Dancing Trees at King’s Fair Summary
For full story and images, click on King's Fair Complete.

Matthews Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sponsored by Seward Neighborhood Group
1999

The Project

Dancing Trees at King’s Fair was a three-part performance/installation created for a biennial neighborhood community festival, including:

• Movement workshops for 70 new mothers, youth, elders, small business owners, and workers in Seward Neighborhood;
  
  
• An installation of 80 digital photographs from the movement workshops; and
  
  
• Improvisational performances at King’s Fair festival.

Inquiries

• Can Seward neighborhood residents and workers build community through interactive movement workshops?
  
  
• What are aesthetic and ethical issues of digital image making in community art?

Challenges

• Balancing two objectives: to build community, and to explore
  digital image-making.
  
  
• My own heightened awareness of exploitation in community art.

What I learned

• Different forms of community art interaction (arts-based community building, public art, or community-engaged art) often occur within a single project. Each form of interaction reflects different intentions and requires different roles, skills, and responsibilities.
  
  
• When I am clear about my role and expectations I am more likely to treat the people around me with respect.
  
  
• I reconfirmed, for myself, that relationships are the essence of community art-making.

Resolution

I resolved to create design teams for my next community art project, regardless of its scale.