The Seattle Participatory Arts Network (SPAN) is a collective of artists and scholars who navigate “dos aguas” or two waters –community and institutions such as the University of Washington. With the support of a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant, this collective organized a four-day gathering (November 21st to 24th, 2024), focused on participatory practices, especially music and dance, that encourage people of diverse skills and abilities to engage creatively. Fandango, bomba, taiko, capoeira, hip hop and other practices are cultural knowledge systems with distinctive values and protocols. They are similar, though, in that they serve purposes—such as connecting, healing and community-building—that are not always recognized in institutional and commercial definitions of “art.” Among the several themes co-facilitators and conference attendees explored together were questions such as, how can we understand and define these practices in ways that lay the ground for collaboration between different communities, and between communities and institutions?

This initiative was spearheaded and co-directed by Monica Rojas-Stewart and Shannon Dudley. The SPAN collective included Miguel Ballumbrosio, Marisol Berríos-Miranda, Haley Chávez, Silvio Dos Reis, Quetzal Flores, Antonio Gómez, Martha Gonzalez, Michelle Habell-Pallan, Rose Harriot, Benjamin Hunter, Shoji Kameda, Byron Keaton, Carrie Lanza, Nikko Macklin, Case Macklin, Nikkita Oliver, Milvia Pacheco, Gemaly Padua Uscanga, Jade Power-Sotomayor, Otoqui Reyes, Francisco Reyes, Pablo Luis Rivera, Yadilka Rodríguez Ortiz, Joe Seamons, Stan Shikuma, Eduardo Sierra, Emily Silks, Gabriel Solis, Leika Suzumura, John Vallier, Iris Viveros.

Conference Website: https://seattleparticipatoryartsnetwork.my.canva.site/