Due to the increase of local cases of COVID-19, Fort Worth Public Art has decided to
reschedule the debut of the Pioneer Tower Iconic Artwork, originally scheduled for late
February, to a date later in 2021. Fort Worth Public Art will announce the new dates for
the premiere event soon.
Meanwhile, The Arts Council of Fort Worth is thrilled to announce an extension of Refik
Anadol’s Call for Memories for his artwork, Pioneer Tower Dreams. Anadol has extended the
call’s deadline to Sunday, January 31, 2021. As part of this urban-scale interactive
public artwork, he asks current and former citizens of Fort Worth to submit memories
attached to any location in the city. These memories can take the form of photographs or
written stories, which residents can submit via the website listed below. The submitted
memories will contribute to a vast pool of data processed by artificial intelligence
forming the Fort Worth’s collective memory. In the final audio/visual form, Pioneer Tower
Dreams, will be projected on the façade of the historic Pioneer Tower.
To participate in the Call for Memories, visit www.pioneertowerdreams.org
Refik Anadol is a media artist and director born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1985. Currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is a lecturer and visiting researcher in UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts. He works in the fields of site-specific public art with a parametric data sculpture approach and live audio/visual performance with an immersive installation approach, particularly his works exploring the space among digital and physical entities by creating a hybrid relationship between architecture and media arts with machine intelligence.
Jabba New and Improving - Playwright, Janae Hatchett and Production Manager Jason Leyva
ANNOUNCING THE ORIGINAL WORKS SERIES' SELECTED PLAY
The Fort Worth Community Arts Center is proud to announce the
Original Works Series' chosen selection. This is the inaugural selection
for the Original Work Series, a theatrical program that provides an outlet for
emerging and unpublished playwrights to showcase their work and see their play
produced on a professional level. A panel of theater professionals reviewed all
submissions and selected the top picks to receive staged readings in the Spring
of 2020. Due to stay-at-home orders, these eight readings were held virtually
and broadcasted live on the Arts Center's Facebook page.
The Fort Worth Community Arts Center's in-house theatre company,
The Art Center Presents, will mount playwright Janae Hatchett's New and Improving.
Jason Leyva, the Arts Center's Production Manager, said, "After years of
cultivating arts organizations in our facility, many of whom have grown into
some of DFW's most enriching theatrical operations, we feel it's time to invest
in our efforts to supporting local playwrights and showcasing the storytelling
talents of artists in our area. We hope this opportunity will act as a
springboard onto the national stage and continue to bring awareness of our
playwriting community, which is so deserving."
Selected Work: New and Improving by Janae Hatchett
Location: The Sanders Theatre, Fort Worth Community Arts Center
Dates: March 2021
Playwright Bio:
A playwright and actor from Lubbock, Texas, Janae Hatchett
completed her bachelor's degree in Theatre at Angelo State University, where
her love for playwriting blossomed. New and Improving is her first full-length
play.
She has also written a ten-minute play titled Would Not Recommend, which was
chosen as a semi-finalist in the Stage It! 10 Minute Plays and produced as a
full production for the Camp Death Productions Spring Benefit. She has also
completed a one-act titled Signing Off and several sketches. She currently
lives in Dallas, Texas, where she performs at local theatres, including
Pocket Sandwich Theatre, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, and Theatre Coppell.
Play Synopsis:
You know that geeky Mathlete who was picked on and shoved into
lockers in high school? Well, now he's all grown up and going to therapy for
depression and social anxiety. Thanks a lot, teenagers. Nathan is convinced to
attend a therapy mixer to "get out there" and "be social" with his peers. He
meets two forces of nature he didn't expect: Turk, a self-proclaimed ladies'
man, and Piper, a sarcastic smart aleck. With as much grace as a palm tree in a
hurricane, they shove Nathan into the dating pool with a young woman named Abby.
After a horrible date, some soul searching, and an all-night coffee binge,
Nathan leaps out of his comfort zone to embark on lasting relationships with
his two new accomplices.
ABOUT THE ARTS COUNCIL OF FORT WORTH
The Arts Council of Fort Worth was formed in 1963 to provide funding and leadership to
stimulate and assure the advancement of the arts throughout the Fort Worth. Today’s Arts
Council continues to promote, nurture, and support the arts in Fort Worth by providing
fiscal and business resources to local artists and arts groups while also serving the
community through management of the Fort Worth Public Art Program and Fort Worth Community
Arts Center.
The Arts Council of Fort Worth is supported in part by the City of Fort Worth and the
Texas Commission on the Arts.
