Art and Social Change dialogue with Judith Marcuse

Around the world, the arts increasingly provide potent tools for creating positive change in the lives of individuals and the societies in which they live. Join us for this free public dialogue Animating Democracy: Art and Social Change with Judith Marcuse, choreographer and producer.

Thursday, December 7, 2006 | 7-9:30 pm
SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 W Hastings St
Registration is required; call 604-291-5100
Web: http://www.sfu.ca/dialogue/current.htm#g
PDF: http://www.sfu.ca/~nmaha/MarcuseAnimatingDemocracy.pdf

Whether it is puppets used for AIDS education in Africa, dance and theatre performances that address women's and girls' rights in Pakistan or youth-created music that speaks about life in the streets of Rio, these practices can nurture hope and meaningful change - and are critical elements in the development of essential dialogue. Choreographer and producer Judith Marcuse will speak about some of these wide-ranging global arts initiatives, including her own youth-centred work and, with participants, will explore some of the issues in the field, particularly as they relate to voice, power and social change.

Judith Marcuse, LLD, is the artistic producer of Judith Marcuse Projects and of the EARTH Project, an international arts initiative with youth that is exploring issues of social justice and environmental sustainability. As one of Canada's honoured senior artists, she has wide-ranging credits as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer that include work for dance, theatre, opera, television and film. In June 2000, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University.
As an artist, I know the transformative power, the connecting energy, and the healing, celebratory, revelatory, challenging, expansive and enlivening power of art practices - in their silences, their ambiguity, and the spaces they create - whether one is a consumer, a participant, a creator or an observer.
-Judith Marcuse, dancer, choreographer and producer

Supported in part by the ICBC Civil Economy Endowment.

--Nicole Mah
Program Assistant
Dialogue Programs, Simon Fraser University