ARTSTILLERY IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATION THAT UPLIFTS MARGINALIZED VOICES THROUGH ORIGINAL
IMMERSIVE PRODUCTIONS
WE'RENOTAPERFORMANCECOMPANY.WEAREWHATTHECOMMUNITYNEEDSUSTOBE.
We are an organization that helps bring to light the stories that go unheard, that are threatened to be lost, or that need a platform. When art starts with the truth of experience, we believe it can heal and elevate. Artstillery produces and partners with many communities to create different types of artistic experiences and make space for new and marginalized stories.
Come discover an Art Experience with us, a collective of iconoclastic thinkers.
Founded in 2016.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
In Spite of History Part 1
Performer Michael Guinn & Director Ilknur Ozgur celebrate the final evening of this production run at Fair Park in South Dallas.
DIRTY TURK AKA DIRTY IMMIGRANT | 2022
PROGRAM TO SUPPORT MY|GRATION EXHIBIT AT DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART
SECOND INSTALLATION OF WORK
FIRST INSTALLATION 2018 | 723 FORT WORTH AVENUE
WRITERS LABS
Generations of Adam | 2019
"Generations of Adam" was an immersive experience created and perfomed in 2019 by Artstillery around church trauma. Our writers on each project sit and process the human experience for months. We weave together pieces of narrative, research, the technical, the visual, movement and sound.
Fearless Storytelling
Footage of Interview Day & Documentation in West Dallas | Winter 2021
In Spite of History Part 1
Location #6 | Projection Mapping
- Drone footage by Jasper Morse
- Projection Mapping by Lightware Labs
- Drawings by Johnny Rutledge
- Background graphics by Courtney Ware
- Original Concept Design - Johnny Rutledge & Ilknur Ozgur
- Concept Design Partners - Jodi Yellowfish, Brian Larney, Jasper Morse
- Final Projection Mapping Edits in Script and Background Sound- Courtney Ware
- Sound Vocal Design and Final Edits - Gabriel Couret
- Research team - Jodi Yellowfish, Raquel Zamora, Jasper Morse, Ilknur Ozgur, Courtney Ware, Gabriel Couret, Jasper Morse
- Stage Manager - Kendall Clemons
- Project Parner - Broadway Dallas
- Space Donation - Fair Park First
Historic Documentation
1,400+ Files submitted thus far for review.
We are excited to share our archival relationship with the University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections Department.
The Artstillery collection will reflect the process of how we create the work, and the people we have worked with. Rich in context, community engagement and uplifting facets unique outside traditional theatre making.
"Important parts of history we want to conserve are the everyday stories we want to hear and we are very excited to have it available and process it"
~Kathryn Slover | Digital Archivist UTA Special Collections
PAST 12 MONTHS OF PROGRAMMING
Welcome Mat 2.0 (title tbd)
November 2023 - November 2024
Development of next immersive experience
Writing, Research, Funding, Interview Documentation, Partnership Development
Dallas - Chicago - New York - Detroit
Flamenco Y Frida
2023
Artstillery partnered Dallas and Chicago artists to produce "Flamenco Y Frida" at 723 Fort Worth Avenue. This original devised piece based on the life of Frida was depicted through the lens of Flamenco stylings.
ArtstillerySPACES LAUNCH
See ArtstillerySPACES page for details
#goodtroubletogether Narrative Therapy Storytelling Retreat with Alexus Rhone
November 19 & 20, 2022
723 Fort Worth Avenue
Community Conversations - How can we show up for you?
November 5 & 12, 2022
723 Fort Worth Avenue
Oak Cliff Flamenco Festival Pre-Show with Jorge Pardo & Flamenco Fever
October 7, 2022
International Flamenco Festival Pre-Show hosted by Artstillery
Artstillery x Fair Park First Presents “What Now?” An Epilogue to Big D Reads Featuring the Accommodation
October 1, 2022
Readings, Community Conversation and Panel Discussions
723 Fort Worth Avenue
Big D Reads - The Accommodation
Performance by Michael Guinn & Community Conversation with Alendra Lyons of Mill City Community Organization
Directed by IV Amenti
September 24th, 2022
MLK Library Branch
ArtsAccess with KERA, DMA x Artstillery
Conversation in regards to working within community utilizing the arts
Readings from Dirty Turk aka Dirty Immigrant & In Spite of History
Featuring Artillery master puppeteer Noel Williams
Featuring Ilknur Ozgur on panel
September 17th, 2022
Dallas Museum of Art
“nolongerland” in development & public readings with discussion
Public Readings - September 15th, 2022 | November 28, 2022
Development - November 2022 - January 2023
723 Fort Worth Avenue | Mata Hari House
“nolongerland” in its dystopian glory, explores the human experience through death, forced identities, intergenerational belief systems, government dogma, work programs, war and the separation of people from country and country from itself. We begin by dissecting the geographic and governmental fall of former Yugoslavia, which serves as a through line for “nolongerland”. Historically and strenuously today, humans are fighting for safety and self-actualization all while the oppression of “an other” refuses to give an inch. Within any good storyline there are heroes, survivors and beautiful rebels who never give up. Celebrate these iconoclasts as they traverse through memory - the uncomfortable and the exquisite – while holding their people’s history and land close to their hearts.
In Spite of History Part 1
Full runs at Fair Park - Original work developed over past 8 months
Opened - July 2022
11 immersive installations @ 1 hour 50 mins
1,200 people in attendance
No entrance fees
Fair Park, Dallas, Texas
The history of Fair Park comes with a troubling narrative of racism, segregation, and government neglect. Artstillery, local arts-based nonprofit, heard the stories of the neighborhood residents and are giving them a platform to be told. Through hundreds of hours of interviews, Artstillery has created a brand-new, free of charge immersive experience titled,
In Spite of History. Our story will take audience members through the 1960s to today as they travel around Fair Park, experiencing the joy, heartbreak, and humanity of this historic neighborhood.
Six months of community interviews, research and collaboration weave stories into a community driven performance that will weave the audience from the Grand Place building, Nature Museum, Lagoon, Cotton Bowl, Tower Building to the front of the Hall of State. Izzy simply wants to go to the fair, her grandpa Julius questions the destruction of the Hall of Negro Life at Fair Park, and the family has an important conversation about their own place in history, present and the future.
In Spite of History Part 1 - Panel, Reading & Discussion
June 2022
Panelists - Vicki Meek, Willie Mae Coleman, Denise Montgomery, Alendra Lyons, Dr. Frowsa Booker - Drew
Nasher Sculpture Center
Family Dollar
Full Performance Run
June - July 2021
323 West Main Street, Dallas, Texas
Family Dollar is a historical documentation of the families who grew up on West Main Street. We are working with recorded interviews within the West Dallas and Oak Cliff communities, the work of Mr. Tasby in 1970 and his lawsuit against the DISD on behalf of his children, "White Flight", how the West Main Street community raised its children together, stories from all generations growing up on this street and the levee that once existed as a swimming hole, conservation of the final shotgun houses remaining on West Main street and it's artifacts, the move out from West Dallas for so many families and the efforts to stay put inside a community they love so much. We explore those who returned to the community after leaving and why. The main narrative of Shirley, whose journey we found inside one of the original shotgun houses in 2016 (now gone). It was her story of living in poverty with hearing loss and dementia. She was a white woman living on West Main Street, a primarily black and brown community, with her black husband who passed years before she had.
Family Dollar - Nasher Public Work
Original homes were located on land sold to developers, and zoned multi-family set for demolition. Artstillery team took down two homes and moved them to community church Lone Star Baptist Church property.
Artstillery team filmed run of Family Dollar in Virtual Reality 360 degree cameras and provided the footage via QR Codes to the exterior of the shotgun houses. This would allow any person to visit the shotgun houses, scan the QR Codes with their phones and watch the production for free in 360 degrees by simply moving their phone around.
July 2021- September 2022
Dirty Turk aka Dirty Immigrant
Immersive Installation
Visual Media, Holograms, Projection Mapping, Film, Original Music, Shadow Puppetry designed off of overhead projectors, full immersion into DMA spaces, full scale live puppets.
Dallas Museum of Art
August 2021
Dirty Turk aka Dirty Immigrant - What is being an “other”
Panel, Reading & Discussion
August 2021
ArtCultivation
Program ran for 3 years @ 175 patrons in attendance on average per evening
1x a month
Paid out over $45,000 to local community members
723 Fort Worth Avenue, Dallas, Texas
The Invisible Beauty
Art by gORAN
PRINTS & INSTALLATION
December 2021
723 Fort Worth Ave, Dallas, Texas
DISTILLATION
A 5 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE
Jan 20, 2022
Alisa Eykilis
Photography & Performance
723 - 723 Fort Worth Ave.
We Are Still Here
Indigineous Narratives
Projection Mapping & Performance - 8min loop.
March 26, 2022
Thanksgiving Square, Dallas, Texas
Down By The Riverside (In Partnership with SMU Ignite)
May 2022
Commerce Street, Dallas, Texas
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Our Mission
We are an organization that adapts to help bring to light the stories that go unheard, that are threatened to be lost, or that need a platform. You can’t save stories without saving the communities they'er from. We empower marginalized peoples and communities through partnership and advocacy.
Our Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Statement
At Artstillery, we demand an end to the violence against Black and brown bodies. We feel the pain of these communities because we are these communities. We will and must speak truth to power. We served yesterday, we serve today, and we will serve tomorrow.
Artstillery calls for systemic change in the unequal experiences of Dallas residents in everything that we do. Rather than a hierarchical model, the core team of our organization runs on a linear model, dismantling reporting and promotion structures that foster inequality and gate keeping. This structure allows for individuals to bring their assets to a collaborative space with the common goal of amplifying voices of marginalized communities. We work directly with community residents, developing relationships that revolve around personal communication, and create space for people to share their stories. In doing this, residents write the narrative of their own community. We do so while ensuring they have access to all Artstillery events regardless of financial capability. As an ALLANA organization with a team made up of people from diverse backgrounds, gender, and sexual orientations, we demonstrate intersectionality in all that we do. Our pieces directly confront issues of xenophobia, ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, and beyond. No one is ever barred from participating or being served by Artstillery programs.
Our Workplace Policy
Artstillery has COVID compliance officers who have completed coursework through Red Cross, OSHA, World Health Organization, and Health Education Services. We have members of staff who are CPR certified. Artstillery has a “safety bulletin procedure” in place in order to communicate any near incident or incident occurrences within our spaces. This document is distributed to members of the organization.
We also believe in supporting emotional safety in our culture. We have a therapist on staff who leads our team through embodied movement modalities to address any traumas brought into the space or that have occurred through our organization’s work. The Board of Directors continues to develop standard operating procedures to ensure the safety of Artstillery staff, volunteers, and audience participants.
PRESS & REVIEWS
“The idea of the ArtCultivation program grew out a desire to give back to the community, especially the arts community, which includes some of the groups hit hardest by the pandemic.”
“The Generations of Adam isn't a typical theatrical experience. My reaction to the piece took me by surprise, and a week later I'm still reflective about my experience and my own place in its themes. ”
“Their stories address gentrification, poverty, immigration, trauma and other social injustices. Each night’s performance is different, and there are no seasons.”
“It’s doubtful that the Nasher Sculpture Center had ever been the site of a multi-religious prayer ceremony prior to Monday night, but the world renowned institution is thankfully taking chances...”
