any pretence or obligation to be. IKR appears to outlaw limitations or expectations, to stun, and shock. The exhibition experience is a high-drama passage of time from the eyes of these two complicated art legends, walking you through their shared history and artistic inspiration. Visitors take a tour through the streets of Imperial Vienna, to Greek mythology, Egyptian scenes, and to Klimt’s Japanese influence. IKR is a melting pot of time periods, a juxtaposition of dreamy, ethereal scenes with monstrous geometric shapes. Immersive Klimt has had time to prepare safety measures, being that it takes place in the same location as Immersive Van Gogh which, at one point, was the only art exhibit open in Toronto at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As One Yonge Street and the exhibition space was previously a printing press for the Toronto Star , the large dark space allows for a blank canvas, perfect for visitors to forget where they are and get lost in the art. Mirrors were built on pillars to reflect images from all angles for a fully immersed experience, and a platform in the centre of the space gives a higher vantage point to view the show. I noted that all of the safety features thought out for Immersive Van Gogh are still in place, such as the social distancing circles on the floor and the necessity of wearing a mask—that safety was a top priority made for a more comfortable experience. As with Immersive Van Gogh , visitors will see their favourite artworks from Klimt’s ‘golden age’. The Kiss , Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, and Death and Life all shimmer and dazzle beside nude self portraits and Austrian landscapes by Schiele. In IKR, these images are adapted, overlaid with depth and movement, like never seen before. For example, arguably Klimt’s most famous gold leaf, The Kiss , is paired in the same image frame as a couple who are nude, and dance together abstractly. They are covered in gold dust, complimenting Klimt’s most iconic work, adding a modern cinematic element. ​ The female form was a large influence for both Klimt and Schiele, most often tranquil and languishing amidst chaotic landscapes. Represented here, they are naked and pale with long hair, casually displayed, decorated with flowers and feathers in rich red, gold, and blue tones. The contentious relationship both artists had with women brings another layer of depth to this exhibit . Much of their history with women is shrouded with mystery, and for Schiele, even violence and prosecution. IKR asks us to examine problematic figures in history. Visitors are given the opportunity to address their own views on separating the art from the artist, and their tortured adoration of women. The production manages to escape confinement to a particular genre. For example, set to a theatrical string orchestration—wherein composer Luca Longobardi’s “Corale 10” leads into a modified excerpt from Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht —Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze depicts symbols of sickness and death in the form of mythical Greek monsters. A scene such as this, if handled clumsily, could land on the side of the too morbid and serious. However, it is balanced with enough fantasy and imagery that it remains exciting, entertaining, and luminous. Another example of how IKR avoids genre limitations is the way in which Schiele’s self-portraits balance both evocative and pleasant aesthetics: his works appear blue, puppet-like, hollow and shrunken against muddy backgrounds, yet fully entrancing. IKR also has elements of magical realism. The immersive experience includes eyes that pop up and disappear again. The images in the exhibition move from rapid dramatic progressions to calm, slower serenity. The use of eyes in this setting is personified, with a mind of its own, holding the attention of the viewer. As a viewer, the art watches you back. Nobody and nothing in IKR is excluded from a watchful gaze. In the same way that IKR travels through time periods, it also travels through themes. In particular, elements of the natural world are used as a tool to bounce the pace of the show in-and-out of orderly procession. An example of this is the juxtaposition of a wildfire burning aristocratic figureheads, with the light of a chandelier in an opulent theatre hall. Nature is consistently used as an expressive force, with humans attempting to control it but never succeeding. IKR balances entertainment with deliberation, and thoughtful commentary on the political agenda of the era. Figures masquerade hauntingly, and assorted yellow hieroglyphics are mixed with features of circular, colourful, and geometric images . From the progression of violins into futuristic club techno, to a celebration of the natural world contrasted with psychedelic symbolism, Immersive Klimt Revolution delivers a cinematic experience like no other. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture