Ongoing

Thoughts on Assembly by Students from the Native American Youth and Family Center

Darren O’Donnell and NAYA’s Art and Social Change Class

Various Locations

The NAYA Art and Social Change students will be hanging out with Darren O’Donnell, checking out every moment of the Assembly, and letting everyone know what they think if it all via Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and small notes on colored paper that they will leave scattered around Portland.

Thursday, May 12
2:00–3:00 PM

The Unknown

Lauren Moran and IPRC

IPRC
1001 SE Division St

"Turning away from the brightly rendered version of your country as it has always declared itself and turning toward something murkier and unknown. It is still too difficult for most Americans to do this. But that is your work."

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Lately I feel like the edges around everything are beginning to blur and blend and be questioned collectively in a new way."

— my Aunt Sally

What is ‘The Unknown’ in our current collective social landscape? Is it frightening? Exciting? Daunting? How can we move towards an acceptance of difference and undefined-ness? How can we welcome the melting and blurring of boundaries around our diverse identities? How are those boundaries still affecting our lives? Based on conversational and collected research, in this workshop we will discuss ideas of the contemporary unknown and create a collaborative publication around our conversation utilizing the awesome array of resources at the IPRC. All mediums will be encouraged. The hope will be to create an interpretive document of our conversation that can be used as a resource to create continued exploration of the topic. Everyone who participates will get a bound copy of what we make by the end of Assembly.

Thursday, May 12
4:00–5:30 PM

The Mammalian SMYLE

Darren O’Donnell Hosted by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art

IPRC
1001 SE Division St

The Mammalian Succession Model of Youth Labour Engagement (SMYLE) is an approach to working with young people that considers them the successors to the those leading the activities. Created over the course of ten years in collaboration with a team of children who then became teens, and then adults. It is specifically designed to include populations of young people whose families tend not to bother with arts and culture. It’s the ultimate in inclusivity methods and is based on the idea that full inclusivity of children is the most radical gesture possible.

Thursday, May 12
6:30–8:00 PM

Community Discussion: The Ethics of Photography

Yaelle Amir with Steve Davis, Emily Fitzgerald, Jim Lommasson, and Beth Nakamura

Newspace Center for Photography
1632 SE 10th Ave

The question of photographers’ responsibility to their subjects has long been debated throughout the history of the medium. On May 12 we will discuss the relationship, motives, and nuances between the image-producer and subject through presentations by photographers who have documented communities other than their own. The conversation will address some of the following questions: is collaboration between photographer and subject possible? Is there a "right/wrong" way to document other communities? Is there such a thing as an objective image? How can exploitation be avoided? How can subjects be empowered through images?

The Community Discussion The Ethics of Photography is presented in conjunction with Newspace’s current exhibition, Prison Obscura, about the U.S. prison industrial complex, and the Oregon Jewish Museum’s current exhibition of work by lifelong photojournalist Ruth Gruber.

Thursday, May 12
8:30–9:30 PM

The First Session

Derek Hamm

LIKEWISE
3564 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Spend an hour in the company of an onion in a guided meditative encounter. The first score of a recipe that serves eight persons four times.

Thursday, May 12
9:30–10:30 PM

Opening Conversation

Facilitated by Ariana Jacob

LIKEWISE
3564 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Join us for an opening discussion to collectively gather and reflect upon the questions that matter to us now as we step into this year’s Assembly.

Friday, May 13
10:00–12:00 PM

Student Research with Free Lunch

Roz Crews with Amber Dorich, Bryson Ramirez, Caitlin Patton, Caitlyn Malik, Camryn Martinez, Charles Powell, Emily Rice, Emma Brown, Evan Wiley, Gavin Schneider, Jake Schlack, Kiley Yuthas, Lily Harris, Marisol Altamirano, Mary Young, Megan Kirsch, Michael Richardson, Nam Le, Naureen Khan, Nicholas Nikas, Nicholas Solomon, Perry Taylor, Roosevelt Sowka, Sebastian Rosa, Shane Montgomery, Shira Ribakoff, Spencer Morrison, Wendy Mayhugh, Zach Pronath-Holden, and Zamora Baldwin

PSU Broadway Residence Hall
SW 6th Avenue and Jackson
Meet in front of the Starbucks

Student Research is an experiential education project that features a collaboratively developed public exhibition of research, Globalization Through the Artist’s Lens, created for the Portland State University residence halls by first-year college students who live there and study globalization in the First-Year Experience Freshman Inquiry program. The students worked for several months with the University Housing and Residence Life artist-in-resident Roz Crews to learn about artwork from the Portland Art Museum (PAM), conduct research about a topic related to their globalization class, and create exhibition panels that connect the museum artwork to their research.

After the event, join the students for a free meal hosted by the PSU University Housing and Residence Life Department.

Friday, May 13
1:00–2:00 PM

Williams Ave Mapping Circle

Emma Colburn in collaboration with Project Grow artists

Project Grow
2124 N Williams Ave

This event is the culmination to a series of mapping workshops that chart where moments signifying economic investment (and non investment) are visible in and performed by the spaces along North Williams Avenue today.

Join us for an informal afternoon of getting to know one another around (the sewing of) a large fabric map. This workshop will offer basic sewing instructions for beginners, and introduce several map-based embroidery stitches for intermediate sewers. No prior sewing experience is necessary! All ages and levels are welcome.

Friday, May 13
3:00–5:00 PM

Portland Museum of Art & Sports Opening

Anke Schüttler and Lauren Moran

Data Drafting

Adam Carlin

PSU Campus Rec Center
1800 SW 6th Ave

Opening celebration and tour with the museum founders and directors Lauren Moran and Anke Schüttler, check out the newest acquisitions to our permanent collection. Refreshments provided. Stay for Data Drafting with Adam Carlin after the opening.

The Portland Museum of Art & Sports is located at Portland State University’s Rec Center.

An institution within an institution, the museum was founded in 2015 as a dynamic space dedicated to the exploration of two subjects that are rarely paired together: contemporary art and recreational sports.

Through installations, events and programming that showcase local to international artists the museum seeks to explore unconventional situations for engagement. Expanding an art establishment into the realm of recreation initiates conversation between these two practices, their practitioners and their audiences. The museum is ever-growing with new acquisitions. We invite you to observe, enjoy and activate the spaces where art and sports intersect.

Exploring team-based sports. Carlin’s work re-contextualizes contemporary technologies as tools for artist working in the public sphere.

Friday, May 13
7:00–8:00 PM

Ink Visible Public Event

Arianna Warner, Kimber Teatro, Aubrey Hight, Tanya Magdalena, Trevor Ward, and Lindsay Carter

Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
1945 NW Quimby St

Ink Visible is a collaboration by Ariana Warner with tattoo artists who self-identify as having an invisible disability. This project illuminates invisible disabilities through tattoo culture. Each artist has created a temporary tattoo inspired by their experiences. The tattoos, accompanied by the artists’ stories will be on display at this event and are also available for purchase in the online store (inkvisible.org). In addition, the public will be able to contribute their stories and drawings to the project at traveling Ink Visible events.

Friday, May 13
9:00–11:00 PM

Getting to Know You(Tube): Influence’s Influences

Curated by Roz Crews with presentations from Roya Amirsoleymani, Harrell Fletcher, and Lisa Jarrett

LIKEWISE
3564 SE Hawthorne Blvd

"The general format of Getting to Know You(Tube) is pretty simple — local people give 15-minute presentations about whatever they want, and however they want — as long as it utilizes YouTube in some way. After each presentation the audience can ask the presenter questions or show video responses, and once all of the presentations are complete for the evening, the floor is open for anyone at the event to introduce themselves and play their favorite YouTube picks with the crowd."

Roz Crews has invited three of her main local influences to give 15 minute presentations about their influences. Presentations by Roya Amirsoleymani, Harrell Fletcher, and Lisa Jarrett.

Saturday, May 14
10:00–11:00 AM

The Walking School Presents The Know Parade

Adam Carlin and The Walking School

North end of the Park Blocks
SW Park Ave & SW Salmon St

In collaboration with The Walking School, the Know Parade is an educational procession that operates under the assumption that everybody has something to offer. Each attendee to the event is responsible for teaching something to other members of the parade. This non-traditional learning environment will also include hands-on activities, celebrations, and a touch of absurdity.

The Walking School was founded in 2016 by Avalon Kalin and others, as series of walks that act as workshops on given subjects, initiated by an individual or group. The shared philosophy of The Walking School is that we find co-learning and the right to chose how and what one learns is a human right. We create safe spaces of knowledge-sharing for people of all ages, identities, and abilities who wish to co-learn with us. for more info see thewalkingschool.org

Saturday, May 14
11:00–12:00 PM

Common Language

Produced by Renee Sills and Kimberly Sutherland, in collaboration with Victoria Perez, Sara Hursey, Summer Fry, Tristan Ahlschlager, and Katie Schmidt — students from the Site Dance class taught by Tere Mathern at Portland State University

Portland Open Space Sequence
Beginning at The Source Fountain
Pedestrian trail just northwest of
SW 1st Ave & SW Lincoln St

"People need to become aware of their environment as it really is — to experience it directly. When they have done this they build up a common language from which they can all operate and communicate."

— Lawrence Halprin

A participatory score utilizing movement and sculpture to deepen the connection between the building blocks of our bodies and the natural and urban spaces in which they inhabit. Situated in downtown Portland, Common Language will explore the Open Space Sequence — a series of interconnected fountains and parks designed by architect, designer, and teacher, Lawrence Halprin. Through exercises promoting awareness and integration, performance, and dialogue we will explore how our bodies and minds move through the everyday public spaces we encounter.

Saturday, May 14
1:00–3:00 PM

Some Time Between Us

Emily Fitzgerald, Honnai Aguado-Nielsen, Delaney Alvord, Jackie Anderson, Antonia Beil, Cindi Burgos-Be, Brenda Culhane, Judith Ford, Harvey Garnett, Tom Getts, Frank Gorretta, Lanaireoje (Bubbles) Hayes, Raina Heilman, Jacqui Jackson, Allen Julian, Marel Kalyn, Benjamin Kirchoffer-Talbott, Ausha Lathan, Dolores M. Peters, Lucia Sanchez-Ventura, Jan Starnes, Maria Tran, Jackson Wolfe

Hollywood Senior Center
1820 NE 40th Ave

Some Time Between Us is a project initiated by Emily Fitzgerald and The Hollywood Senior Center to bring together a group of 22 middle school students from Beaumont Middle School and seniors from the Hollywood Senior Center. The intergenerational group spent six-weeks investigating their individual and cultural expressions of identity, independence and interdependence through storytelling, writing and photography. The public opening will be participatory and reflect the intergenerational exchange through photography, music, performance, poetry and dialogue.

Saturday, May 14
4:00–6:00 PM

The Global Table: Tasting Party

Amanda Leigh Evans and Krysta Williams in collaboration with Farida Hadid, Blanca Hernandez, and Paula Hernandez

Zenger Farm
11741 SE Foster Rd

The Global Table is a series of four performative, programmed dinners in East Portland created in collaboration with chefs from local cultural communities. Each menu is formed and prepared by two chefs from recipes that are personally and historically significant. Activities throughout the series include ceramic plate glazing, directed conversation, recipe swaps, shared rituals, and the forming of a small publication. The Global Table seeks to create an opportunity for creative practice, dialogue, and community building between groups who may not typically have the opportunity to engage with each other. The project explores familial food narratives as a way to view our own migration stories, celebrate our community’s knowledge, and begin to address larger systems of access in Portland. Activities include: samples of foods from the California Coast, Oaxaca, El Salvador, and Algeria, an exhibition of handmade plates, cooking activities, live music, story sharing, and the release of a recipe book.

Saturday, May 14
7:00–9:00 PM

Collaborative Learning for Physical Prowess (on the dance floor): How to Dance Like a Boss

Jens Hauge & Renee Sills with guest presenters Leif J. Lee, Tonisha Toler, and Padraic O’Meara

Performance Works Northwest
4625 SE 67th Ave

Knowing that many people would like to dance but feel too shy or inhibited to take dance classes, this project seeks to create fun, inclusive, and safe environments for people to learn to dance. These classes upset the power hierarchy of traditional dance classes by empowering anyone to become a dance teacher. A selection of people who are not professional dancers or dance teachers (but who like to dance) will research and present their favorite ‘How To Dance’ YouTube videos and lead us all in learning the steps/choreography. Jens Hauge and Renee Sills will host and facilitate warm-ups, cool-downs, and a mid-class surprise.

Saturday, May 14
9:00–Midnight

The People’s (dance) Party

Jens Hauge & Renee Sills

Performance Works Northwest
4625 SE 67th Ave

What makes an awesome dance party? Renee Sills and Jens Hauge have set out to investigate which elements stand out in the best dance parties and will strive to procure and include as many of them as possible in one unforgettable night. It’s BYO (alcoholic)B but there will be FREE mixers, plenty of water, and snacks! Admission is FREE. See you there!

Sunday, May 15
10:00–11:00 AM

Wearable Worlds

Anya Wild and Natalya Kolosowsky

Overlook Park by the Gazebo
1599 N Fremont St

Wearables function as a visible symbol of a self-construct and as a nonverbal method of communicating values to others. I use costumes as catalysts for shifting assumptions about sense and nonsense, conditioning portals of play, transformation, and reinvention of identity. Several costumes will be available for participants to wear and interact non-verbally with each other. Natalya Kolosowsky and I will facilitate actions and movement possibilities. Participants will have an opportunity to step into an invented social role and create a live event exploring different kinds of movement and action. Interactions will be recorded on video and used to generate future enactments and performative spaces.

Sunday, May 15
11:00–12:00 PM

Motherhood: A Social Practice

Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond

Overlook Park by the Gazebo
1599 N Fremont St

Motherhood can be inspiring, exhausting, perspective changing and isolating, and whichever one of these it is we believe putting the social into it helps.

Come, share food, and talk about what we need from each other to not only sustain but develop each other’s practices.

The picnic conversations will be the start of Motherhood: A Social Practice, an online support group where, we, the members, commit to actively helping each other by working together to share networks, critique work and ideas, read proposals ... and what else?? Come join the conversation.

All mothers and their families are welcome to join, no RSVP required.

Hosted by artists Davina Drummond and Yara El-Sherbini as part of their British Council Fellowship.

Sunday, May 15
1:00–3:00 PM

Backyards

Kimberly Sutherland and Paul West

4535 NE Garfield Ave

A walking tree tour and music show in Northeast Portland with longtime resident, arborist, and musician, Paul West.

Participants will join Paul on an educational walk through his neighborhood exploring local trees, their medicinal qualities, and their role in urban space - our collective backyard. Afterward, there will be a live concert featuring Paul and his bandmates, Diamond, Sly, and Striknine, in his backyard in NE.

Sunday, May 15
4:00–5:00 PM

The Useful Art Object: Considering Critical and Socially-Engaged Craft Practices

Amanda Leigh Evans with Daniel DuFord, Namita Gupta Wiggers, Nicole Gugliotti, Lisa Jarrett, and Denise Mullen

Yale Union Kitchen
800 SE 10th Ave

How is the future of craft shaped by the recent closing of the Museum of Contemporary Craft and the resurgence of craft practices in contemporary art and design? Additionally, how does the communal nature of craft continue to inform socially engaged and participatory forms of art? This conversation focuses on the opportunity for craft to define a distinct critical, aesthetic, and cultural field. Leaders in the Portland art community will engage in a critical roundtable discussion on contemporary crafts-based practices and how those practices have been informed by pivotal moments in craft history.

The conversation is free but seating is limited to 50 people. Please reserve a seat at http://bit.ly/1riGDUK.

Sunday, May 15
7:00–8:00 PM

Artist Talk by the 2016 British Council Fellows

Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond

LIKEWISE
3564 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Davina and Yara will present consolidated versions of two recents works. Davina will run a Therapy Session for Feminists. Yara will host a trivia night, offering you a chance to win great prizes. The night hopes to provide opportunities for collective confidence to grow and laughs to be shared.

Artists Davina Drummond and Yara El- Sherbini are at Assembly as part of the British Council Fellowship, an exchange between British artists and alumni of the PSU Art & Social Practice Program.

Sunday, May 15
8:30–9:30 PM

Closing Conversation

Ariana Jacob

LIKEWISE
3564 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Join us to reflect upon what we saw, felt, thought, heard, tasted, reconsidered and realized over the past 4 days of Assembly. All levels of Assembly participants welcome, whether you attended 1 or all or the events.