Ash Hanson: Exclamation Points

Change the Story / Change the World

Can community theater help mend our broken and conflicted communities? In this episode Ash Hanson shares the story of what she and her many citizen collaborators have learned about how our place stories can help our communities not only heal but find new resilience and common ground.

BIO

Ash Hanson (she/her) has two decades of experience working with rural communities to activate stories, connect neighbors, and exercise collective imagination. She is the Creative Executive Officer (CEO) of Department of Public Transformation (DoPT) -- a nonprofit organizations that works at the intersection of creativity and civic life in rural communities. She is a member of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice Leadership Circle and she was an Artist-in-Residence in both the Planning Department at the City of Minneapolis and with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, where she employed creative community engagement strategies for equitable participation in urban and rural planning and development processes. Previously, she was the Program Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance—where she managed statewide regional networks and resource sharing—and the Program Director for Public Art Saint Paul—where she produced large-scale participatory public art events and projects, including the Saint Paul City Artist-in-Residence program. In addition to her work with DoPT, she is the founder of PlaceBase Productions, a theater company that creates original, site-specific musicals celebrating small-town life. She holds an MA in Applied Theater with a focus on Rural Community Development, and she was named an Obama Foundation Fellow and a Bush Fellow for her work with rural communities. She believes deeply in the power of play and exclamation points!

To learn more about Department of Public Transformation visit www.publictransformation.org

Notable Mentions

Department of Public Transformation: We are an artist-led nonprofit organization that works to develop creative strategies for increased community connection, civic engagement, and equitable participation in rural places. We believe in the power of rural creativity in activating solutions to address community challenges.

PlaceBase Productions: Some of America’s most inspiring stories are nestled in the communities of rural towns. PlaceBase Productions is using community theatre to bring these stories to life—and shift the narrative about what it means to live and work outside of big cities.

Ignite Rural: Ignite Rural is an “at-home” artist residency operated by the Department of Public Transformation focused on uplifting and supporting emerging rural artists that engage in social/civic work. To be considered for the Ignite Rural program, artists must reside in rural communities with a population of 20,000 or less within the colonial state borders of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native Nations that share that geography with priority given to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and Native artists and culture bearers.

Partnership Art. In 2015, SWMHP was one of six organizations that received funding through Artplace Amercia to participate in the Community Development Investments (CDI) Program. The CDI Program was launched to investigate and support place-based organization incorporating art and culture into our core work, allowing us to better fulfill our mission of creative thriving place to live, grow and work. The three-year journey with Artplace allowed our organization the opportunity to learn, share our journey, develop strong relationships and projects with the art and cultural sector, and better serve the communities of Southwest Minnesota.

Andrew Gaylord, Andrew Gaylord is a listener. If you ask him a question he’s more than likely to want to hear your answer than to give you his own. As one-half of PlaceBase productions he’s traveled across Minnesota collecting the stories of communities and spinning them into site-specific productions

Sonia Kuftinek: Professor Kuftinec teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Twin Cities theater, performance and social change, early modern theater and performance, critical literacy, storytelling, and drama. Her research includes community-based theater, conflict transformation, arts-based pedagogy, and the work of story to counter individual and historical amnesia. She has published widely in her areas of research including her award-winning "Staging America: Cornerstone and Community-Based Theater" and "Theatre, Facilitation and Nation Formation in the Balkans and Middle East"

Luverne Seifert: is Co-artistic director of Sod House Theater and has been acting professionally for over 30 years. He received a National Fox Fellowship for 2017, a Mcknight Fellowship for Theater Artists in 2003 and an Ivey Award in 2009 for his Performance as Phillip K Dick in 800 Words. He is currently a Senior Teaching Specialist in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota where he teaches beginning acting and physical performance.

SuperBloom: In May 2022, the Cuyama Valley was the stage for a community play about Cuyama, by Cuyamans, for Cuyamans. On this page you’ll find information about the cast, crew, and artists that made it happen, photos from the performance, as well as full-length videos and audio performances.

En mayo de 2022, el valle de Cuyama fue el escenario de una obra de teatro comunitaria sobre Cuyama, por Cuyamans, para Cuyamans. En esta página encontrará información sobre el equipo y los artistas que lo hicieron posible, fotos de la actuación, así como videos completos y actuaciones de audio.

Blue Sky Center: We are building models for resilient, thriving, and inclusive rural economies in the Cuyama Valley. As a place-based organization, our creative team prioritizes projects and collaborations that celebrate the abundance of Cuyama.

Alex Barreto Hathaway earned his BA at the University of Minnesota under former Jeune Lune members and his thesis project exhibited Mask, Puppetry, and Street Theatre practices studied in Pernambuco, Brazil. Barreto Hathaway creates and performs with Twin Cities groups Open Eye, Exposed Brick, Red Bird, WLDRNSS (or Theatre Forever), Sod House, and Children’s Theatre, as well as touring summer performances in greater Minnesota. He is drawn to original work, mask and physical theatre, clown, stories that celebrate the Latinx experience, and productions that partner with local communities.

Citizen University: Citizen University’s mission is to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country. We design gatherings, rituals, and workshops for people who are searching for new ways to strengthen civic culture in their hometown. In our programs, these civic catalysts explore ideas (like power + character = citizenship), pick up new tools, develop connections, and build a renewed sense of civic spirit. They’re sparking new ways of thinking about citizenship, deepening the resolve to take responsibility, and rekindling faith in our democracy and one another.

social prescribing: In social prescribing, local agencies such as local charities, social care and health services refer people to a social prescribing link worker. Social prescribing link workers give people time, focusing on ‘what matters to me?’ to coproduce a simple personalised care and support plan, and support people to take control of their health and wellbeing. Social prescribing links people to a wide range of community groups and services. This may include creative activities such as art, dance, and singing or other activities such as knitting, cooking or sports, for social support and to improve wellbeing.

(Change the Story / Change the World Episode (# 88) – Arts on Prescriptions. Social Prescribing and the Arts.

Tasha Golden: Is an international speaker, trainer, and consultant; a career singer/songwriter; and a PhD health scientist. As an expert in arts and health, I leverage my background as both a performer and health scientist to help leaders and organizations think bigger and ignite change.

Jill Sonke PhD, is the research director in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, the director of national research and impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and a codirector of the EpiArts Lab. She has written dozens of articles on the benefits of the arts and serves as a consulting editor for the Health Promotion Practice journal.

Arts On Prescription, A Field Guide for U.S. Communities: offers a roadmap for communities to develop programs that formally integrate arts, culture, and nature resources into local health and social care systems.