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Art Ignite Arts Dallas

Introducing Meadows Prize Winner New Cities, Future Ruins’ New Site and Convening

Meadows Prize Winner New Cities, Future Ruins, a curatorial initiative inviting artists, designers and thinkers to reimagine the extreme urbanism of America’s Western Sun Belt, has just launched an expanded website. It features the first details of November’s events in Dallas, including a list of early confirmed participants and links to register.

The convening will run November 11-14, 2016. This hybrid conference and festival will be open to the public, feature artists’ projects, bus tours, and events throughout the city, as well as talks, roundtable discussions, screenings, and workshops. Confirmed participants include Noura Al-Sayeh, Roberto Bedoya, Mary Ellen Carroll, Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, Naima J. Keith, OtherOthers, Postcommodity, Andrew Ross, Elizabeth Tandy Shermer and Imre Szeman, with a larger list and full schedule to be announced later this summer.

You can find out more about each participant, a formative schedule for the convening, and a curatorial statement on the expanded site.

Register for the Convening | Meet the Partners | 

More About New Cities, Future Ruins

New Cities, Future Ruins will engage the cities of the Western Sun Belt as arenas for pioneering art and design. The region, stretching from Houston to Denver and from Phoenix to San Diego, is home to some of the fastest-growing cities in the country, symbols of opportunity and entrepreneurialism, historic cradles of free market capitalism. Their path, however, may be unsustainable: located in delicate ecosystems, the unprecedented growth of these cities is marked by sprawl and resource overuse, dramatic demographic shifts and struggles over immigration. Some of the most pressing questions of our moment – questions of whether current ways of life can or should persist environmentally, economically and socially – are in few places as clear or as compelling as in these Western Sun Belt cities. Suburban in texture, these new cities are twenty-first century spaces that resist creative traditions inherited from the industrial city. Bringing critical and innovative art and design practice from around the world to bear on this urban landscape, the initiative seeks to foster visionary thought and artistic experimentation at these urgent sites, places that both embody and illuminate global crises of rapid urbanization.

Follow NCFR and help spread the word: Instagram: @newcitiesfutureruins, Twitter: @newcitiesfuture, Facebook: New Cities Future Ruins

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Meadows Prize Photos We Love

12 Photos We Love from the 2016 Spring Graduation Ceremonies

2016-grad-webThe SMU Meadows School of the Arts class of 2016–across 11 areas of study–walked the stage on May 14. Photographer Kim Leeson was on hand to capture the scene. See more and make a gift to SMU Meadows Scholars. 

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Dance Music

Countdown to the Winspear

6_Tympani-and-standup-bassWith the May 11 performance date looming for the Meadows at the Winspear annual benefit concert, The Meadows Symphony Orchestra and the Meadows Dance Ensemble moved their rehearsal space out of Owen Arts Center and into an unusual location: a practice basketball court in the SMU Crum Basketball Center.

On Wednesday, May 4, a team from SMU Facilities, along with Assistant Director for Music Operations David Brown, transported two full-size dance floors, 90 chairs, four tables, 60 music stands, sets, costumes, props, and a grand piano and set it all up under the basketball pennants and hoops.

The Meadows at the Winspear concert will feature the critically acclaimed Meadows Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Paul Phillips, and the Meadows Dance Ensemble, composed of top students from the Meadows School’s nationally respected dance program, in two works. The first is the premiere of a newly envisioned choreography of Stravinsky’s Firebird, created by Claudia Lavista and Victor Manuel Ruiz, noted artistic directors of the acclaimed Delfos Danza Contemporanea in Mazatlán, Mexico. The second is Martha Graham’s ballet masterpiece Appalachian Spring, featuring the world premiere of the newly completed, full orchestra version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning music by Aaron Copland. For the first time, audiences will be able to enjoy Graham’s iconic choreography accompanied by music played by a full symphony.

The orchestra and dancers will rehearse on the basketball court through Friday, May 6; on Saturday morning, May 7, everything gets packed up and transported to the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District.

The annual spring concert benefits the Meadows Scholars Program at Meadows School of the Arts, and honors community leader and noted arts and civic patron Donna Wilhelm. The 2016 event chair is Heather Esping and the honorary chair is Melissa Fetter.

Tickets to the “Meadows at the Winspear” concert are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $17 for students and SMU faculty and staff. They are available through the AT&T Center for the Performing Arts box office; call 214-880-0202.

For SMU alumni, a concert ticket that includes a post-concert dessert and champagne reception is available for $50; $25 of the ticket price supports the Meadows Scholars Program. Call the Meadows Development Office at 214-768-4189 for alumni ticket information.

Buy TicketsDonate to Meadows Scholars

Below are some of the photos: