Community Engagement for Queens Project

Meghan Healey and her colleagues spent many weeks reaching out to various departments on campus to let them know about Cornerstone's residency and to help them see how a community engaged project could serve the work happening in each discipline: Urban Studies, Art and Social Practice, the Aaron Copland School of Music,...  She worked with administrators and board members at Queens College to secure facilities resources that could allow for Cornerstone to commit to an Institute Summer Residency across the country from where we live. The support Queens College offered to the project helps defray some of the cost of the Residency.

Cornerstone's Artistic Director Michael John Garcés met with many of those QC people, including the president of the college, on a visit to the campus in early February 2018. He visited some classes and met QC staff, faculty and students. It was a chance for him to see campus facilities first hand and to consider which of the many performance space options would best suit as venue for the Institute's performance venue.

United Community Center in Grayson, CA

Cornerstone Theater Company loves to make a performance venue out of unique spaces. Half of the Institute productions since 2004 have been performed outdoors: on a basketball court, the street of a city block, on site of a working mill, in a community garden, in the park of a small agricultural town, in the park of a city neighborhood with a small town energy.

Oakwood Park in Venice, CA

atTraction in LA Arts District

He was intrigued by the idea of utilizing the amphitheater which is nestled in the middle of arts buildings.  Outdoor venues can really enhance the community connection factor for a theatrical endeavor. Preparation of the space and rehearsals onstage are in public view and draw attention and inquiry. What's going on over there? A public outdoor space also eliminates boundaries for a lot of people. If there are no doors or ushers or assigned seats, I can sit where I want and leave if I don't like it....  

But this amphitheater isn't in a public public space. It's on campus and you have to look for it. It's enclosed most of the way around. Apparently it isn't used very often except as a bit of a hideaway.

This is the Institute SUMMER Residency, it can be grueling to build a theater as well as the set and other design elements outdoors in some adapted, often public, space. So being indoors for a project is sometimes the best choice for our financial and human resources. It is true for this summer.

A goal of this project is to increase connections between Queens College and the community around it. I think it will be one of our tasks while in residence to create the right invitation to get local folks on campus who might not feel welcome there. I don't think there's any animosity -- not that we've found yet-- but for many reasons an institution like a school campus might not feel welcoming to some people, even neighbors. Most places have boundaries that people navigate constantly, often without even realizing it.

So we'll have to find ways to make the invitation to participate as appealing as we can, even for people who don't ever spend time on campus, and maybe don't ever see any of the music, dance or theater performances offered at The Kupferberg Center for the Arts.

The best choice for this time and this project is to perform the play in the Goldstein Theater.




Meghan also introduced to us a campus organization called CERRU: The Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding. (link in sidebar)