WORKSHOP DETAILS

JULY 10-13, 2003 | DIVERSEWORKS | HOUSTON, TX

"Two months after the workshop, our group is already making plans, and excitedly passing our experiences on to our friends and colleagues."
    — Serena Lin Bush, DiverseWorks artist

Highlights From the 2003 Retreat

Leaders

Professional Development Program Director: Alyson Pou

Workshop Instructors: Colleen Keegan, Jackie Battenfield, Aaron Landsman

Artist-facilitators: choreographer Jennifer Monson, filmmaker Ela Troyano, and visual artist Erika Blumenfeld

Observers: Paul Ha, St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art; Kerry Inman, Inman Gallery; Regina Basha, Independent Curator; Barbara Hunt, Artists Space; Diane Barber, DiverseWorks; Visual Arts Director.

Artists

23 Houston-based visual artists attended the 2003 weekend retreat. They were at many different stages in their careers, and represented a broad range in terms of age, cultural background and medium, from a 23 year-old cartoonist, to the head of a long-standing local public art organization, to a painter from a small town in West Texas.

Outcomes

The follow-through from the artists has been phenomenal. 2003 alumni are meeting regularly with each other, mentoring future participants, organizing a local professional development conference, and are taking a more active role in programming and other activities at DiverseWorks. They have also become more integrated into the larger Houston arts community.

The program has also had a profound effect on DiverseWorks as an organization. As Sara Kellner, DiverseWorks' Executive Director notes, "The success of the retreat inspired a conversation about the many ways that DiverseWorks has always provided services to artists and emerging arts organizations. We are now working to make this hidden aspect of DiverseWorks be more clearly articulated and planned for."