“Water reaches into new areas, forms connections, and breathes life,” artist-in-residence Seonagh Odhiambo says. “As I contemplate the connective power of water, I want to be touched by audiences and individuals on different shores.”

A professor of dance at California State University, Los Angeles, and the Artistic Director of Asava Dance, Odhiambo has focused her work on water for the last few years, creating several dances for the concert stage and site specific works.

On Wednesday March 21^st, the day before World Water Day, Odhiambo and Asava dancers shared a public performance and workshop at The Roundhouse (Vancouver, Canada). Network members were invited to contribute  movements, words or images about water to the creative process. Watch for a compilation of videos and information about this project, coming soon. 

The research is ongoing. How are you inspired by water? Tell us about it here, in your blog, with pictures, video and dialogue."Turbulent Water"
Artist-in-Residence Seónagh Odhiambo talks of how water inspires her choreography. “Watching turbulent, powerful water caused me to think about transformations in one’s life or in society. For example, some movement we created relates to transformational moments in society when the collective power becomes turbulent. Just like the water’s surface, we reflect the shape shifting of a single entity. The body of water becomes the body of our collective movement,” says the choreographer.

For examples of how movement is developed from meaning, observe Asava dancers in studio process: http://vimeopro.com/asavadance/asavadance

Welcome to this online gathering on the Art of Engagement.

Please join us! This network exists as an ongoing open space for international dialogue on the Art of Engagement. It is experimental, co-created and free. Here are some of the questions that draw us together: How do we image and imagine the work of art at this moment in history, when the survival of the planet is threatened? What role can art play in transforming the current cascade of social and environmental crises? Can we develop a way to create culture, to research, learn and teach with/in ecological systems? Where does art intersect with social struggle?

Give others the chance to learn from your own efforts and projects. Share resources and stories. Ask questions. Challenge us. Ask for help. Make new friends and forge new alliances.

Here are some steps for people new to the site (everything is optional and can be done in any order!):

1. Sign in.
2.Edit your profile - add a profile photo to represent you, and tell us something about your practice, your questions and your passions. (There will be a short delay before your page is visible on the site and you are able to post comments. We need to "approve" your membership in order to prevent SPAM attacks. We do not censor who can get on the site - we just check that you are not a spammer. Please give us enough information so that we can do this.)
3. Upload some photos, and/or videos and sounds.
4. Read about other participants by clicking on the "Members" tab. Leave comments for them on their comment wall.
5. Participate in discussions that are underway under the"Forums" tab. Join a Group. Start your own groups and discussions.
6. Use your Blog to keep us updated on what you are doing. Keep uploading photos and sharing projects.

Our 2012 Artist-in Residence program is now underway. See the description above.

Previous residencies include:

Yoko Ishiguro
Clare Adams
Justin Allen
Bobby Baker
John Jordan
Glas(s) Performance
Rajni Shah

Other Programs:
Culturing Sustainability: A Cookbook for Artists and Educators
Lisa Lipsett 'Art In Nature Challenge' Project

Some comments from participants:

Jan Cornall: Here there is the possibility to make deep meaningful connection with like minded artists, thinkers, writers, performers; to collaborate, share ideas, knowledge, develop projects, and to work together to actively make a difference in our street, neighbourhood, world. Here you can be recognised, appreciated and supported as an artist, and arts worker, an activist, a teacher, a thinker, by your fellow artists and arts workers. How valuable is that! How much do we need that! ...Here we can cut through the borders and boundaries that separate us, we can leapfrog the hierarchies and closed shops, the habitual patterns of our own limited thinking and limitations of our own arts communities and burst freely into a new awakened space of possibility. I tell you ....its better than sex, better than myspace almost better than art.

Beverly Naidus: For me, as facilitator [of a discussion on Teaching Art for Social Change], the greatest delight was this sense of our world as activist art practitioners, leaping across borders, time zones, and significant logistical boundaries. To be able to connect with deeply passionate colleagues in Australia, England, Qatar, Vancouver and Pittsburgh - wow, is all I can say. And if folks take a look at where the growing membership of this "engaged art" network comes from, you will be astounded. The countries represented besides those mentioned above include: South Africa, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Norway, Romania, Germany and Sweden. How exciting is that! ...

And I wanted to say that this gathering is so timely. There are so many people everywhere who feel the preciousness of this time and recognize that we must gather our energies to turn the tide. I encourage those of you with larger networks working with art for social change, to connect them with this space. We need to gather all the sparks, and develop more momentum from the margins.