This conversation and workshop series explored the relationship between artistic and scholarly work and the form and function of rituals in artistic and scholarly practices. Ritual brought together an interdisciplinary group of six graduate students, Henry exhibiting artists, and University of Washington (UW) faculty in dialogue around ways to engage traditions, confront violent legacies, build worlds, and rewrite narratives through art and scholarship.
Each Ritual session paired UW faculty members with exhibiting artists, who exchanged ideas about and methods for incorporating rituals into their work. In their co-facilitated session with the graduate students, the faculty-artist pairs guided the group in conversations and activities that engaged their ideas of ritual and ritual practice. The overall goal of these sessions was to facilitate communal learning as participants talked with one another about their creative practices and the underlying themes and philosophies that inform them, as well as to collect tools, skills, and ways of thinking about ritual to direct toward scholarly and artistic practices.
Workshop Themes, Exhibiting Artists, and UW Faculty Pairings
Meditation Practices and Transcendence
Sculptor ektor garcia with Naomi Bragin, Assistant Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Transcendence as a Process of Connecting to Ancestral Realms
Dancer, choreographer, and educator Alicia Mullikin with Michelle Habell-Pallán, Professor, Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies Department, UW Seattle
Touch, Ritual, and the Care Work of Science
Artist and educator Patty Chang and feminist cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis, with Cleo Wölfle Hazard, Assistant Professor, School of Marine & Environmental Affairs, UW Seattle
Repertoire as Embodied Knowledge, Archiving and Research
Black Collectivity out of Necessity (movement artists Akoiya Harris, David Rue, and marco farroni) with Jasmine Mahmoud, Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies, Drama Department, UW Seattle
Learn more about the co-facilitators of each session here.
Graduate Student Cohort
The Artist Fellowship Program
Ritual: Form and Function in Scholarly and Artistic Practice was developed within The Artist Fellowship Program at the Henry Art Gallery. This program intends to advance artistic inquiry through the mutual exchange between Henry exhibiting artists and the larger University of Washington community. It is designed as a generative program that promotes dynamic collaboration and facilitates artistic development, aligning the Henry's commitment to innovation and inquiry with the University's standing as a leader in research. The 2022 pilot year of the Artist Fellowship Program was made possible by the Jones Endowed Fund for the Arts.