"Between Spaces" Art, Music & Movement

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Luis Armacanqui

"Love Dream," by Madison Ballet choreographer and dancer Yu-Jhe Sun.

Between Spaces is an interdisciplinary exhibit by Kelly Parks Snider, considering the COVID-19 pandemic with poetry, prints, sculpture and other works, on display until Aug. 6 at ALL. As part of the exhibition, Parks Snider is collaborating with LunART and Madison Ballet for a program of music, dance and spoken word. Works by Madeleine Dring and Ethel Smyth will be performed by Iva Ugrcic on flute, Heather Huckleberry on oboe, and Alyona Waldo on piano. Madison Ballet choreographer/dancer Yu-Jhe Sun will premiere a new work on pandemic separation, with musical accompaniment by pianist Eric Tran. Interspersed throughout will be poetry and reflections by Parks Snider.

media release: “Between Spaces,” an exhibit by visual artist Kelly Parks Snider, serves as the inspiration for two evenings of visual art, music and movement at Arts + Literature Laboratory on Friday, July 22 and Saturday, July 23 at 7 p.m. The free events, open to the public, are presented in collaboration by Parks Snider with Dr. Iva Ugrcic, founder/artistic director of LunART, and Madison Ballet.

Visual Art: “Between Spaces” is an interdisciplinary project that combines Parks Snider’s visual art and poetry created in response to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and features large-scale monoprints, paintings, wood sculptures, fiber art and installations composed of blown glass and found objects. The exhibit is on display at Arts + Literature Laboratory through Saturday, Aug. 6.

Music: In true LunART style, guests will enjoy works by two prominent mid-20th century women composers. Madeleine Dring's Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano and Ethel Smyth's Bonny Sweet Robin will be performed by the LunART Chamber Music Collective, featuring Dr. Iva Ugrcic on flute, Heather Huckleberry on oboe and Alyona Waldo on piano. Additionally, pianist Eric Tran will accompany the Madison Ballet performance choreographed on a beautifully haunting piece by Franz Liszt, Liebestraum.

Movement: Madison Ballet choreographer and dancer Yu-Jhe Sun has created a pas de deux about the purgatorial time he and his partner spent apart during the first 18 months of the pandemic. This is the premiere of the Ballet’s live performance.

Layered amongst the art, music and dance will be short readings of poems and art reflections by Parks Snider.

“A ‘between space’ is a disrupted state of ambiguous loss and uncertainty in which our former way of being is forever changed,” said Parks Snider. “Disruptions are the new normal. Our world is in constant transition filled with uncertainties: the ongoing pandemic, the challenges to our democratic ways of functioning, the escalating climate crisis and personal hardships faced by too many.”

As an artist, Parks Snider believes that creativity flourishes in times of uncertainty, and that a reimagination of this world and our capabilities to make change is needed. Her new work reflects her journey, a guided path to wellbeing, grounded in art, self-reflection and connection. She offers it to the public in hope that it will be useful to others because “building a resilient world is in the interests of everyone.”

Art + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston St. #100, Madison. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.

More on the exhibit: Dane County visual artist Kelly Parks Snider offers the community an opportunity for social healing and connection through her new exhibit “Between Spaces,” opening at the Arts + Literature Laboratory on Tuesday, May 31. A free reception in the gallery will be held on Saturday, June 18, starting at 6:30 p.m. with a gallery talk at 7 p.m. Parks Snider will discuss her work and read from her collection of poems written during the pandemic. She will be joined by guest speaker Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of The Center for Healthy Minds, who will lead a conversation on resiliency and wellbeing. The exhibit runs through Saturday, Aug. 6.

“Between Spaces” is an interdisciplinary project that combines Parks Snider’s visual art and poetry created in response to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and features large-scale monoprints, paintings, wood sculptures, fiber art and installations composed of blown glass and found objects.

“Between Spaces” serves as the inspiration for other project activities throughout the community in May and June that acknowledge the challenging roles women, front line healthcare workers and young people have experienced during the pandemic and chart a way forward: (1) The Banner Day Project, (2) two evenings of visual art, music and movement and (3) youth art workshops.

The Banner Day Project – various times and locations: Parks Snider along with video and installation artist Chele Isaac and Doyenne Group founder Heather Wentler will lead “maker days” to explore and create messages that acknowledge the challenging roles women have experienced during the pandemic and to chart a way forward. No art experience is needed to join the workshops.

Participants will create fabric banners, hopeful imaging, portraits and personal stories strung together for the world to see, making bold statements rooted in personal pandemic experience, offering understanding and hope. The completed artwork will be featured as part of the “Between Spaces” exhibition at the Arts + Literature Laboratory and displayed post-show at local hospitals, women-owned businesses throughout Dane County, community youth centers and gallery spaces.

“The Banner Day Project is grounded in the idea that self-expression and community-based art is a catalyst for healing,” said Parks Snider. “Through this project, participants are invited to take part in ‘craftivism,’ aimed at encouraging a public dialogue about community resiliency and wellbeing.”

The pop-up events will be held at partner organizations across Madison and Dane County through May and June. During Nurses Appreciation Week and Health Care Week, May 6-12, specific maker days will honor nurses and health care workers, heightening the visibility and voice of those who have given so much during the last two years of the pandemic.

Youth Art Workshops – June 13-17, Arts + Literature Laboratory: Parks Snider will lead five days of youth arts workshops to groups of grade school and middle school students. Curriculum includes mindfulness and meditation, a group artmaking project focused on helping youth increase media literacy and individual art and writing projects that give participants an opportunity to share positive messages for other young people and the world. 

About the artist

Kelly Parks Snider explores contemporary cultural and social issues. Using art and words, she educates communities, stimulates dialogue about target issues and creates social change. Park Snider’s work exhibits nationally through both public and private galleries.

Parks Snider is the co-founder of Project Girl, a nationally recognized non-profit, award-winning program and touring exhibition that combines art, media literacy and youth-led activism into a unique educational experience for children, parents and educators. Project Girl was recently featured in Family Circle Magazine and was an awarded youth program in the new national youth empowerment and philanthropy program called Best Buy’s @15 Change Exchange project.

Parks Snider is also the founder of Goathouse Press, an independent publishing company dedicated to literature that illuminates and inspires. Zilly: A Modern-Day Fable is Kelly’s first children’s book. She considers Zilly to be her protest book. She has also co-authored curriculum with Jane Bartell (co-founder of Project Girl) and Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. (Professor of Education and Human Development at Colby College in Maine).

Activism is the foundation for all of Park Snider’s endeavors. Her objective is to educate communities about targeted issues in the hopes of shaking up the status quo, creating a catalyst, examining the questions that shape and inspire all of us. Parks Snider lectures nationally about media literacy, serves in artist-in-residence programs and produces workshops. She lives and works on a little farm outside of Madison, Wis.

Parks Snider’s Previous Exhibits

• Rural Women: Voice and Spirit, funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Art Board, is an in-depth exploration of Wisconsin rural women, featuring a collection of paintings, corresponding literary selections and a companion video presentation by video producer Jane Bartell. 
• Commercial Land combines art, media literacy and youth-led activism into a unique educational experience aimed at encouraging young people to become more critical consumers of contemporary media advertising and entertainment. The nationally-exhibited project is the culmination of a two-year exploration of the effects of contemporary media on young teens’ lives and attitudes.
• Hidden In Plain Sight explores complex, highly charged issues using visual expression to comment on the invisible truths about power and privilege, inequality and injustice. Determined to make sense of these truths and shine a light on them, Parks Snider sought insights from leading thinkers on matters of racial, social and cultural concern, and individuals with first-hand experience of injustice stemming from them.
• Women Against Hate, United by Love, created in conjunction with Rachel Griffin and Leigh Garcia, showcases powerful prints and stories told by Wisconsin women leaders and activists impacted by bigotry, intolerance and racism.

The Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston St. #100, Madison. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.

Kelly Parks Snider’s “Between Spaces” project is supported by Arts + Literature Laboratory, The Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, The Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, John W. Thompson and Jane A. Bartell Charitable Foundation, Center for Healthy Minds, Healthy Minds Innovation, Doyenne Group, Madison Ballet, LunART, Saint Mary’s Foundation, UW Health, Hope for A Future, American Family Insurance DreamBank and Madison Children’s Museum.