K. Housatonic River Project, 1992
Permanent URI for this collection
The Housatonic River Project was called, “Source to Sound”.
It all began when Sam Miller, the Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow approached me to see if I was interested in working on a series of performances that connected to specific sites along the Housatonic River, running from Pittsfield, Massachusetts to Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was a daunting project, because I would have to do serious research on the history and geography of the river, and identify artists, as well as myself, who would be interested in creating work related to a river.
At the time, I was the Dean of Faculty at Bennington College. Bennington College is probably the only institution that could manage a Dean of Faculty creating their own artistic project at the same time. I quickly brought Julius Rosenwald, a writer and journalist as well as a friend, and Sue Rees, a visual artist, a photographer and videographer to collaborate on the project. We spent many hours traversing up and down the river, exploring different sites, meeting many people and determining what locations to create work. The Housatonic River turned out to be a microcosm of America, rich and poor, business and community, work and recreation, environmental beauty and dumping ground, cities and farms. The project was supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a State program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Housatonic River Project that was assembled by Susan Sgorbati, included a large group of dancers, musicians, designers and community residents. The dancers were Penny Campbell, Peter Schmitz, Terry Creach, Maiya Greaves, Jon Kinzel and Susan Sgorbati. Jonathan Bepler directed the musicians and composed the music, Sue Rees designed the sets and objects, Daniel Michaelson designed the costumes, and Julius Rosenwald, wrote about the project. I called our part of the project, “Rare Species”.
We performed in five sites: in Pittsfield, Mass. Park, Kent School in Connecticut, a Senior Center in Connecticut, Bartholemews Cobble, a beautiful natural location in Massacusetts, and a beach outside of Bridgeport, Connecticut. There were structures for each of the performances, and the music and dance were improvisations by the ensemble. It was a very talented group of co-creators, and a wild time all around. In each location, the audiences while observers, also participated, and likewise, the dancers became observers. I particularly remembered at the Senior Center that the residents were very involved in the improvisation work. At times, it seemed very chaotic, but that was inherent in a process and performance that was so unpredictable. The animals that Sue Rees created (a turtle, a bird, and a snake) were incredible, and exist to this day. They were made to be pulled around the locations, like a combination of children’s toys and a sophisticated magical object.
There were other artists brought into the project, notably Jay Critchfield from Provincetown, Mass. Mary Lee Hardenburgh, who had a parade of oyster boats at the mouth of the river, and Dana Salisbury, choreographer who made a performance installation in a space in the Berkshire Eagle Building.
As Sam Miller quoted, in the Source to Sound catalogue,
“Our work here is to connect the visitor to the resident, the work to the world. Source-to-Sound is meant to be work made by visitor and resident together, work of this world.”
It all began when Sam Miller, the Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow approached me to see if I was interested in working on a series of performances that connected to specific sites along the Housatonic River, running from Pittsfield, Massachusetts to Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was a daunting project, because I would have to do serious research on the history and geography of the river, and identify artists, as well as myself, who would be interested in creating work related to a river.
At the time, I was the Dean of Faculty at Bennington College. Bennington College is probably the only institution that could manage a Dean of Faculty creating their own artistic project at the same time. I quickly brought Julius Rosenwald, a writer and journalist as well as a friend, and Sue Rees, a visual artist, a photographer and videographer to collaborate on the project. We spent many hours traversing up and down the river, exploring different sites, meeting many people and determining what locations to create work. The Housatonic River turned out to be a microcosm of America, rich and poor, business and community, work and recreation, environmental beauty and dumping ground, cities and farms. The project was supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a State program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Housatonic River Project that was assembled by Susan Sgorbati, included a large group of dancers, musicians, designers and community residents. The dancers were Penny Campbell, Peter Schmitz, Terry Creach, Maiya Greaves, Jon Kinzel and Susan Sgorbati. Jonathan Bepler directed the musicians and composed the music, Sue Rees designed the sets and objects, Daniel Michaelson designed the costumes, and Julius Rosenwald, wrote about the project. I called our part of the project, “Rare Species”.
We performed in five sites: in Pittsfield, Mass. Park, Kent School in Connecticut, a Senior Center in Connecticut, Bartholemews Cobble, a beautiful natural location in Massacusetts, and a beach outside of Bridgeport, Connecticut. There were structures for each of the performances, and the music and dance were improvisations by the ensemble. It was a very talented group of co-creators, and a wild time all around. In each location, the audiences while observers, also participated, and likewise, the dancers became observers. I particularly remembered at the Senior Center that the residents were very involved in the improvisation work. At times, it seemed very chaotic, but that was inherent in a process and performance that was so unpredictable. The animals that Sue Rees created (a turtle, a bird, and a snake) were incredible, and exist to this day. They were made to be pulled around the locations, like a combination of children’s toys and a sophisticated magical object.
There were other artists brought into the project, notably Jay Critchfield from Provincetown, Mass. Mary Lee Hardenburgh, who had a parade of oyster boats at the mouth of the river, and Dana Salisbury, choreographer who made a performance installation in a space in the Berkshire Eagle Building.
As Sam Miller quoted, in the Source to Sound catalogue,
“Our work here is to connect the visitor to the resident, the work to the world. Source-to-Sound is meant to be work made by visitor and resident together, work of this world.”