Artstillery
Artstillery

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

ARTSTILLERY CREATES INCLUSIVE PRODUCTIONS TO EMPOWER MINORITY VOICES

Artstillery is a community-based non-profit that seeks to provide a platform for marginalized voices in Dallas to tell their stories. Our programming is driven by the personal narratives brought to us by local community members, and our subject matter often covers sensitive issues such as race, abuse, mental health, and class disparity, among several others. By opening up a dialogue for these subjects instead of shying away from them, Artstillery creates a safe and open space for these topics to be explored in a deeply personal manner. Our team of writers takes what they have learned from our community members and uses that information to comprise a performance piece in which the audience can be fully immersed in their neighbors’ lived experiences. By sharing our diverse stories, Artstillery hopes to foster an environment of empathy, communication, and understanding. 


Unlike traditional performance companies, Artstillery strives to get the community involved in all levels of production. Our unique process has sparked a passion for the arts in several people who would otherwise have been uninterested in performance, and we have been thrilled to add many of them to our team, where we provide them with training and paid contracts for work in stage management, writing, performing, or marketing for our immersive performances. In 2020 we have successfully mentored and employed 15 youth from West Dallas, equipping them with new job skills, interpersonal skills, and a safe space to explore creatively.


Artstillery supports the local community in the following areas:


Diverse Culture

Artstillery prioritizes the stories of under-represented populations in Dallas. By giving representation to these often overlooked groups, we shine a light on the shared emotions of the human experience and encourage a supportive and unified spirit throughout the community.


Equitable Art

Artstillery strongly believes that the healing power of art is for everyone, regardless of economic status. For each performance, we set aside $2,000 worth of deeply-discounted or complementary tickets to lessen the financial barrier between marginalized communities and the arts. 


Environmental Responsibility

Artstillery is committed to an environmentally-friendly approach for set design. We have utilized our relationships with several upcycling non-profit organizations to obtain discarded materials that can be used for creating our performance environments, reducing landfill waste.


Artist Support

Artstillery provides a monthly platform for local artists to perform their own works at our space through our Art Cultivation program. All ticket sales for our Art Cultivation variety shows go directly to our performers of the night, providing them with economic support and publicity, while our audience members in the traditionally underserved West Dallas area get to experience the rich and culturally-diverse talent of the local art scene. 

Part of the Process of Creating Original Work

Embodied Movement Modality Session


These sessions are very sensitive in nature and our community members and leaders participating would prefer to have everyone in the space active in order to have a true cross pollination occur within the work. 


Artstillery creates original works based on community stories of social injustice, each piece is based off a theme. This movement modality session is an intensive exploratory method of collecting narratives. From each session, participants have found a place of healing, connections to one another in shared experiences of trauma despite their vast cultural differences, and a safe space to have their narratives be heard. The theme of these sessions is Institutional Abuse and Trauma.



Staged Readings of Work in Progress


Special invitation to all members who participated in Embodied Movement Sessions and general public.  Our talkbacks consist of the Artstillery team and a panel of licensed therapists who address the scenes shared and answers audience discussion questions. Participants have also found this as an opportunity to get to know local therapists that match their needs.



Writers Labs & Filming Sessions


Here we work together with our creative team and youth from West Dallas in creating the main spine or narrative patterns for original productions. This will lead into rehearsal sessions and production assignments for our youth team. These youth are placed in positions such as stage manager, filmographer, sound design, lighting design and set design working with professionals in these industries who are a part of the Artstillery team. They are given contracts and receive paychecks as does all creative team members. This will be our second year working in this fashion with youth in our community and they have informed us that it gives them a sense of responsibility, teaches them new skill sets and they feel as though they have an additional support system in life. Our Artstillery team holds the youth accountable for keeping their grades up, be an advocate in our community and foster ownership for their own success. We have had beautiful success within this programming.


Guidance By Community Leaders


Any project Artstillery creates ONLY works if Community Leaders are at the forefront of the inception process.


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