In 2023, we began piloting our new Research and Development (R&D) Fellowship model, where we work with artists to incubate (and advance!) a new, visionary socially engaged work. Our first test subject, Mel Chin, asked to activate a collaborative investigation exploring phenomena, atmospheres of activity and the creation of climates–all towards developing new works that reignite empathy and give breath to the spent air of a divided society.
After a lifetime of practice, as I finally arrive in the state of becoming…I am no longer troubled by what kind of artist I might become but in a quandary as to the reason to be one. We exist in a current climate that mediates our lives and is expected to exhaust the future of others. I anxiously seek camaraderie in the creation of climates where delusion evaporates and the expected answers are retired by an exuberant question.
From the beginning of Mel’s fellowship period, we understood his exploratory questions required a generative audience and spaciousness for emergence, and where better to find spaciousness than Mel’s studio in the coves of the Appalachian mountains?
In July 2023 we invited 16 artists, organizers, writers, designers, and educators from around the country to North Carolina for a gathering centered on the power of awe and phenomena to create new social climates.
Before the gathering, we asked participants to shed anticipation and preparation in favor of being present. We believe that doing is generative. We moved through the fear that comes from not knowing which allowed us to trust what is emergent and cultivate creative explorations with wonder, joy, and play.
Over five days, facilitator Nate Mullen created a space for meaningful exchange as we engaged critical conversations and storytelling, made art, learned about the surrounding ecologies, and took healing sound baths (thanks Naoco!). We create more possibilities through collaboration. In the gifts offered by participants we saw beauty and difference and skill. The days were full, fueled by a spirit of generosity.
At SOURCE, we’re constantly exercising how we best enact sustaining care–sustenance–for the people we’re grateful to have in our orbit. The spaciousness of Mel’s studio and the feeling of the mountains in summer allowed us to bring the gathering full circle. When we find ourselves in a magical space we’re reminded that conversations around awe allow for an avenue to awe. In talking about the search for phenomena, we opened up the possibility of it occurring, called it forward to us.
On our final day of gathering, we toured the studio and Mel’s longtime fabricator, Barron Brown, led a spoon carving workshop. We shared a final meal together, launched fireworks, and told stories around a bonfire.
Of the gathering, Mel mentioned that SOURCE offered a methodology for establishing the connection of trust that he needed and the permission to go forward. In the months following, we’ve been humbled to see how this convening inspired rippling actions of kindness and love in time. Participants named the gathering as a beautiful space to slow down, set aside the daily doings and connect in nature. Folks left with friendships and collaborators, and many have convened informally, for studio visits, dinners, and deepening friendships. Some are even newly collaborating on exhibitions, programs, and projects.
At SOURCE studio, this gathering impacted how we best continue our work of supporting artists through generative gathering. To have a central artist’s questions be guiding but not constricting created an authentic space for connection and creativity. We learned what it truly means to host: intentionally connect strangers.
As we look toward the coming summer warmth and light, we are building on our history of supporting socially engaged artists using the collaborative methodologies of Mel and the many others who have helped shape S.O.U.R.C.E. We value the powerful experiences that come from melding our extended network and continue to promote inspiration, connection, and regeneration by experimenting with the many different ways to bring people into an artist’s practice.
