UPCOMING EVENTS
2022
When the River Becomes a Cloud
June 2o22
Artist Amanda Leigh Evans and I are currently long-term Artists-in-Residence at Prescott School, a rural preK-12 grade district in rural Eastern Washington. Since December 2021 we have been piloting the Carnegie Picture Lab's new Rural Art Initiative.
In June, 2022 Prescott School will be having a unique all-school experiential art activity titled, When the River Becomes a Cloud. Amanda and I will be choreographing the 280 preK through 12th grade students, in concert with school staff and teachers, into an embodied river that moves through the school campus. Wearing a rainbow of monochromatic shirts created for the event, the school community will move through a series of art experiences simulating aspects of the water cycle. The project uses the metaphor of water’s transformation to embody the school’s social-emotional learning and arts curriculum. This upcoming event was co-created with the Prescott School Associated Student Body (ASB) leaders and will launch our long-term arts-based research initiative by the same name, When the River Becomes a Cloud.
Throughout the 2022-23 school year we will continue working with teachers and students, creating interdisciplinary inquiry-based learning projects that will result in a linear public artwork that stretches across the Prescott School campus. Those projects will also include a mural, the design of which is nearly complete, created using drawings by 1st grade students and the design expertise of High School art students. The mural, which will span three sides of the school's Agriculture building, is scheduled to be painted by students in the fall of 2022.
These projects are created as part of Carnegie Picture Lab’s Rural Art Initiative and supported in part by grants received from the Sherwood Trust and Blue Mountain Community Foundation. If you are interested in learning more reach out to me at tia@tiakramer.com
SOME STRANGERS SOMEWHERE
Sunday, March 13 from 1-4p PST
GET TICKETS! Choose your price.
These last two years have felt long. I am tired and yet hopeful. To mark the two-year anniversary of this era, will you come play, reflect, court the unexpected and imagine with me.
This Sunday, March 13th, my collaborator Jessica Cerullo and I are hosting SOME STRANGERS SOMEWHERE, a participatory performance (via zoom) that offers a glimpse into some of the invisible personal moments that occurred during this time. For eight months, Jessica and I co-authored poems with a diverse group of strangers living in New London county Connecticut. Accompanying each poem is a set of instructions for embodied listening that were built from observations of the speakers rituals and gestures.
We invite you to experience these poems and collectively perform these "gestures for listening" with us, together. What would it mean if people around the world drink a glass of water in unison? What happens if we sing to ourselves (on mute?) together? And, might we discover some of the ways we want to live now?
You can choose to attend for 15 minutes or stay for the full 3 hours. Enter at any time at the beginning, middle, or toward the end: Sunday, March 13th 1-4 PST time. Folks will be let into the zoom room at regular intervals. We encourage you to participate from the comfort of your home space, with your camera off or on. Alone, or with family, community, pets.
GET TICKETS! Choose your price.
This is also a fundraiser. Donations are tax deductible and your will help pay artist fees for our upcoming public performance, THE SHIPS IN THE NIGHT, featuring these poems performed for the co-authors/narrators on ships in coastal Connecticut. It will also support a Connecticut youth educator's scholarship at the Michael Chekhov Associations international workshop and festival. This event is hosted by MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association
THE SHIPS IN THE NIGHT
The Ships in the Night is a socially engaged poetry and performance project that reclaims our pandemic experiences as opportunities for individual and collective meaning making. Ideated and choreographed in collaboration with artist Jessica Cerullo.
During the pandemic meaningful encounters with strangers and even friends were minimal or non-existent. We are like ships at sea. Throughout the last year, my collaborator, artist Jessica Cerullo has been asking strangers in her community in New London County, CT to share what they have lost, gained and learned that they don’t want their community forget. On the spot, she responds reciting a poem from the narrator’s words. I then work with Jessica and her transcripts of the exchanges to create long-form poems that capture the breadth of the narrator's experience for a national audience. This summer, these co-authored poems will be published and shared in a large public performance staged for the caregivers whose poetry is featured. Afterward, an intimate reading of the poetry and discussion will be staged on three ships, sailing in the night.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
March 13, 2022 - Virtual participatory recitation of all that we don’t want to forget from this time (plus some poems.)
May 19, 2022 - Hybrid in person/digital Performative Lecture on the project and Socially Engaged Art at La Grua Center.
PAST PUBLIC EVENTS
2021
THE LISTENERS PROJECT: Queremos Escucharte
www.tlpww.org
Project Launch July 2021
The Listener's Project: Queremos Escucharte is a place based project that promotes the sharing and preservation of stories in the Walla Walla Valley, especially immigrant and first generation community members. It was initiated by the Colectivo de Arte Social (Socially Engaged Art Collective), a group I cofounded with creative immigrants and immigrant advocates from the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition. We build creative projects, community conversations, workshops and gatherings that use stories to deepen empathy and create community connection.
Visit the website: www.tlpww.org to learn more and sign up with a “Listener” who will hear your story. The project is produced in partnership with the Walla Walla Public Library and the Whitman College and Northwest Archives.
WHAT YOU TOUCH YOU CANNOT SEE: PERFORMANCE FOR PHIL
February 24 - March 21, 2021
City Mail Route #16 in Walla Walla, WA.
Phil is U.S. Postal Service mail carrier who delivers my mail—and his own, as he lives on his own route. What You Touch You Cannot See: Performance for Phil is currently unfolding along his mail route in two acts. It is the third performance in the on-going project, For You (and Us), a performance series created with and for an audience of one. The performance itself is both public and private. If you have been contacted for participation, you can send questions to tia@tiakramer.com.
2020
BIG IDEA TALKS: A Social Practice with Artist Tia Kramer / Una práctica social con la artista Tia Kramer
(Traducción simultánea al español)”
October 12, 2020 from 6-7:30p
Join the Walla Walla Public Library's BIG IDEA TALKS & Portland State University's Art & Social Practice Program for a virtual artist talk.
For the last three years, in pursuit of my Masters of Fine Arts at Portland State University, I have been making performances and projects in collaboration with residents of Walla Walla, Washington—both artists and non artists alike. Learn more about how I employ the tools of performance and socially engaged art to create experiences of human connection even in these times of social isolation.
This talk is online via Zoom from 6-7pm with questions from 7-7:30. Simultaneous Spanish/English translation will be available. After the event, streaming will be available on the Walla Walla Public Library website.
IN THE MAKING: Performance for One Person Workshop
Saturday, June 6, 2020 @ 2pm EST
2020 (Virtual) ASSEMBLY, a social practice conference in a time of social distancing hosted by Portland State University.
Saturday, June 6, 2020 from 2-2:50p PST I will be discussing For You ( and US), a series of performances for an audience of one, in a zoom workshop with my collaborator Sabina Rogers. Together we will share the methods and approach we used to make these performances. This session will begin with an introduction to the first performance titled, At Dusk We Walk Home Together, Performance for Guillermo. The group will then engage in a brief exercise that explores the participatory research and processes that generate these intimate performances. We will conclude with an excerpt from an interview with Guillermo where he shares his reflections on the performance.
In these bruising days, we offer this workshop as a way to tend to our needs. What do you need in this moment? What might be needed from you? What are the needs of your neighbors? For change to be sustained; we must continue tending to each other’s needs. Can the care we provide be a creative response to these times? This workshop is a part of my PSU Master's program's annual ASSEMBLY three days of dynamic and thought-provoking experiences and socially engaged art projects.
PERFORMANCE FOR LAURIE - An open call for participants/performers!!!
Whitman College SPRING STUDIO SERIES Residency
March 9, 2021 from 4:30p til dusk.
Tia Kramer and her collaborator, dancer Kathryn Padberg invite a group of community members to join in the production of her their newest Performance for One Person. Their performance for Laurie is unfolding over two months with events correlating the cycles of the moon. Join as a participant/performer in the third and final act on March 9, 2020. Contact Peter De Grasse at Whitman College for more details.
2019
AT DUSK WE WALK HOME TOGETHER: PERFORMANCE FOR GUILLERMO
November, 2019
At Dusk We Walk Home Together, Performance for Guillermo was the first performance in a series of performances created with and for an audience of one—in this case a resident of Walla Walla, Washington named Guillermo. Woven into the fabric of his daily life, the performance rearranged elements of Guillermos’ days—his relationships, communities, and sites that are significant to him—culminating in an experience that falls somewhere between everyday life and performance.
HEAR HERE WALLA WALLA
Visit the Hear Here Walla Walla listening line this Spring 2019 during our Eastern Washington Tour. Dates and locations below. You can also listen from the comfort of your own home by dialing 509.213.1223 or visiting www.hearherewallawalla.com
April 5, 2019 @ 3:30pm: Washington State University: Art is Action Lecture — Hear Hear Walla Walla phone line will be activated during a public performative lecture and listening activity at Washington State University’s Theatre Building, 3:30-5pm.
April 12-15, 2019: Whitman College, Reid Campus Center — Publicly accessible daily from 8am -11pm in the lobby of Reid Campus Center. 280 Boyer Ave, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
April 14, 2019: Walla Walla Community Immigration Seder — Reid Campus Center. Ticketed Event ($30); Free tickets available on first come first serve basis. Doors open at 4:30, seder runs from 5-7:30.
April 15- May 3, 2019: Walla Walla First Congregational Church — Publicly accessible Monday-Sunday in the lobby of the Walla Walla First Congregational Church. 73 South Palouse Street, Walla Walla, Washington 99362. With specific questions on hours call: 509.525.8753 or email: office@fcchurch.net.
April 25, 2019, 5:30-7pm: Stand Against Racism event at Pioneer Methodist Church — Information about the story line and project as a whole will be available for all attendees. (The Booth will not be physically present but the phone line will be accessible.) Pioneer Methodist Church, 209 E. Birch St, Walla Walla, WA 99362.
May 6th-10th: Walla Walla Community College, Student Activity Center — Publicly accessible Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm. 500 Tausick Way Walla Walla, WA 99362.
2018
BECAUSE YOU ARE HERE
December 6, 7, and 8, 2018
Whitman College Harper Joy Theatre, Walla Walla, WA
Because You Are Here is a devised theater play based on interviews with immigrant and first generation members of the Walla Walla community. Typically a theatre production will begin with a script written by a playwright. Devised theater inverts this classic hierarchy: this play is written by all the members of the cast, in our case these are the students in the Fall 2018 Devised Theatre and Social Practices Course at Whitman College as well as community members who joined in the process.
Because You Are Here embodies questions and experiences of migration that are shaping our nation and our small community of Walla Walla—an agricultural community with a thriving wine industry that has relied heavily on migrant labor for decades. We asked our neighbors to share their moments of exclusion and belonging, invisibility and courage. We then invited those interviewees to contribute as collaborators, editors, observers and creators in the theatre-making process.
Ticket Reservations: $12 for adults, $8 for all students. If financial assistance is needed email: tiakramer@gmail.com
PERFORMANCES
Thursday, December 6th @ 8pm
Friday, December 7th @ 8pm
*Saturday, December 8th @ 2pm & Talk Back with collaborators after performance.
*Spanish interpretation provided at this matinee performance & during talk back.
Saturday, December 8th @ 8pm
IN STEP
Saturday, June 2, 2018 @ 11:30am
2018 Assembly, hosted by the Portland State University Art & Social Practice MFA Students.
**Meet at 11:30am at the green space on the corner of NE Oregon Street and NE Interstate Ave. Public transit and parking information can be found on the website: psusocialpractice.org/assembly.)
In Step is a meditation in walking as civic engagement. Informed by the practices of Rebecca Solnit and Ernesto Pujol, this walk, choreographed with one gesture, will transport us from the North Steel Bridge to The Multnomah County Central Library.
Together we will depart at 11:30am from the green space on the corner of NE Oregon Street and NE Interstate Avenue. Public transit and parking information can be found on the website (psusocialpractice.org/assembly). Wear comfortable walking shoes and layers. We will walk 1.5 miles; all ages and abilities welcome.
SPEAKING, SPEAKER
Sunday, June 3, 2018
2018 Assembly, hosted by the Portland State University (PSU) Art & Social Practice MFA Students.
PSU Native American Community Center, Portland, OR
If you knew you would be heard, what would you say in a moment of bravery? Who would you want to listen? What prevents you from speaking? What are the consequences of silence? Where could you find courage? And how would you begin?
For the last two months we have been asking people who are incarcerated to answer these questions. Join us as we explore their responses and our own relationship to our voice. Together, we will warm up our voices in preparation to answer these questions for ourselves and use them to give voice to others who do not feel they have the power to speak. We will serve as amplifiers and witnesses. Our experiences will be collected, recorded and shared.
ORBITING TOGETHER
January & February 2018
Seattle Art Museum Winter Residency
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA
Where we once used the stars and our intuition to locate ourselves, we now look to our phones, rarely considering our bodies in relation to celestial objects orbiting overhead. Orbiting Together is a participatory project that creates a new GPS network composed of people in place of satellites. This winter, Eric J. Olson and I will be taking up residence at the Olympic Sculpture Park to research, workshop, and realize our project, Orbiting Together (Symphony no. 1). Over the course of the residency, participants who opt-in simultaneously receive a text each time specific satellites fly over the Olympic Sculpture Park. Texts contain mindfulness exercises that investigate and reinvigorate their connections to each other, the intuition and to their surroundings. .
With choreographer Tamin Totke, we will produce a series of free workshops and two public programs called Art Encounters. One Art Encounter will launch the satellite text service and guide an audience in participatory somatic exercises. For the final Art Encounter, a group performance choreographed based on observations and gestures collected throughout the residency will culminate the project.
Text “TOGETHER” to “206 IN 01 SKY” (206- 460-1759) to opt-in.
Learn more at orbitingtogether.com.
ART ENCOUNTER I
January 26, 2018 @ 7pm
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA
Join us on January 26th for our first Art Encounter, a project launch party and participatory performance in which the we will track satellites that orbit over the Sculpture Park while texting participants simple movement instructions. Come hone your innate sense of direction and learn about the satellites orbiting overhead. Please bring your phone, warm socks, and clothes to move in! All ages welcome.
ART ENCOUNTER II
February 23 2018 @ 7pm
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA
Join this final Art Encounter of the Olympic Sculpture Park Residency. Building upon the research and experiences accumulated throughout their residency, the artists have choreographed a new participatory performance that playfully critiques ways we interact with technology. Throughout the performance, participants will receive text messages directing them through a series of movements and imaginary landscapes. Performers embedded in the group will respond to the collective experience, expanding the limits of what feels possible. Please bring your phone and wear clothes to move in. Accommodations will be made for participants without phones. All ages welcome.
2017
WE ARE A CROWD OF OTHERS
Each Other Performance
MadArt, Seattle, WA
Tamin Totzke and I embark on a new project seeking to physicalize the reciprocal relationship between body and environment. Through a series of open rehearsals and a performance titled, Each Other, we will examine the body as a record of lived experience and a vehicle for deep empathy.
OPEN REHEARSALS:
Saturday, Nov 4, 2016 11a-3p
Friday, Dec 16, 2016 11a-3p
Saturday, Dec 17, 2016 11a-3p
Friday, Jan 13, 2016 11a-3p
FINAL PERFORMANCE:
Saturday, Jan 14, 2017 11a-3p
More about the WE ARE A CROWD OF OTHERS: We Are a Crowd of Others is a forum for people to engage with this reality: a person’s identity often exceeds the limitations of their body, manifesting in words and actions. The performances, installations, readings and other events that make up this exhibition are disparate but the lens we use to view them is singular. We are examining a synchronous vibration: how does something resonate within a culture? How does it extend beyond a source, moving through rather than between people? How does it amplify or fade away? http://crowdofothers.com/
STUDY OF TIME AND MOTION, A short film
Ongoing 2017 + 2018
A short film capturing our collaboratively created site-specific performance at the Georgetown Steam Plant.
Generously funded by 4Culture, DUWAMISH REVEALED, and a successful KICKSTARTER social media campaign.