Local youth arts center idea focus of 'Community Chat'

A series of Community Chat events addressing the topic "Should Putnam County have a Youth Arts Center?" will conduct small, facilitated gatherings on April 1, 3 and 8.

Organizers note that Community Chat Symposium 2014, free and open to the public, offers food, chat circles and the chance to openly consider possible futures for the Greencastle community.

An open atmosphere of chat and snacks is designed to frame these discussions of Greencastle and DePauw University members.

All community members are invited to attend the workshops of problem-solving and community-building. There are no prearranged topics as all content will be determined by the people who come together for these events, the questions as well as possible answers.

The Putnam County Youth Arts Center topic will address if a youth arts center is possible. 
If so, what would it look like? How might such an organization operate? Is a physical plant needed? 
Finally, what small steps can we take to do something about it?

Guest facilitators are experts on Community Arts/Arts-in-Education.

All speakers are available for groups or classes may contact organizer Tim Good at tgood@depauw.edu to schedule.

The scheduled sessions include:

-- Tuesday, April 1 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Putnam County Public Library with Megan Alexander, a 2006 DePauw graduate, of the Cincinnati Playhouse Dept of Community Engagement and Education.

-- Tuesday, April 1 from 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., a campus presentation in GCPA 1202.

-- Thursday, April 3 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Putnam County Public Library (PCPL) with Susan Russell, artistic director, Cultural Conversations, State College, Pa.

-- Thursday, April 3 from 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. campus presentation in GCPA 1202.

-- Tuesday, April 8 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Prindle Institute Great Room with Emily Terrell, a 2011 DePauw graduate and founding member of the West Indiana Theatre Troupe.

-- Tuesday, April 8 from 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., campus presentation in GCPA 1202.

While all the scheduled events will build on each other, community members are encouraged to attend and participate in whatever fashion they are able. People can come to only one, or to any number of the events, organizer Tim Good noted.

In addition to her Tuesday evening appearance at PCPL, Megan Alexander is available for classes/meetings all day Tuesday and in the morning on Wednesday. For more information, persons may contact Good at tgood@depauw.edu.

A teaching artist for the Cincinnati Playhouse's Department of Community Engagement and Education, Alexander is a specialist in community engagement techniques of Theater of the Oppressed approaches of Augusto Boal and Paulo Freire. She has a master's degree in theater education from Emerson College in Boston.

Susan Russell, meanwhile, also is available for classes/meetings Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday and Friday morning. For more information, persons may contact Good at tgood@depauw.edu.

Russell is the artistic director of Cultural Conversations of State College, Pa., which is devoted to fostering and promoting new dance, visual arts and theatre pieces based on issues of local and global diversity, including artistic debates on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, violence and sexual orientation. Each year the theme of the festival changes to address a specific social issue.

She is an assistant professor in the School of Theatre at The Pennsylvania State University.

Guest convener Russell "will carry our conversations forward, and point us toward the concluding event," Good said.

Meanwhile, Emily Terrell will earn her master of fine arts in acting at Western Illinois University this spring, after which she will embark on a nine-month immersion of community-based theater with Everybody's Theatre Company in Toronto.

A founding member of the West Indiana Theater Troupe of the Putnam County Museum, the DPU graduate has presented community-based workshops and academic papers at the Mid America Theater Conference.

"Guest convener Emily Terrell will bring ideas together," Good added. "and help us form action items for future pursuit."

All community members are invited to these events, Good added, "to contribute to ongoing discussion and solutions."

The Spring 2014 Community Chat Symposium is made possible by the Prindle Institute for Ethics, the Putnam County Public Library, the Asher Fund for the Social Sciences and DePauw's Student Faculty Summer Research Fund.