“Together Project”: 1st of Many Community Programs, 7/23!

17 Jul “Together Project”: 1st of Many Community Programs, 7/23!

The Ah Haa School for the Arts, the Telluride Foundation, and poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer are presenting a special evening of poetry readings, dubbed “The Big Conversation.” The idea is to explore the phrase, “We are in this together.” The greater Telluride community is welcome to attend the event on a 100% virtual platform, and it is free to all. Pre-registration is required. Visit www.weareinthistogether.co/programming to register.

“The Big Conversation” is the first in a series of events planned around “Together,” a far-reaching project in the Telluride region.

The cornerstone of “Together” is a monumental public art installation by international artist and activist Tavares Strachan. Mr. Strachan’s work consists of five words, “We are in this together,” running under the gondola that connects Telluride with the Town of Mountain Village. The unveiling is planned for this fall. All accompanying programming is intended to engage and inspire community members and visitors to explore the phrase and step into the conversation.

“The Big Conversation” will include poetry readings by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Alison Luterman, Sara Abou Rashed, James Crews, Aaron Abeyta and Valencia Robin. Their poems will intimately explore what it is to be alive right now, and how, despite social distancing, we might meet the challenges of the moment as a community. All are welcome to join these poets from across America as they add their voices to the big conversation of how we are in this together.

About Tavares Strachan:

Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, He currently lives and works between New York City and Nassau. Strachan received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006.

Strachan’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions including You Belong Here, Prospect 3. Biennial, New Orleans; The Immeasurable Daydream, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon; Polar Eclipse, The Bahamas National Pavilion 55th Venice Biennale, Venice; Seen/Unseen, Undisclosed Exhibition, New York; Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such a Bad Idea if I Never Went Home Again, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; among others.

Strachan has been the recipient of numerous awards including 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute, 2018 Frontier Art Prize, and the Allen Institute’s inaugural artist-in-residence in 2018, 2014 LACMA Art + Technology Lab Artist Grant, 2008 Tiffany Foundation Grant, 2007 Grand Arts Residency Fellowship, and 2006 Alice B. Kimball Fellowship.

About the Telluride Foundation:

Telluride Foundation’s Paul Major, CEO & President.

Since 2000, the Telluride Foundation has worked to improve the quality of life for residents, the workforce and visitors of the Telluride region. We meet the challenges of today and tomorrow with a focus on serving people, strengthening community organizations, addressing emerging and unmet needs and bolstering our region’s economic ecosystem; all to Make More Possible for everyone living and working in the Telluride region. The community is our work.

About the Ah Haa School for the Arts:

The Ah Haa School for the Arts is a vital component of the Telluride community, inspiring artists and audiences since 1991. A center for creative expression, Ah Haa offers diverse inspirational multi-media classes for both youth and adults alike.

Art-making is an integral part of humanity, challenging us to think about life in new and different ways, imagining a more hopeful future. Together is a call out to our community – and the larger world – to find connection and common ground through direct communication and action.

Ah Haa will engage community members in the ‘Together Project” through participatory events and programming for all ages – lectures, writing, performance, object making – to create a dialogue and self expression inspired by the text. The hope is that participants and observers alike will be inspired to come together to create a better world.