{"id":47297,"date":"2023-08-30T17:09:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T13:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=47297"},"modified":"2023-08-30T17:10:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T13:10:02","slug":"talking-conversations-the-new-arts-center-season-at-nyuad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/talking-conversations-the-new-arts-center-season-at-nyuad\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking conversations: the new Arts Center season at NYUAD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s become something of an end-of-summer tradition that magpie interviews Bill Bragin, Executive Director of The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. As a significant player in the UAE\u2019s art scene, he usually has pertinent observations and insights. But the immediate reason is the announcement of the season at The Arts Center, always interesting and more importantly right on target for the kind of thing a performance-oriented arts centre ought to be doing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme for his programming this time is \u2018arts at the centre\u2019. He says that in part this reflects his fondness for a pun, though it doesn\u2019t quite work in the collision between American English (as used in the title of The Arts Center) and British English (as used by magpie, so we say The Arts Center is an arts centre). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wordplay aside, the theme also signifies the idea that the arts can be at the centre of the conversation. Says Bill Bragin: \u201cIt relates to the other idea that runs through this season, the year of sustainability: programming that refers to any of social issues shouldn’t be considered as simple entertainment. The arts aren\u2019t an add-on to the conversation. The arts are at the centre of it, especially in terms of building community and reflecting the things that matter to the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo with this season\u2019s theme I wanted to play around with that idea \u2013 how the arts can be important for so many different aspects of people\u2019s lives.\u201d That\u2019s evident from the opening item, Andrew Schneider\u2019s N O W I S W H E N W E A R E (the stars). It\u2019s a performance piece that sits somewhere between installation and theatre; technically impressive (nearly 5,000 miniature light points and surround sound react to the movement of the audience in a darkened theatre) but delivering an emotional as well as a sensory impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s thoughtful and emotionally moving\u201d, says Bragin, \u201cand when we were putting the season together I asked Andrew [Schneider] whether there\u2019s any substantiality or climate lens to the piece \u2013 the year of sustainability is other theme. He came back with a link to a Wikipedia article about the Overview Effect, the cognitive shift reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That Earthrise image captured this [Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who took the photograph, said it made him think \u201dHere we came all this way to the Moon, and yet the most significant thing we\u2019re seeing is our own home planet, the Earth\u201d]. And it was used on the cover of the Whole Earth Catalogue, one of the triggers for the modern ecological movement. To me, it\u2019s a beautiful metaphor to kick off the season \u2013 the idea that you can have an experience in the arts that can become an epiphany, something that can impact your whole worldview.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s another piece that Bragin is looking forward to: Koyaanisqatsi Live, Godfrey Reggio\u2019s groundbreaking film Koyaanisqatsi <\/em>set to a score by Philip Glass that is played by the Philip Glass Ensemble. This one is important to Bill Bragin: \u201cIt\u2019s a highly influential work that used non narrative cinema to examine the majesty of nature and the negative impacts of urbanisation. But it\u2019s also very personal. I remember walking through Manhattan after seeing it originally, and staring around the city with wonder because I felt my perception had been changed. Hearing the music and then seeing the film was like my own personal Overview Effect \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the film and the music together are impressive \u2013 and very accessible; neither the film nor the music are didactic or over-intellectual. It\u2019s actually quite a visceral experience. Bragin agrees. \u201cOne of the beautiful aspects of the music is the way it starts slow and gradually speeds up. Your heartbeat sort of picks up with it, and you\u2019re completely kind of in sync with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a third example he picks out Asian Dub Foundation, in town for two shows \u2013 one a cine-concert where the band provides live accompaniment to Mathieu Kassovitz\u2019s gritty 1995 story of the French suburbs La Haine<\/em>. The other is a live concert (\u201cwe don\u2019t often turn the Black Box into a hot, sweaty dance club\u201d, says Bragin, \u201cbut we will this time!) by a band that is representative of the kind of music the he loves \u2013 hybrid performers who capture the idea that a band can be very culturally specific while absorbing influences and styles from elsewhere. “Asian Dub Foundation very clearly come from a British\/South Asian perspective, but they have also been raised on Jamaican music, and hip hop, and rock … it’s all in there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s politically and socially engaged too. I think there\u2019s a lot of conversation now about intersectionality, and ADF have been intersectional from the beginning. The need to make the world a better place by understanding all the different layers of connection resonates in the UAE, where that kind of coalition building is so essential.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it is indeed a season of programming with arts at the centre of several conversations, and from different perspectives too. But how does Bragin judge the success or otherwise of those goals? Although box office business is usually good for The Arts Centre, footfall and bums on seats don\u2019t provide much of a measure. As he puts it, \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of my career doing large mass events, and there’s a power in that. But we\u2019re starting with a piece that has an audience of just eight people at a time [Andrew Schneider\u2019s N O W I S W H E N W E A R E (the stars) has the option for a guided walkthrough for small groups]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is for somebody to walk out of the Center and say ‘wow, that was incredible’. But for me the other KPI is about the conversations that you open. Sharing of experience and transfer of experience. Making a community around the event or the performance. That\u2019s what the arts can do\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of our conversation Bill Bragin turned the tables and asked us what we thought of the programme. Our immediate response was that it doesn\u2019t feel too different from past seasons \u2013 which sounds dismissive but is very definitely intended as a compliment. Over the years \u2013 nine of them so far \u2013 the programming has created an identity for The Arts Center: to use a clich\u00e9, we have come to expect the unexpected. You just know<\/em> there will be shows in the Center\u2019s schedule that engage and intrigue as well as entertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Arts Center Season Nine: highlights from the next three months<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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31 Aug 31 to 10 Sep (not 4 Sep) <\/em>
Andrew Schneider: N O W I S W H E N W E A R E (the stars)<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
An interactive theatrical cosmos surrounded by thousands of reactive lights and hundreds of speakers. Experience the show as a Guided Journey (for up to eight people) or as an Open Universe (self-guided, max audience size about 40)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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7 Sep <\/em>
Betsayda Machado and La Parranda el Clavo<\/a><\/strong><\/mark><\/strong>
A musical journey to the coast of Venezuela, featuring Venezuelan Afro-Soul \u2018Tambor\u2019- a spirit-shaking percussion and voice celebration with an opening performance of Emirati maritime heritage.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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21 Sep <\/em>
Asian Dub Foundation \/ La Haine<\/em><\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
Mathieu Kassovitz\u2019s landmark award-winning film La Haine<\/em> gets a new live soundtrack of searing junglist beats, indo-dub bass lines, and funked-out guitars, from ADB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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22 Sep<\/em>
Asian Dub Foundation Live in Concert<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
Tough jungle rhythms, dub basslines, wild guitar, and forceful high-speed raps from South Asian roots filtered through London, Jamaica and a potent awareness of social issues<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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30 Sep<\/em>
Bebel Gilberto: Songs My Father Loved<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
The Brazilian chanteuse with a series of heartfelt and personal songs by and for her father, bossa nova icon Jo\u00e3o Gilberto<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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5 Oct
Koyaanisqatsi<\/em> Live<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
Godfrey Reggio\u2019s groundbreaking film, set to a score by Philip Glass, performed live by the Philip Glass Ensemble \u2013 a hypnotic exploration of nature, urbanisation, and a world out of balance<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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12 + 13 Oct
Dana Gingras & Animals of Distinction: FRONTERA<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
Innovative choreographer Dana Gingras and her company Animals of Distinction with a visually stunning spectacle of propulsive dance, dazzling lighting and powerful live post-rock in an exploration of borders as places of inclusion and exclusion, boundaries between the public and private realms<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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16, 17, 18 Nov
Miwa Matreyek: This World Made Itself \/ Infinitely Yours<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
Performance meets animation at the intersection of cinematic and theatrical, fantastical and tangible, and illusionistic and physical in evocative explorations of the earth and the environment<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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29 Nov
Small Island Big Song: Our Island<\/a><\/mark><\/strong>
A musical collaboration by islander songkeepers from the Pacific and Indian Oceans as they voice concerns of the changing seas<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s become something of an end-of-summer tradition that magpie interviews Bill Bragin, Executive Director of The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. As a significant player in the UAE\u2019s art scene, he usually has pertinent observations and insights. But the [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-arts-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}