News

The Program of Dance and Movement is excited to host, The Mending Project (MP)—a six-week residency with the UR Program of Dance and Movement—for the 2024 Fall semester.

Coordinated by Associate Professor, Anne Wilcox, The Mending Project is an inquiry into tradition, expansion, experimentation, and community building. The Program of Dance and Movement invites Philadelphia/New York – based multi–disciplinary artist, Mike Durkin, for a six-week residency to conduct the Mending Project for the university and Rochester community. The project is supported with funds from the University of Rochester Office of Equity and Inclusion, University Committee for Inter-disciplinary Studies, Program of Dance and Movement , Art and Art History Department, the Center for Community Engagement, and the Humanities Project. In addition, the MP connects with community partners, Sew Green, the Brighton Public Library, and Art and Art History Professor Emerita, Janet Berlo.

A central component of the project is to create a communal quilt, stitched by hand, inspired by the story-sharing sewing circles of the women in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The quilt represents our stories in a communally crafted work and serves as a metaphor for the time and effort taken to listen and be present with one another. Rochester community members and University of Rochester students, faculty, and staff create the quilt during the residency through open quilting sessions on campus and in the community.

Quilt patterns will also serve as improvisational exploration for UR choreographers to develop work for dance performances in 2024-2025 academic year. Durkin will also work directly with faculty from dance and other disciplines including theater, art, photography, sustainability, history, Eastman School of Music, and public health to create workshops that foster deeper discussion and engagement with the concept of mending.

MP will also bring the university together with Rochester community organizations through creative engagement, storytelling, panel discussions, and celebration. Two community panels will be offered on the mending-related topics. The First of these is a screening of A Bullet Pulling Thread, documentary by Ian Daffern on mental health/police response/ and art as politics centered around quilting expert, Marilyn Farquhar, and her tragic killing of her brother during a mental health crisis call. Joining Daffern for the post- screening discussion will be Marilyn Farquhar, Anthony Villani of the Rochester Psychiatric Center, and Mike Durkin.

The second mending community discussion will focus on mending our relationship with the earth. Mending Musts and How to Start, is a panel discussion that will take place at the Brighton Public Library with guest panelists, Sue Hughes Smith, Lauren Caruso, Trish Corcoran, Karen Berger, and Mike Durkin.

SAGE Art center on the River campus, will exhibit student and faculty artwork centered on the theme of mending. The art opening is scheduled for November 5, 2024. A final gathering dinner on the UR campus on November 6, will celebrate the completion of the quilt and enable all participants to share and reflect on their contributions to this communally inspired work.

Schedule of Events

On-going

• Rochester community workshop (2x per week) SewGreen, W. Main Street Rochester, Mondays 10 a.m.-noon and Fridays 2-4 p.m.
• Campus mending workshops, (2x per week) WC – Hirst Lounge and Havens (look for signs) Mondays 4-6 p.m. and Thursdays 3-5 p.m.

September 25

A Bullet Pulling Thread documentary screening

This documentary features the story of quilter, Marilyn Farquhar and her journey to use quilt-making as a means of social justice after the shooting of her brother by the RCMP during a mental health crisis call; Marilyn and Writer /Director, Ian Daffern will join a panel discussion regarding the arts as social activism and mental health crisis response. Dr. Anthony Villani of the Rochester Psychiatric Center also joins the panel discussion, co-moderated by Mike Durkin and Anne Wilcox. This event also includes Marilyn Farquhar’s quilt display: Wegmans Auditorium 1400, UR River Campus; 6:30–8 p.m. with a light reception preceding the screening at 5:45 p.m.

September 26

Contra Dances of Rochester

Community Mending through Quilting/Dance at Historic German House 6–6:45p.m. followed by Contra Dancing.

September 27

Meliora Weekend

The Mending Project and Social Dancing, Spurrier, 3-5 p.m., Mending, Music, and Contra Dance!

October 1

Dignity Series

Part of the Humanities Center and Health Humanities and Bioethics Department’s series, Mike will conduct a discussion focusing on understanding dignity through art in the spaces of shelter populations, older adult centers, and housing insecure spaces. Humanities conference room D, 4:45-6:15 p.m.

October 2

Mending Musts, and How to Start

Panel discussion on How to heal our relationship with our planet and make positive change now! Karen Berger, Susan Hughes Smith, Mike Durkin, Lauren Caruso, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, Trish Corcoran, and Student Researcher; Location: Brighton Public Library (2300 Elmwood Ave); 6:15–7:45 p.m.

October 6

CNY Humanities Corridor event

“A Time to Mend” 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Spurrier; Central New York dance educators and invited guests; an all-day workshop to explore quilt patterns and movement, body mending meditation, and mending movement improvisation. Spurrier dance studio (Sponsored by CNY Humanities Corridor funds).

October 15

UR Diversity Conference

Mike leads tabletop discussion; time tbd

October 25, November 1, and November 8

Mending with Needle and Pen Workshop Series

Lead by UR Professor Emerita, of Art and Art History, Janet Berlo. Fridays, Sage Art Center, UR River campus 1:30–4 p.m. Contact: awilcoxhatur.rochester.edu or janetberloatgmail.com.

November 1-3

Confluence Dance Concerts

Excerpt of faculty work; SPAC Friday and Saturday 7:30 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m.

November 5

ASIS Gallery RECEPTION (election day!!)

Participating courses: Two intro to photography courses, Experimental Printmaking, and Dance on Camera – all artwork relates to the theme of mending, 4-6 p.m.

November 6

Community Celebration

Dinner, quilt reveal, and sharing of Mending Project community! Lobby of Sloan Performing Arts Center; free and open to all MP participants; 6:30–8 p.m.

Biography

Mike Durkin (he/him/y’all) is a large-bodied multidisciplinary social practice performance artist splitting time between South Philadelphia and Brooklyn. The intersection between art and the everyday guides mike. He has created site-responsive social practice productions exploring urban foodways, community mending, sports, houselessness, food access, place, and the Americana. mike works in communities and college campuses across the country. His work combines a variety of styles and mediums to embrace time, place, and the Americana. He aims to bring dissimilar bodies together to challenge and dismantle hate and stigmas, putting effort into the ideas that bring us together rather than push us away.

Upcoming projects will be held at the University of Rochester and UPENN Anthropology. mike has worked at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA, with Reed College in Portland, OR, the Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, The Creative Center at University Settlement, the University of Arkansas Design Department, the Broad Art Museum, and the Department of Theatre at Michigan State University, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center at the University of Houston, the Performance Studies program at Texas AandM University, with the College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences at the University of Central Arkansas, Mural Arts Philadelphia and the Color Me Back Studio, Brandywine River Museum, Barnes Foundation, Mt. Moriah Cemetery, the Life Do Grow Farm, and in parks, churches, and fields, diners, virtually. mike has held residencies with Revolve Art Gallery in Asheville, NC, Space at Ryder Farm, Drop Forge and Tool, the Hambidge Arts Center in Rabun Gap, GA, and the Greenhouse Lab with The Orchard Project. mike is part of the 2017 MFA in Devised Performance class with Pig Iron Theatre Company/University of the Arts. For more information, www.mikedurkin.info.

Anne Harris Wilcox (MFA, K-12 NY certification) an Associate Professor for the Program of Dance and Movement at the University of Rochester, also serves as the Posse 8 mentor for the University, and is the Community Engaged Liaison for the Program of Dance. Anne is especially interested in inter-disciplinary and community-engaged learning and has designed courses such as Ecolinguistics (the study of verbal and non-verbal language with Solveiga Armoskaite); Moving Memories, an inter-generational choreography class for university and elder choreographers from the Rochester community; and Change: Welcomed, Denied, Inevitable, an investigation through movement, writing, and dialogue. She founded and directed Present Tense Dance (1991 – 2016) and her choreography has been presented regionally in Rochester Fringe Festivals, Geva Theater’s Fielding Nextstage, Wallbyrd Theater Co. productions, Dances at MUCCC, and Drumcliffe Irish Arts, and more. Anne’s interdisciplinary work includes signature pieces such as Seal Maiden, When the Souls Rise, The Kitchen Revue, A Public and Private Hearth, and Nanosecond. Anne has served as State Affiliate Representative for National Dance Education Organization (2016-2018), and President of New York State Dance Education Association (2012-2015). In 2016, NYSDEA awarded Anne the Outstanding Leadership Award. She presents nationally and internationally on topics such as kinesthetic education, creative assessment, linguistics and dance, and intergenerational dance. She founded, Active Learning Games (2013), a company that designs kinesthetic educational products for K-university learners. In 2024 her first book, Get Up and Learn: Anatomy, was published, which offers engaging kinesthetic lessons for teaching anatomy and kinesiology. Anne is certified in Pilates and continues training through the Mark Morris Dance Group to develop classes for people living with Parkinson’s. Anne’s work and research over the past six years focuses on the concept of change and its effects on the individual, society, and the environment. Her choreography often addresses climate issues as well as agency in creating positive change in the world. Her most recent works include Fire Escape, premiered at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake in Adirondacks, Sea Change, in the site-specific concert series at the Rochester Museum and Science Center Wander and Wonder concert, and Tree Hugger for the Roc River Ride event for Rochester Fringe.