Episode 24: artway of thinking / Geographica Schema
Release date: May 25, 2017
How do you know if you're an artist? Many people would reflexively say they are not, since they cannot draw or paint or sculpt. But in this two-part episode, we meet several people who have a more expansive understanding of what makes an artist. Their focus isn't on what is produced, but on the act of art-making itself, and the cultivation of an artistic methodology.
In Part 1, St. Louis-based artist, author, and educator Con Christeson interviews Federica Thiene. Thiene is an artist based in Italy and co-founder of , a non-profit organization with the aim of researching collective creative processes, where the artist enters actively into the process of social change. Together they explore the origins and scope of artway and what it means to work within a co-creation methodology.
Part 1
Part 2 brings Con Christeson together with fellow St. Louis artist Tom Brady and MOCRA’s David Brinker in a conversation about the development of an artistic practice and its role in the community. They reflect on their shared their experiences with Geographica Schema, a project spearheaded by Christeson to introduce artway concepts to artists and others in St. Louis.
Part 2
Credits
Producer: David Brinker
Recording Engineer and Editor: Mike Schrand
Host: Linda Kennedy
Theme and Incidental Music: Stephen James Neale
Background
Tom Brady is a multidisciplinary artist based in St. Louis. He conceives, designs, builds and
musically accompanies the installations in which he places himself as a performer.
Brady began his journey into performance as art in 1970 while exploring the limits
of sculpture and performance at both Kansas (BFA) and Rutgers Universities (MFA).
He has performed in New York at Franklin Furnace as well as PS1 Contemporary Arts
Center. He was invited to perform at the Generative Art Conference at the University
of Milano, Italy in 2004. In 2009, he produced and premiered an original work, Prodigal, in Shakespeare Glen in St. Louis' Forest Park, to critical acclaim.
Con Christeson is a St. Louis-based artist, author, and educator. Her work explores the ways in
which memory and story interact with place and history, in shaping people and their
communities. Christeson teaches on the communications faculty at Webster University,
and is the founder of Geographica Schema, an international artist research and training
program. She recently published a memoir about her 20+ years of practice including
as the long-time managing artist for .
Federica Thiene is an artist based in Italy and co-founder in 1992 of artway of thinking, a non-profit organization with the aim of researching collective creative processes, where the artist enters actively into the process of social change. Today artway is a multidisciplinary group that activates collaborations with governments, companies and professionals. Artway has worked in Italy and abroad on more than 35 projects, and has developed workshop models focused on increasing the capacity to co-create new realities.