Art gets weird at TNW this Saturday
It isn’t theatre, but it is art for entertainment and provoking thought the way drama does.
Theatre Northwest (TNW) is home to a one-day visual arts event on Saturday that will have performance elements, music elements and tactile elements all at the same time.
Some of Prince George’s most notable cultural creators are involved in this event, a show they are calling Weird: An Exhibition of Alternative Art.
It runs from noon to 7 p.m., and patrons can drop in and out as wished during that course of time, with a two-hour recommended participation cycle.
“Alternative art often struggles to find an appropriate space in the artistic world because of its nontraditional or outright strange nature,” said a joint statement from the organizers.
“It does not always fit easily within normal artistic parameters. Alternative art is a necessary part of a robust artistic landscape, though it can often be difficult to find its place within the cultural landscape. None of this detracts from its importance as a challenging and open-minded genre.”
This showcase will feature local performers including Jose Delgado-Guevara, Oro Barton, Raghu Lokanathan, and led by Isaak Andal.
“As a young artist I had the opportunity to create and perform experimental art,” Andal said.
“I know it is not for everybody, but it is impossible to overstate how important is has been for me as an artist.”
Andal went on to say that he has enjoyed learning the other side of the business: arts administration.
“I had no idea how much time and effort it takes to facilitate art,” he said.
Someone who knows better than most in the city how arts administration works is Theatre Northwest general manager Marnie Hamagami.
She readily saw the value of this unorthodox event-art experience and was happy to host, especially since there is no longer a Casse-Tête Festival of Experimental Music that involved many of the same people and was also held on TNW’s stage.
“There was a real hole in the ecology of the city’s arts scene,” said Hamagami of the festival’s demise.
“The commercial value of this kind of art is not as easily understood as going to a CCR (mainstream popular band Credence Clearwater Revival) concert, but in order to even have a CCR you need to have people trying this innovative stuff.
“That’s how you get there, that’s how art evolves.”
Hamagami said these types of partnerships with community creators are “essential to the continued growth of artists” so TNW was proud to offer up their stage for these purposes.
Some aspects of the show will take place in the lobby, some in the theatre space. It is multidimensional and multi-media, so expect the unexpected or come with no expectations at all.
Tickets are $30, available on the TNW website (click Purchase, click Tickets, click Buy Tickets, click the event’s icon).