American Arts Incubator Orientation in Silicon Valley, California!
March-April 2018 I will be going to Quito and Otavalo, Ecuador as part of the American Arts Incubator, a program in partnership with US Department of Education and Cultural Affairs and ZERO 1.
photo: Amy Karle
I am emerging from orientation week in Silicon Valley in preparation for my one-month exchange where I will be supporting social inclusion of Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian populations through sharing ways in which new media storytelling could help shift dominant narratives while being cognizant of millennia-old technologies my incubator participants will bring to the experience.
Photo: Amy Karle
I bonded with an amazing artist cohort (Gene Felice, Dasha Ortenberg, Amy Karle, Laura Wright, and Tiare Ribeaux) and the fab art admin team (Shamsher Virk and Maya Holm). We worked with US Department of Education and Cultural Affairs Program Officer Michelle Peregrin to learn more about people to people diplomacy initiatives. I loved our dialogues around allyship, ideologies embedded within technology and artist as civic actors.
Photo: taken by a kind passerby
We were thoughtfully paired with mentors who were artists, educators, community arts advocates and beyond. I had the privilege to be mentored by Cristóbal Martínez from postcommodity artist collective! My heart is bursting with gratitude!!!
Photo: Beatrice Glow
Photo: Maya Holm
Photo: Amy Karle