KINDLE is a socially engaged, data-driven research project facilitated by Zoya Sardashti and co-authored by Zaquia Mahler Salinas. Our goals for the 2021 season are to identify and map the needs of local performing artists. This effort not only responds to the lack of financial support from government agencies, but also the lack of community-driven resources. San Diego requires more artistic platforms that connect and amplify the values and necessities of performing artists across private, public and virtual spaces. Public and private funders have been ineffective in allocating funding for performing artists, especially those who identify as BIPOC, differently abled, LGBTQA+ and female. We must provide public officials with the data to support policies responding to artists needs. This initiative will also provide artists, art institutions, researchers, and the public with a clearer understanding of who the San Diego performing artist community is and what we can achieve. Lastly, KINDLE is interested in stimulating dialogue about how artists can support artists, how local organizations and institutions can better support artists, and what the development of a collective arts economy can look like in our region.
In addition to data collection, KINDLE experiences involve collective actions that contribute to community building. From January to October we will hold space for , but not limited to the following:
- Developing ideas for either residencies or independent projects.
- Gaining exposure to innovative methods in contemporary performance practice.
- Ideating new frameworks for diverse artistic practices.
- Collaborating on artist-led and curated public events that are free of charge.
KINDLE advances empowerment and advocacy for performing artists while creating public conversations about freedom of expression and bodily precarity. The finale of the project will result in creating a collective action demonstrating our needs, values and concerns. This performance-as-protest will include multiple forms and diverse practices. As a collective we will decide how to install it in public and online.
Image by Ladan Tofighi
Get Involved: OCTOBER 10th ACTION
Join us for an arts advocacy performance-as-public demonstration! This will be DISCO RIOT’s culminating KINDLE event of 2021, with facilitator Zoya Sardashti. We need you to bring your voice, art practice, and community to make a collective statement about the state of local arts funding. Our goal is to increase funding for performing arts in San Diego, especially for BIPOC folx who are not necessarily attached to institutions.
On Sunday October 10 from 4-6pm, we will fill Balboa Park with movement, music, and performance art that joyously demands:
1) more funding and City support for independent artists
2) acknowledgement and accurate representation of artists in our border community
3) art as an essential aspect of freedom of speech and community representation and the necessity to provide resources for such
4) social and racial justice are embedded in more equitable arts representation and funding in our region
Here is how to participate:
1) Access the KINDLE 2021 folder. Listen to or read directives of an artistic practice that Zoya has created in Google document and audio file. Document your experience. Her contribution is also included for reference. The artistic practice will take less than an hour. Your participation will help Zoya develop a common through-line to curate the culminating event on Oct. 10 in Balboa Park. We are calling this event a performance-as-public demonstration. The artistic practice invites you to include an idea for your own score, intervention, performance, song, design, etc. that can be folded into a structure of the event. It can be anything you are currently working on, related to the topics of the event, or simply a response to the practice Zoya has proposed.
2) Complete this registration form. This information will support a final collective statement calling for more funding for independent artists, especially BIPOC folx.
3) Spread the word! We hope to have you showcase your art practice, represent your community, and encourage many more friends to activate public space as a demonstration of our love for placing more value on the performing arts in San Diego.
4) Mark your calendar for August 22nd where we will sketch out the performance-as-public demonstration at Movement Gathering (in person), and September 26th which will be our final strategy meeting (on Zoom).
From the January 10th Gathering
