… and we’re back! When last I wrote back in February, I was on vacation with my bestie ruminating about all things retreat, faith and reciprocity. Well, that turned out to be a lengthy and fruitful meditation because, in the months between that time and this, everything has changed! I’ve wanted to share the crazy transformation of my life as it has all been unfolding, but with so many moving parts, I have had to hunker down and direct my focus in a BIG way.
So … where do I start? Well, back in March I accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Modern/Contemporary Dance at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA which begins this coming fall. I’m so excited to join that community and to serve that unique student population. That decision then catalyzed a whole series of transitions that, despite already being underway in many cases, were accelerated to a mind numbing pace. In recent months, I’ve sold my house, moved to a loft in Western Massachusetts, re-envisioned The Invisible City Project in the image of a co-operative, engaged in movement research for a new collaboration, created 1.66 new solo works and learned more than I ever wanted to know about why it is so often a bad idea to wait …
To quote Hugh Laurie from someone’s Facebook post last month:
It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There’s almost no such thing as ready. There’s only now. And you may as well do it now. I mean, I say that confidently as if I’m about to go bungee jumping or something – I’m not. I’m not a crazed risk taker. But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.
So before the dust has had a chance to settle we’re jumping into an emerging–or re-emerging–now.
Back in the spring, with my move pending, I began having a series of conversations with Greater Hartford dance artists about the possible future of The Garden Center. The space has been such an important part of my growth process in the last 3 years, and it has absolutely shifted the way I think about the potential of art, place and cooperation. Hartford has been a part of Scapegoat Garden’s definition since its inception and The Garden Center has only deepened that sense of identity. It has been important to me that my move, just a short distance north, not sever this tie, or undermine what seems to be an important beginning of something. Instead, I imagine it as an expanding–one more way to connect Hartford to the dance landscape within and beyond its borders
In an early summer conversation with two former students, Greater Hartford-natives Arien Wilkerson and Rebecca Puretz, we concluded that the space could be best administered within the framework of a co-operative. We didn’t know quite what we meant at the time, and to be honest, we’re still working to define the perimeters in our context. Nonetheless, we’ve grown rather enthusiastic about the concept. It must’ve been more than a year ago now that Thalya Epstein planted the seed by referencing the space-sharing co-op solution she and other NYC dance colleagues were utilizing. While definitely intriguing, it didn’t seem entirely relevant in the moment, but we’re definitely employing all sorts of fun teaching to help us wrap our brains around it out now. Sometimes things just have to marinate until the opportune time.
According to cultivate.coop, a co-operative is,
“an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled enterprise. [It is] user-controlled, user-owned, and user-benefiting.”
In our minds, this sounds like an apt solution to our individual and collective needs. We’ve put so many programs and resources in place during our The Garden Center’s 3 years (i.e. works-in-progress showings, performance salons, artists-in-residence, rehearsal space, town hall gatherings, community website and the like). So it seems only right to put those tools directly into the hands of the community for which it was all intended in the first place. Arien and Rebecca, two dynamic young dance artists in their own right, have agreed to lead the way as facilitators of the co-op, seeking potential members while managing/holding the space for the co-op’s collective growth. In turn, The Garden Center will function primarily as the home of The Invisible City Project Co-operative. So while Scapegoat Garden will recede from the day-to-day activity in the space itself, the space will remain our official mailing address and the company will remain organizationally present as a support structure for whatever comes next should the co-op fully take root. Meanwhile, Scapegoat Garden, the collaborative art making entity, will continue to perform and make new work under my direction … although I imagine new frameworks will emerge for this work as well. Change is in the air, and I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.
And what comes next for this gestating co-op? Planning and fundraising. Between now and September 5th, we invite you to help us raise the capitol we’ll need to secure the space on Arbor Street for another year and to maintain the basic infrastructure that will be shared by participating members of the dance community. As Rebecca and Arien say in our the Indiegogo campaign narrative we launched this morning,
“a co-operative cannot exist for the benefit of just two members, or with only two champions. Beyond dollars and cents, your participation in this campaign will help us assess interest in the project, thereby determining our future course of action. We are determined to secure resources we can all benefit from. So we invite you to join us in taking ownership of your essential role in the cultural re-emergence of our cities, great and small.
We believe that movement expression is fundamental to our human-ness and that our city, like all others, thrives when this expressiveness thrives. In cities like ours, there are so many artists among us who deserve to be bolstered. You may be one of them, or you may be one who loves one of them, or you may be one who loves the fruit of their labor. Whatever your relationship to the art of dance, we hope to undo the myth that the battle to make our best work must be fought entirely in isolation, or that we must wait for others outside the field to pave a path ahead for us. Instead, we seek partners who will walk alongside us as we position ourselves to be our own agents of the change we seek. A lofty goal, perhaps, but we think it’s an experiment worth initiating. We invite you to join us in this experiment and in the dialogue that will inevitably ensue.
… and why wait? Now is the time!
… as we all savor what remains of the summer sun …
~Deborah Goffe
