Gettin' off the Ground: Contemporary Stories from an American Community
From the beginning, communities created fables, parables, myths and folktales to explain and understand the natural and supernatural elements that exist in our world. These stories often did their explaining, ultimately warning against pitfalls and attempting to guide our decisions, through metaphor. Many of these stories translate across ethnic, religious or political ideologies. For cultures that did not have written languages the stories preserved oral history and traditions from one generation to the next. Collectively, these narratives explained who we were and defined our communities' belief and moral systems.
In these challenging times, our ability to come together and share our stories increases our ability to acknowledge difference as well as the similarities we all share. Thereby allowing fissures, which may have developed within our community and prevented people from deeply understanding our shared human experience, to be understood.
How might the stories continue to resonate within the fast-paced, tech savvy cultures we live in? How do these stories continue to define who we are within our communities, cultures and subcultures? Might we be able to tell our narratives in a way that encourages discussion and re-engages our community? How might we have open discussions that foster learning and action regardless of ideologies?
The 2013 -2015 exhibition year at Angels Gate Cultural Center marks the beginning of a larger concept that explores our local community's stories and personal narrative online, in the galleries and off site. Additionally, we hope to generate dialogue about how, as a community, we can share, communicate and learn regardless of differing opinions and ideologies thus creating an exchanges across difference and acknowledge the different ways people can experience the same thing and why it matters.[1] Through partnerships with local non-profits, artists, storytellers and the community the galleries hope to capture a slice of Americana that is unique within our nation and particular to Los Angeles.
[1] Adair, Bill, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski. "The "Dialogic Museum" Revisited: A Collaborative Reflection." Letting Go?: Sharing Historical Authority in a User-generated World. Philadelphia, PA: Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, 2011. 83. Print.
Over the next two years artwork will be selected on an ongoing basis that employ storytelling techniques to encourage dialogue on issues relevant to the South Bay/Harbor community and/or shared history. The artworks encourage us to think about our lives and how we communicate our story with each other.
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