UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts with the support of many campus partners presents Venus in Retrograde by celebrated performance artist Karen Finley. The performance examines loss of love, dignity, and humanity, and issues a call to beat back with an exquisite heart. Standing against a backdrop of film projections, Finley narrates a poetic call to action in resistance to today’s times. The performance is in two parts. In Part One, Grabbing Pussy, Finley considers embodiment and the invasion of the self, featuring selections from her provocative recent book of the same name. In Part Two, Parts Known — the political is personal, the personal is political — she examines the price and pain of personal tragedy amidst a political landscape of psychic dimensions.

In Grabbing Pussy, against a sequence of opening floral abstractions, Finley offers a breathless cascade of a poetic narrative that lays bare the psychosexual obsessions that have burst to the surface of today’s American politics. With a biting engagement that alternates between laughter and rage, at times both shocking and disturbing, the performance illustrates the psychic splitting of consciousness. Finley examines not only the twisted Shakespearean dynamics that arise when libidos and loyalties clash, but also the cruelties and trauma of navigating personal agency amidst the torrents of assault disguised, openly, as authority played out publicly and privately through aggressions of public policy on the parts of figures like Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, and others. The aggression of intimacy, the disparity of gender, the escalation of white nationalist supremacy, are expressed through Finley’s raucous candor.

In Parts Known, Finley responds to the horrific separation of families at the border and the psychic trauma of people kept in cages and children left behind, amidst backgrounds of celebrity suicides such as Anthony Bourdain’s and Kate Spade’s and the children they left. These celebrity crisis events act as transference of despair within white neoliberalism, occupying a space for entitled victimization far from the real issues. Honoring the struggle and strength of resistance of past and current cultural movements can inspire us to not be disempowered. For we carry a wisdom and grace of how to move forward with the experience of the activism of the past. In particular, Finley will of course embody the recent verbal attacks on Baltimore and call upon the inspiration of Baltimore’s great legacy of resistance.

Both works, under the title Venus in Retrograde, expand on Finley’s career-long pursuit of performativley articulating the injustices committed by the U.S. government and society at large — an undertaking spanning her commentary on the rise of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s (We Keep Our Victims Ready), her acting as plaintiff in the National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley after the NEA vetoed her grant in 1990, her criticism of homophobia (Written in Sand), and her work in the areas of reproductive rights, anti-war actions, and public memorials. These narratives, and many more across her body of work, position underrepresented voices and struggles as an always central component to her practice — a commitment as crucial as ever in today’s precarious political landscape.

Karen Finley is a performer, artist, writer, musician, poet, teacher and lecturer, and recipient of two Obies, two Bessies, a Guggenheim, and multiple grants from the NEA and NYSCA. In 1990, Finley became an unwilling symbol for the NEA when she, along with Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, and John Fleck, sued the NEA for withdrawing grants on the grounds of indecency. The controversial case went all the way to the Supreme Court. She has toured and exhibited internationally, published eight books, and her art is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among other places. Finley is a professor in the department of Art and Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

The September 5, 2019, performance at UMBC will be immediately followed by a talk-back discussion with the artist, and then a book signing and reception.

TICKETS: FREE ticket reservations online with UMBC ID (current students, faculty, staff.) General Admission / Seniors: $10. 

Add this event to your calendar! But be sure to also reserve a ticket if you plan to attend.

Two additional events related to Finley's residency at UMBC include:

BALTIMORE PSYCHIC PORTRAITS 
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 through Friday, September 6, 2019 
Hallway Gallery, Fine Arts Building, 1st Floor 

ENTER ENCHANTMENT: Collaboration, Participation, Activation 
UMBC students present results from workshop experiments with Finley
Friday, September 6, 2019, 12:30 p.m. 
Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park 

Top photo: Karen Finley at Laurie Beechman Theater NYC, photo by Lori E. Seid; lower photo at ISSUE Project Room, photo by Cameron Kelly courtesy of the ISSUE Project Room.

Presented by the Department of Visual Arts, with generous support from the Departments of American Studies; English; Gender, Women’s + Sexuality Studies; History; Media & Communication Studies; Theatre, and from the Center for Art, Design & Visual Culture (CADVC); Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA); Dresher Center for the Humanities; Imaging Research Center (IRC); and the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

The Maryland History Day Outreach and Professional Development Assistant is a position at Maryland Humanities that supports the History Day program as well as related programs and professional development associated with the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program.

Position Summary

The Director of Development (DOD), a member of the senior management team, reports to the Executive Director and is responsible for leading and overseeing all aspects of the museum’s Development, Marketing & Communications, including Board of Trustees activities, in collaboration with the Executive Director. The Development Department develops a strategic approach to fundraising, grant opportunities, donor cultivation and endowment growth in an effort to increase the financial position and sustainability of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. In partnership with the Executive Director and the Board of Trustees, s/he will develop and manage relationships with stakeholders and key constituents of the museum. The Director of Development will serve as the key Board liaison and will participate in regular Board and standing committee meetings of the Board of Trustees. S/he ensures that the museum’s communication strategy reflects the mission, strategic direction and position of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum.

Job Description

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture seeks a talented Exhibition Designer to design all phases of exhibition production in order to deliver an excellent museum experience for visitors. The ideal candidate will be highly creative and have a minimum of 5 years’ experience in museum related exhibit design, implementation and management. Must have a demonstrated ability to manage, produce, improve and repair both interactive and non-interactive exhibits. The Exhibition Designer, who reports to the Associate Curator, will budget and manage the design process from inception to implementation as well as develop and lead internal and external design teams, if any. Works in collaboration with museum staff, especially the Director of Education, Registrar and Collections Manager, Associate Curator, and the Executive Director who functions as the Chief Curator.

Position Summary 

The Membership and Database Manager is responsible for ensuring that the museum meets its annual membership goals and that all museum data is accurate and up-to-data. He/She supports the growth of the membership program as it relates to earned income, by driving new and repeat attendance, and working in close collaboration with the Education and Visitor Services team. This role is key to capturing institutional knowledge in order to drive business needs and solve problems. The Membership and Database Manager reports to the Director of Education and Visitor Services.  

Port Discovery Children's Museum is one of the top Children's Museums in the United States and a top cultural institution in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Our mission is to educate children through play and to inspire life-long learning. This is an exciting time to join our team as we re-imagine the Museum through new world class exhibits and programming.

Position Summary:

The Kuhn Library now provides access to course reserves through Ares from Atlas Systems; this new software seamlessly integrates with Blackboard (Bb) for streamlined availability and processing. Instructors who wish to submit course reserves requests and students who want to access their faculty reserves listings can now do so directly from their course site in Bb. 

Questions? Email reserves-group@umbc.edu, visit our Course Reserves Information page, or stop by the Check-Out desk at the Library.

Information on submitting materials for course reserve can be found on our instructor’s guide page (download PDF)

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) seeks an energetic, detail-oriented individual for the position of Assistant Registrar to assist with planning and implementation of loans from the collections and exhibitions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Story Work for a Just Future
Exploring Diverse Experiences and Methods within an International Community of Practice 

9th International Digital Storytelling Conference

Monday the 30th of March – Wednesday the 1st of April 2020
Loughborough University, UK

dst2020.org

Call For Papers and Presentation Proposals

We invite you to join us at Loughborough University, UK, this Spring for an amazing gathering of digital storytelling professionals, academics, students, community partners, and activists.

The conference is part of a multi-institutional, multinational, two-year process and programme – organised in collaboration with StoryCenter (US), UMBC – University of Maryland Baltimore County (US), SCLDA – Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access (US), Montgomery College (US), Patient Voices (UK) – that includes a series of follow-on activities in the Washington, D.C. area and in Maryland, USA, in 2021.

The conference will host various events in its structure for inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices. In addition to academic papers, workshops, and roundtable discussions, we encourage practitioners from community settings, artists and students to contribute and express their creativity through various formats (short performances, artworks, video/audio submissions, etc.).

Storytelling has been defined as ‘the artform of social interaction’ (Wilson, 1998), not only for its inner dynamics, but also for its power to unlock grass-roots knowledge, explore dilemmas, develop community resilience, engender change.

Stories can generate empathy and trust in the audience and at the same time demonstrate their usefulness because they have the power to give meaning to human behaviors and to trigger emotions (Bourbonnais and Michaud, 2018). ‘This happens because stories are perceived as vectors of truth. They also challenge the meaning of truth itself and suggest a deeper reflection on how various perspectives embedded in personal narratives about contested themes and events can generate multiple truths’ (Liguori, 2020).
Yet we acknowledge the existence of multiple truths when we recognise, as the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie observed, ‘the danger of a single story’ (2009). As she described, ‘because our lives and our cultures are composed of a series of overlapping stories, if we hear only a single story about another person, culture, or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding’.
In a time of worrying ‘critical misunderstandings’ worldwide, we want to explore with you the value of Applied Storytelling as a tool to co-develop ‘A Just Future’.

We are interested in proposals that will explore issues related to (but not limited to) the following sub-themes:

• [Past] Unwanted legacies and key learning to carry forward: difficult pasts; traumatic transitions; post-conflict scenarios; lessons learned from our histories; place-based learning and research; reflective learning
• [Present] Urgent story work: climate change; health; migration; social justice; education and action; deindustrialization, development, gentrification and displacement
• [Future] Speculative futures: building communities; crossing boundaries; human/animal and human/landscape relations; new forms of conversation; new digital environments, platforms and applications; storytelling for evaluation; curation; dissemination and storyteller safety.

All interested conference contributors are invited to share their work through six types of contributions, but we also welcome other formats.

Conference Formats: 

• Academic paper (15 minutes)
• Workshop (45 minutes)
• Roundtable discussion (45 minutes)
• Short performance (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Artwork (to be defined on a one-to-one basis)
• Video/Audio submission
• Other: If you think you don’t  fit into one of these formats, please email us with your idea!

Submission guidelines & key dates:

• 250-word abstract to describe your proposal (any format)
• Include a title, your name, email address, and affiliation if applicable
• Submit your proposal via email to Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk
• Deadline for abstract submission: 15th October 2019
• Notification of acceptance: 15th November 2019
• Early bird registration opens: 20th November 2019
• General Registration opens: 15th January 2019
• Registration closes: 29th February 2020
• Conference presentations, videos, materials to be sent in advance by 15th March 2020. Special arrangements will be made on a one-to-one basis for other formats.
• Early bird: 180£ (80£ student rate);
• Regular registration: 220£ (100£ student rate)
• Digital participation: It is our intention to make digital participation possible. Please write to Sally Bellman S.J.Bellman@lboro.ac.uk for more information.

Included in the Registration fee are coffee and tea breaks, lunch, access to all conference sessions, social activity (performance) during the opening evening, publication of the abstract in online conference proceedings.

Additional and optional social activity (trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, Visit to Loughborough sport event, etc.) will be booked separately by each participant.

For further submission requirements, accommodation and scholarships, please write to the Storytelling Research Team at Loughborough University: Saedstorytelling@lboro.ac.uk

The conference committee will capture all presentations for digital conference proceedings. The conference committee will submit a book proposal in 2020 of a selection of academic contributions from the conference.

Students and community members are welcomed and encouraged to apply!  There will also be opportunities for students to participate digitally and be part of the event through various online engagement options.

Conference Chairs: Antonia Liguori and Michael Wilson (Loughborough University, UK)

Conference Committee Members: Darcy Alexandra (University of Bern, Switzerland), Jessica Berman (University of Maryland, Baltimore County UMBC, US), Bev Bickel (UMBC, US), Matthew Decker (Montgomery College, US), Lindsay DiCuirci (UMBC, US), Sara Ducey (Montgomery College, US), Daniela Gachago (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa), Jamie Gillan (Montgomery College, US), Pip Hardy (Patient Voices, UK), Charlotte Keniston (UMBC, US), Joe Lambert (StoryCenter, US), Michalis Meimaris (University of Athens, Greece), Philippa Rappoport (SCLDA – Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, US), Bill Shewbridge (UMBC, US), Tony Sumner (Patient Voices, UK), Pam Sykes (University of the Western Cape, South Africa).

Conference website: dst2020.org