The Convening Video Gallery

Posted on November 28, 2023

Creative Time and FotoFocus held The Convening, a series of critical dialogues, artist interventions, and performances at various locations across Cincinnati on October 20 & 21, 2023. Featuring artists, critics, curators, and other distinguished guest speakers, the 2023 Symposium was structured loosely around three earth-based thematics—land, waterways, and trees, and brought together national and local artists, activists, and thinkers whose work considers histories of land, particularly American histories that coalesced in the Cincinnati region. A Friday-night welcome event and performance took place at MECCA OTR, which was followed by a full day of discussions held at two venues: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Contemporary Arts Center, on Saturday.

For the first time ever, FotoFocus made ASL and CART available to the audience. This is a practice that we hope to continue in order to continue expanding accessibility to everyone in our community.

Check out the videos of each session below or at this Video Gallery.

9:30am Grounding

Aimee Meredith Cox, Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at New York University, New York, NY

10am Panel

Moderated by Justine Ludwig, Executive Director, Creative Time, New York, NY, with panelists: Charles Gaines, Artist, Los Angeles, CA; and Gee Horton, Visual Artist, Cincinnati, OH

11am Panel

Moderated by Kevin Moore, FotoFocus Artistic Director and Curator, New York, NY, with panelists: Anissa Lewis, Artist and Executive Director, Wave Pool, Covington, KY; Chip Thomas, Photographer and Public Artist, Flagstaff, AZ; and Tania Willard, Artist and Curator, Syilx Territories, British Columbia, Canada

Noon Keynote

RaMell Ross, Liberated Documentarian, Providence, RI

2:30pm Workshop Performance: The Well

Sound Intersections: a collaborative new music commission uplifting Appalachian, African American, and Native American musical traditions within the Ohio River Valley featuring: Nate May, Composer, Oakland, CA; and Talon Silverhorn, Cultural Educator, Yellow Springs, OH; in sonic conversation with Cincinnati-based musicians Jay Bolotin, Kathryne Gardette, and Baba Charles Miller

3:30pm Keynote Conversation

Nicholas Galanin, Artist, Sitka, AK; and Ronald Rael, Designer and Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Department of Art Practice at the University of California Berkeley, La Florida, CO and Oakland, CA

4:30pm Performance

Guillermo Galindo, Post-Mexican Visual and Sound Artist/Composer, Oakland, CA