Online premiere event

Saturday, August 1, 4pm

Meet the Artist Mentors:

Zoe Farmer (cyanotypes), Natalie Greene (director, choreographer), Tiersa Nureyev (costumes and sets), Emily Keeler (text) and Pete Belkin (filmmaker)

Meet the young artists:

Amalia Duque, Samantha Gangitano, Lily Hannan, Zofia Rose Hope-Csikszentmihalyi, Parker Lee, Stella Nureyev-Hilburn, Stella Simmons, Agatha Sterkel, Malena Sutter, Audrey Thornton, Diego Vaznaugh-Sanchez and Trisha Yee

Embracing the notion that adornment, self-expression and performance can be found amid a diverse array of creatures in nature, SFArtsED’s Bio Exuberance exhibition grew out of Artist Mentor Zoe Farmer’s year as the first SFArtsED Minnesota Street Project Artist-in-Residence. Her concluding exhibition in June and July was to have encompassed work she created alongside work created by students in her public school residencies along with a devised performance piece. San Francisco’s shelter-in-place threatened to derail the project, but Zoe and the creative team took their process online. A group of 12 young artists, ranging in age from 10-13, meet three times a week via Zoom with Artist Mentors to not only create a performance that would be captured by filmmaker Pete Belkin but also the varied elements within that performance. They wrote poetry with Emily Keeler; they devised movement and dance with Natalie Greene; they designed and built Zoom backgrounds and costume pieces with Tiersa Nureyev; and they made cyanotypes with Zoe.

“We were heartened and inspired by the work of the mentor artists and the students in this film response to the ideas of our SFArtsED Minnesota Street Gallery Artist-in-Residence, Zoe Farmer,” says SFArtsED Artistic Director Emily Keeler. “The project started ‘in person’ in our galley, right before the shutdown. The plan was for the Saturday rehearsals and object making sessions to culminate in a public performance created for the huge MSP atrium. With some discussion, and not a little intrepidation, the artistic team decided to pivot and began working with the students via Zoom meetings to make a film. In three classes a week for eight weeks, with the two visual artists, our director-choreographer and myself, the very game students began to make the various pieces – in their kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms – that would ultimately be integrated so beautifully by our film’s editor. We worked through many of the same projects we were initially planning to do—designing and making costumes, learning choreography, and creating personal solos – but this new platform encouraged us to include making cyanotypes with Zoe, writing poetry, and also exploring the many ways to engage with the camera’s lens. Necessity is the mother of invention, and we are so pleased and proud of the inventiveness of our Bio-Exuberance! film.”

There will eventually be a Bio Exuberance exhibit at SFArtsED’s Minnesota Street Project gallery and on the SFArtsED website. Until then, the performance can be enjoyed here.

Bio Exuberance is made with generous support from: