PlySpace, an immersive Artist-in-Residence program of the Muncie Arts and Culture Council, hosted four community panel discussion webinars as part of the series: The Creative Use of Difference. Each panel featured artists, both local and national, who use their respected art forms to creatively bring awareness to societal issues such as racial injustices, sexism, and more. These hour-long discussions were made in collaboration with Atlanta-based artist Indya Childs as she developed a new work, entitled "Peace, Love, Dance" with Ball State University Department of Theatre and Dance students. The semester-long project culminated in a dance film, choreographed by Indya and the students in response to the Creative Use of Difference series. The film premiered on April 30th and May 1st, 2021.

Each episode of the discussion series is available to view for free on the Muncie Arts and Culture Council Youtube Channel.

You can watch the final film, Peace, Love, and Dance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVuCDZyveLw&t=2s

The entire project is also documented for Ball State University: https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/peacelovedancebsu/peacelovedance

DISCUSSION SERIES

MEET THE PANELISTS

Ted Williams III - The Art of Politics

Ted Williams III has taught Political Science at Wright College, Chicago State University, and currently is the Chairman of the Social Science Department at Kennedy-King College. He holds degrees in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago and Rutgers University, and is the former host of WYCC-PBS television’s The Professors weekly talk show.

Ted Williams wrote the stage play "1619, A Journey of a People", in 2019 to represent the 400-year anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving on the shores of this nation. Told through the eyes of three modern characters and a series of performance pieces, this multi-disciplinary theater experience both inspires and challenges the audience about the progress of America's African sons and daughters. 1619 features a dynamic cast of singers, actors, spoken word artists, and dancers who reflect on the past while tackling critical contemporary social issues. With an appeal for all ages, this production reminds us that on the other side of the trial lies greatness.

Shantanu Suman - The Art of Politics

In a career spanning over seventeen years, Shantanu Suman has worked as a Creative Director, documentary filmmaker, small business owner, and educator. After working for over six years with several advertising agencies in India, Shantanu moved to the United States in 2010 to pursue his master’s degree from the University of Florida. During his stint in advertising, he garnered multiple advertising awards including Cannes Silver Lion, D&AD inbook, Clio bronze, and Asia Pacific Adfest. His design work has been recognized by several publications including Uneven Growth – Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Communication Arts Design/Advertising/Typography Annuals, Type Director’s Club, Graphic Design USA, Print Magazine, LogoLounge, CNN Travel, Designboom, and Creative Review. Shantanu has worked with a variety of clients ranging from small startups to global brands including Kohler Co., The Wing Luke Museum, Frost Museum, Wired Magazine, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Reebok, and Citibank.

In 2012, Shantanu collaborated with friends to make Horn Please, a documentary film based on the Indian Truck Art which has been screened at several film festivals in the United States and Europe. In 2016, he joined Ball State University as an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication where he founded Studio 165+, a design studio course through which students work with regional, national, and international clients.

Charmaine Minniefield - The Black Woman Creating

The work of artist-activist, Charmaine Minniefield preserves Black narratives as a radical act of social justice. Firmly rooted in womanist social theory and ancestral veneration, her work draws from indigenous traditions as seen throughout Africa and the Diaspora, to explore African and African American history, memory, and ritual as an intentional push back against erasure. Her creative practice is community-based as her research and resulting bodies of work often draw from the physical archives as she excavates the stories of African American women-led resistance and spirituality and power. Minniefield’s recent public works which include projection mapping and site-specific installation, insight dialogue around race, class, and power. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, she incorporates other art forms to virtually bridge the past to the present. Recent projects include the mounting of "Remembrance as Resistance" during the 2018 Symposium on Race and Reconciliation presented by her alma mater, Agnes Scott College, which opened with the removal of two Confederate monuments from campus grounds and closed with the work as backdrop for the closing talk by Alice Walker on art and activism.

Dee Dee Batteast - The Black Woman Creating

Dee Dee Batteast is currently adjunct acting faculty for Ball State’s BFA program, where she teaches courses in beginning acting, audition, one-person show, and Shakespeare, as well as coaching Ball State’s professional showcases in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.  Dee Dee is a proud alumnus of Ball State’s undergraduate program (07’). 

After the completion of her undergraduate career, Ms. Batteast relocated to New York where she lived and worked as an actress, social activist, and youth advocate.  While in the city she volunteered at Girl Be Heard, a not-for-profit theatre company dedicated to social justice and issues affecting young women.  She currently spends her time in the summer working with Hidden Voices, as well as the Blue Ribbon mentor group in North Carolina.

During her time at Ball State, Dee Dee is the faculty advisor of The Ethnic Theatre Alliance (ETA), a multi-cultural alliance group formed by Ball State’s theatre students, dedicated to providing all students, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, with the opportunity to connect their art with their activism.

Ms. Batteast is also a writer.  Her self-produced one-woman show, NO AIDS, NO MAIDS, enjoyed a successful run at the Washington DC Fringe Festival, where it received the Capital Fringe Honors, Favorite Show of Fringe, Favorite Solo Performance, and Favorite Performance(s).  She is looking forward to touring the performance again next summer.

Dee Dee received her MFA in acting from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she spent 3 years as a company member of PlayMakers Repertory Theatre.  Some of her favorite roles at PlayMakers include 'Elizabeth' in IN THE NEXT ROOM, 'Ruth Younger in A RAISIN IN THE SUN, and Montjoy in HENRY VI".  She has a great love of storytelling, and teaching others to tell stories.  She is a writer and activist who believes in the power of art to change the world, and to change the conversations that shape the world.

May every artist in the room approach the work with empathy, gratitude and generosity.

Ana de Brea - Women Shifting the Space

Ana is a professor, practitioner, artist, and critical observer of architecture and design. She was among the founders of Paralelo 35 in Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art and Grupo R in Rosario both well-known groups of discussion in the South American territory. 

Ana worked for more than fifteen years as columnist and chief editor of the Architecture & Design insert in two of the most important international newspapers in the Spanish language, Clarin and El Cronista until 2001. Ana taught at several universities in Argentina for fifteen years, and joined Ball State University first as visiting scholar (2001-2002) and a year later she became a faculty member, and granted tenure in 2007, basing her teaching on architecture and the allied arts. Ana‘s teaching, artwork, and research are focused on the meaning of body [volumetric reasoning] in the contemporary, modern architecture, particularly in Latin America but contrasted with the global architectural discussion. She has lectured, led exhibitions, and published articles in these fields nationally and internationally. 

As an author Ana has published several books including Señores Arquitectos / Diálogos con Mario Roberto Alvarez y Clorindo Testa (together with T. Dagnino - Spanish language, Ediciones Ubroc,1999) and 10x50: Terreno de Arquitectura (Spanish, Ediciones Ubroc, 2000), and "otal Latin American Architecture _ Libretto of Modern Reflections & Contemporary Works (English, ACTAR Publishers, 2015, currently in process of getting the second edition published in the Spanish language).

Lauren Pacheco - Women Shifting the Space

Lauren M. Pacheco is a Mexican-American born and raised on Chicago's southwest side. She is a civic practice artist and cultural worker with over fifteen years of arts administration, curation, and project management experience. Her background is grounded in social practice and public engagement with a personal mandate to responsibly and respectfully invest in targeted communities. Many of her projects are interested in space, people, and social impact. Today, Pacheco serves as a resource to policymakers and institutions in the public dialogue about issues that impact artists and creative enterprises. She is an associate faculty lecturer and the director of Arts Programming and Engagement at Indiana University Northwest in the School of the Arts.

Felecia Thomas - The “New” Policies of Dance

Felecia Thomas originally from Chicago, Illinois, studied dance at Columbia College Chicago. She relocated to Atlanta, GA in 1999 and began dancing with the dance ministry at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church while also working in corporate America and earning her degree in Business Administration. In the early 2000s, Felecia directed the Liturgical Dancers and Victory Church in Stone Mountain, GA. After years of performing, choreographing, and directing, Felecia Thomas opened Reigning Victory Dance Studio in Fayetteville, GA in 2012. The award-winning studio provides a comprehensive conservatory and culture- styled training program designed for dedicated youth. The program focuses on Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African. Felecia’s vision for Reigning Victory Dance Studio is to provide a state-of-the-art dance space, dance education curriculum and program management to Reigning Victory Dance Academy, Inc., the non-profit organization she founded. Felecia has choreographed hundreds of dances, produced over 12 dance productions. She has also produced 3 films (since COVID-19 hit in March of 2020).

Felecia is the single mother to three amazingly talented daughters, an entrepreneur with several other businesses, and a mentor to many.

Beverly Bautista - The “New” Policies of Dance

Beverly is a Filipina American artist and dance educator whose compassion and joy is fueled by empowering the next generation of artists. She values her experience in the commercial dance industry and is furthering her education through a Masters in Fine Arts in Dance at UC-Irvine in California. Beverly is a passionate and knowledgeable dance educator, choreographer, and performer who has traveled internationally with recording artists while filming national commercials. In addition to touring, Beverly has performed in music videos, recorded television, live award shows, and hopes to share her experience with aspiring dancers.  Born a Chicago-Native, Beverly majored in dance at Ball State University where she trained in modern, jazz, ballet, musical theater, and post-graduation in hip-hop. With her love for jazz foundation and her diverse background in dance, she hopes to inspire dancers through interdisciplinary connections and dance history.