In our very first episode of art Work, we welcome to the table Marýa Wethers, Dan Fishback, and Rasu Jilani to talk about curatorial practices! If curation is community service, what is a “good” curator? Our guests weigh in and discuss just what are the right questions, how to fail within the context of curation, and reflect on how they bring their full selves to their work. Learn more about our guests, Marya, Dan, & Rasu on Episode 1 of art Work and our guest musician, Nova Mandarke!

 

Marýa Wethers is an Independent Manager, Producer & Curator based in NYC since 1997. Marýa is currently the Director of International Initiatives at Movement Research and Project Manager for Angela's Pulse/Dancing While Black, David Thomson and others. From 2007-2014, she worked in the Programming Department at New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop/DTW) as the International Project Director of the Suitcase Fund program, where she developed a cultural exchange program with contemporary dance artists in the USA and Africa, and managed the program activities in Eastern/Central Europe.

Marýa is a Guest Curator of the Queer New York International Arts Festival (2016 & 2015 editions) and curated the Out of Space @ BRIC Studio series for Danspace Project (2003-2007) with a particular focus on work representing the perspectives and experiences of artists who are of color, queer, and/or female. She has served on selection panels for several presenting and funding organizations in NY and nationally, including the NEA, LMCC, Brooklyn Arts Council, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and as an Advisor to NEFA's National Dance Project program. She has served as a guest lecturer for presenting/service organizations and college/university dance programs in the tristate area. Marýa is a core member of the Movement Research Artists of Color Council and was a member of the New York Dance & Performance/Bessie Award Committee (2006-07).

Her writing has appeared in the Configurations in Motion: Curating and Communities of Color publication, organized by Thomas DeFrantz at Duke University (2016 & 2015), and her essay UnCHARTed Legacies: women of color in post-modern dance, was published in the 25th Anniversary Movement Research Performance Journal #27/28 (2004). Marýa has been featured in interviews/articles in the MRPJ #47 (Fall 2015) and Gay City News (June 2006).

Marýa is a recipient of a National Performance Network Mentorship & Leadership award and two APAP Cultural Exchange Fund grants. Marýa graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1997 with a BA in Dance and a Minor in African-American Studies.

 

Dan Fishback is a playwright, musician, and director of the Helix Queer Performance Network. Previous work includes “The Material World” (Top 10 Plays of 2012 - Time Out New York) and “thirtynothing” (2011), which were both developed at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and performed at Dixon Place, and “You Will Experience Silence” (2009), which the Village Voice called “sassier and more fun than ‘Angels in America.’” As a singer songwriter, and with his band Cheese On Bread, Fishback has toured Europe and North America, and has released five full-length albums. As Helix director, he teaches workshops, organizes public events, and curates and produces a variety of festivals and series, including "La MaMa's Squirts." He is currently working on a new play, “Rubble Rubble,&rdq