Out North Contemporary Art House
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Understanding Neighbors |
Project Description
Understanding Neighbors was a collaborative project of Out North, in partnership with the Interfaith Council of Anchorage and Alaska Common Ground, that explored the question "What is the social, moral, and legal place of same-sex couples in our society?" A Coordinating Committee, comprised of representatives of these organizations and others, organized small group dialogues that occured over several weeks and engaged gay/lesbian people, religious leaders, attorneys, policy makers, and a representative mix of socially conservative, moderate, and liberal viewpoints. Dance/movement artist Peter Carpenter, solo theater artist and professional juggler Sara Felder, and filmmaker Stephan Mazurek developed performance and video works through interviews with nearly 70 community members that were incorporated as the catalyst for small group dialogues. Dialogue specialist Ann McBroom, along with Public Conversations Project, worked jointly with artists and project partners to create a customized dialogue approach and to train artists and community people as facilitators. The project culminated in a new multimedia artwork based on the artists' interviews, their perceptions of community dialogues, and lessons learned. Goals of Understanding Neighbors were to bring individuals together who would not usually come together to discuss this issue; to build reciprocal bridges of understanding in the Anchorage community; and to train community facilitators in a specific dialogue methodology that may benefit the community in the future as well as for this project.
