The Creative Time Summit—the world’s largest international conference on art and social change—is headed to Washington, DC! Occurring in the nation’s capital just weeks before the 2016 Presidential Election, the Creative Time Summit DC will take this important moment to collectively consider what it might mean to radically transform the current state of democracy.

Around the world both the left and the right are making their dissatisfaction with the center known, setting the stage for a virulent electoral season. Shaking up the political landscape, worldwide social movements—from Arab Spring to OWS to #BlackLivesMatter—are now ingrained in popular discourse. The 2016 Summit offers a platform for citizen-led strategies and grassroots movements working within, as well as disrupting, electoral politics.

As we work to push forward the ideals of human rights in practice, what does it mean to actually occupy power in a future as yet unwritten? What does it mean for a people’s movement to wrest control? What forms of governance would that require? What role do elections play in this moment? What are the forms of self-organized power that we can learn from? These questions will shape the conversations and presentations at the Creative Time Summit DC.

With: Alicia Garza, Carrie Mae Weems, Ian MacKaye, E. Ethelbert Miller, Haneen Zoabi, Hank Willis Thomas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jonas Staal, Liberate Tate, Raqs Media Collective, Sheldon Scott, Thomas Frank, Step Afrika, and Vaginal Davis, along with our local partners DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, GW Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Provisions Library, Transformer, and many more.

The Creative Time Summit DC is curated by Nato Thompson and Sally Szwed.

Schedule:

Blind Whino (October 13, 7pm)
Kick-off party co-hosted by Transformer
Performances by the Gogo Allstars featuring Michelle Blackwell, artist Martha Wilson, and more

Friday and Saturday, October 14–15
Days 1 and 2 feature keynotes, short talks, and performances by over 50 participants. Thematic sections include Occupy Power, which will reevaluate and provide alternatives to current dominant power structures; Do It Yourself, which pays homage to DC’s prominent place in the history of DIY by looking at international models that share a similar ethos; and Troubled Democracy, which explores the complexities of representation, democracy, and global responsibility. Other key topics will include the construction of queerness, life in the age of the Anthropocene, and organizing in the face of systemic violence and immediate threat. The Summit will also include a special series that embraces the irrational upon the occasion of the 100th year anniversary of Dada.

at Lincoln Theatre (October 14-15)
1215 U Street NW, Washington, DC

Sunday, October 16 (Co-organized with Provisions Library)
Day 3 of the Summit will consist of over 30 unique hour-long breakout sessions led primarily by DC- and Baltimore-area artists, activists, educators, and community leaders selected via open call. Small group conversation sessions will address a myriad of social and political issues, as well as topics central to artists and students practicing today. Other sessions will take the form of walking tours, workshops, and games. Day three will open with with a performance by Sheldon Scott as part of his campaign for DC Minister of Culture, and will close with I Want a President…(a collective reading – DC), performed outside the White House, co-organized by Natalie Campbell & Saisha Grayson. Learn more here.

at GW Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (October 16)
500 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC

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For a detailed schedule and full list of participants, click here.

Get your pass today: Register to attend here

For more information or to join via Livestream, visit us at creativetime.org/summit.

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creativetime.org