PRACTICING SERIES at Grace Farms Explores Silence With Diverse Group of Artists

Practicing Silence, a year-long interdisciplinary workshop exploring the many meanings of silence, will bring together an interdisciplinary team of artists and scholars at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut from June 13 to 17. For the past several months, participants have engaged a rigorous, creative process fueled by experiential and contemplative research, including a visit to The Cooper Union's anechoic chamber.

On June 17 at 3 pm the creative team will present a free public showing in the Foundation's SANAA-desigNed Glass-enclosed amphitheater, called the Sanctuary. This performative new work embodies the group's conceptual explorations of silence: as present absence, as inner stillness, and as the negated voices of the oppressed. Practicing Silence also responds to poet Ilya Kaminsky's timely Deaf Republic, a narrative-in-verse, and lectures by scholar Peter Bouteneff of the Arvo Pärt Project at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

In the coming months, the Foundation will continue its exploration of silence through a diverse range of artist-led participatory projects.

The Practicing Silence workshop features contributions by choreographer Silas Farley and dancers Rachel Hutsell, Ghaleb Kayali, Claire Kretzschmar, and Lars Nelson of New York City Ballet; dancer Cassia Wilson of Ballet Austin; composer and sound designer Pornchanok Kanchanabanca; poet Ilya Kaminsky; drummer and pianist Julius Rodriguez; and The Ase Quartet under the direction of cellist and bassist Noah Jackson.

Free Public Showing: June 17, 2017, 3 pm. Grace Farms, 365 Lukes Wood Road, New Canaan, CT 06840, The public showing is free of charge. Please visit gracefarms.org/calendar for more information and to register for the event.

About the Practicing Series:

The signature program of the Foundation's Arts Initiative Practicing is led by Kenyon Victor Adams, Arts Initiative Director and a performance artist, director, and poet. Practicing brings together artists with a range of perspectives to examine universal subjects such as empathy, awe, joy, and now silence. These collaborative, site-specific works-intersecting visual, literary, and performing arts-are shared with the public following an extended workshop at Grace Farms. Practicing began in February of 2016 with Practicing Empathy featuring Bill T. Jones, followed by Practicing Awe featuring Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance in July. Short documentaries about the ongoing Practicing workshops and its contributing artists and collaborating institutions are available: gracefarmsfoundation.org/arts. Practicing Joy is scheduled for 2018.

About Grace Farms Foundation

Grace Farms Foundation was established in 2009 as a private operating foundation with 501c3 status in New Canaan, Connecticut. The Foundation supports initiatives in the areas of nature, arts, justice, community, and faith, and encourages participation on a local, national, and global level. Grace Farms Foundation carries out its work principally through the publicly available facilities and integrated programs of Grace Farms, an 80-acre property owned and operated by the Foundation, where individuals and not-for-profit organizations can come together to collaborate for good.

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