ArtWise: Bridging 15 Years of Kulture Klub Collaborative
Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 2008
Kulture Klub Collaborative, founded in 1992 by Dorit Cypis, develops partnerships
between arts organizations, social service organizations and funding agencies
to support independent artists to work with home-less youth, bridging
survival and inspiration. ArtWise has been
designed as an interactive public forum and exhibition to creatively celebrate
and assess KKC through integrating documentary materials with interpretive
artwork revealing the 15-year history of collaboration and vision behind
Kulture Klub Collaborative,
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www.kultureklub.org
Foreign Exchanges: A Mirror Reflection of You
Mediators Beyond Borders and Levantine Cultural Center, Los Angeles,
March 19, 2008. Organized by Dorit Cypis in collaboration with
mediator Ken Cloke and Joumana Silyan-Saba, Policy Advisor to the City
of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission.
A Public Dialogue designed for 100 local participants to uncover personal
and social contexts beneath the entrenched conflict between Palestinians
and Jews. Excerpts from the compelling film “To Die in Jerusalem”,
by Hilla Medalia, 2008, is screened to stimulate discussion on what successful
reconciliation could look like.
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Poster
Arts in the One World
Theater School, California Institute of the Arts and Interdisciplinary
Genocide Study Center, Kigali, Rwanda 2008
I presented my work on the relationship between internal conflict and social
justice at this colloquium on art and social justice. Arts in the One
World asks “how are artists repositioning art to engage with
culture and how is this exploration entering educational curricula?”
Art and Culture for Mediators
Southern California Mediation Association, Spring 2007
Beyond Conviction, a film on Restorative Justice by
Rachel Libert, follows 3 victims of violent crimes as each meets face-to-face
with their perpetrators now living within the Pennsylvania Penal System.
This film offers rare glimpses into these bold and difficult paths to redemption
and conflict transformation.
John Winslade, PhD, co-author of Narrative Mediation, Roberta Morris, PhD, novelist and mediator and Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Executive Director, Western Justice Center, present perspectives on Narrative Mediation a strategy which encourages deep exploration and understanding of the shared personal and cultural stories we tell ourselves and each other that often perpetuate conflict.
Victoria Pynchon, mediator/attorney and writer, screens Buz Luhrman's film version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with Leonardo Dicaprio and Clare Danes in scenes of entrenched cultural conflict. The audience is guided to reflect on the nature of this conflict and improvise/role play alternate narratives towards transformative resolutions.
Intimate Discussions (ID)
A collection of rotating dinners throughout spring 2007, Los Angeles
Six individuals from six Los Angeles communities host six informal dinner
gatherings to engage participants in discussions on social issues. Participants
are invited to contribute food and conversation.
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The Aesthetics of Foreignness
National Association of Artist Organizations, Los Angeles, CA., April
29, 2007
Foreignness is a highly charged contemporary axiom. What is foreign is always
what we feel alienated from both with ourselves and between us. What is the
relationship between interior alienation and social conflict?
In Other Words: Looking Ourselves
in the Mouth
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the University of California,
Irvine, Department of Studio Arts, developed by Dorit Cypis, Simon Leung,
Catherine Lord May 10, 2004
An invitational conversation with and between artist Yvonne Rainer and 30+
professionals from the visual arts, dance, film, writing, art history and
art criticism to discuss how the legendary work of Yvonne Rainer, dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, has informed our ideas on identity, social relations and the politics of engagement.
Conflict Studies: the New Generation of Ideas
University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2004
My interest in Mediation is to go beyond resolution of conflict, to create
a context where relations not only can be repaired but also transformed.
This desire for transformation has both a psychological and a political dimension,
two sides of the same coin.
"By this phrase 'political dimension' I mean an analysis that relates to what we are willing to accept in our world, to accept, to refuse, and to change, both in ourselves and in our circumstances ... a critical philosophy that seeks the conditions and the indefinite possibilities of transforming the subject, of transforming ourselves."
- Michel Foucault, Subjectivity and Truth, 1980
The Visceral Viewer and the Court
College Art Departments and California Superior Courthouses, 2000-2002
Bridging aesthetics and the law to develop engagement between artists and
justice system professionals to review how the Justice system represents
itself to the public. Pairing students of California Institute for the Arts/San
Fernando Superior Court; San Francisco Art Institute/San Francisco Superior
Court; University of California, Irvine/Newport Harbor Superior Court.
Please refer to
Artist/Public Practice/The Visceral Viewer