Adriane Fang and Colleen Thomas Photo by Stan Barouh
Today I am pulling some quotes from three thoughtful artists in their 40s, who have written artist profiles on the blog during the past month. We hear about layers of experience, current curiosities, and a long career in the field. Click on any name below to read the full profile.
From Adriane Fang
My 40s:
I’ve continued working at the University of Maryland, having fortunately switched into a tenure track position. I absolutely love my colleagues and students as well as the opportunities to branch out into collaborative ventures. I’ve been expanding my choreographic and performance presence in the area and abroad at festivals, although the challenges of balancing family and career continue to exist. I’ve also been able to create and perform with great longtime friends like Colleen Thomas and Sarah Gamblin – there’s something so special about coming back into the studio and onstage with people you shared a past with, but now with an earned maturity from lived experience. This maturity can be difficult to reconcile with not having the facility of my younger body, but I do enjoy employing a certain finesse to my movement that I wasn’t able to tap into before.
From Sarah Wilbur
Can you talk to us about your PhD program - what are you exploring, researching, specializing in?
I began my PhD research wanting more clarity about how people make policies that influence dance at the US National Endowment for the Arts, and how artists have managed to make and sustain careers in the field for three decades or more quite despite the historical lack of direct, stable, or full support for the arts in US culture. My dissertation project, entitled US Dance Makers: A Declaration of Interdependence, counterbalances the career maneuvers of lifelong dance artists with major arts policy shifts across the fifty-year lifespan of the US National Endowment for the Arts. For an extended abstract outlining this work in greater detail, please see: http://www.swilburdance.com/#!research--publications/cy76.
From Dawn Stoppiello
Final thoughts –
I have often thought that I wish I knew then what I know now. But actually, I don’t. You can only know what you know through the experiences you are having and the ones you hope to have. Go forward with naiveté and wonder. Trust your values. Teach by example. Learn and learn some more. Let change happen. Be generous.
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