Leonardo Lambruschini: Local artist and performer, ADA Contact Improvisation Instructor

What is your involvement in the CrisisART festival?
For the festival this year, I am a Contact Improvisation teacher and daily participant in other workshops and activities. On the last night, we also had a Contact Improvisation performance that was open to festival participants and the public. 

How is the festival different this year than it has been in previous years? How, if at all, has your role in the collective changed?
In previous years, I was primarily a spectator at the festival. This year I had the opportunity to get more involved by teaching and participating in other workshops. I also attended some meetings of the collective and was more involved in the planning process. Now that I have been a more active member of the collective this year, I feel can contribute even more for next year’s festival.

What does CrisisART mean to you? 
For me the festival is a magical place that welcomes listening, and just letting things unfold. It is a moment where you can stop and discuss important issues with people from different backgrounds and cultures. CrisisART is also a meeting place for a few days where you create a small community where you can foster collaboration among artists.

Justine Hince: MFA Cohort IV, First-time CrisisART Collective Member

What is your involvement in the CrisisART festival?
I am part of the local contigent of collective members and helped facilitate the meetings and festivals. I assisted with a lot of communication, scheduling, and day-to-day activities at the festival itself!

Why did you decide to become a member of the CrisisART collective?
When the idea was first presented to me, it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to blend art and activism. I also wanted to feel more connected to the Arezzo community. When Leonidas Martin came and gave a workshop with us in the fall, I felt inspired to do more with my art and knew that CrisisART would allow for those experiences.

As you approach your second year in a graduate level physical theatre program, what makes your perspective unique and relevant to the collective? How has your worldview been impacted by the CrisisART process?
I feel like I’m just at the beginning of my artistic journey and that willingness to learn and grow helps keep a fresh perspective on the festival and collective. So much of the work we’ve done focusing on movement also lends a unique perspective through approaching art from a physical impulse rather than words, which makes the work more accessible across the world. Since the festival was quite international, we all walked away with new friends and contacts around the world. I’m excited to see what new collaborations come from our experience!

Raúl Alvarez: Mexican-Canadian Filmmaker, First-time CrisisART participant

What is your involvement in the CrisisART festival?
I was invited to screen my documentary feature film “Land Awakening.” It was a great and beautiful experience to have shown my film to an engaged group of young artists.

How did you hear about CrisisART? What made you decide to participate?
Anuschka Jaenicke was the one who told me about it and invited me enter the film which was selected to participate. The fact that my film offers a concrete perspective on how to approach the current world crises we’re living, proposing solutions in a crucial aspect of life: the production of food in a sustainable way. The possibility to offer through my film these perspectives to a group of enthusiast, curious and energized young people participants of the Fest.

What is your overall impression of CrisisART, the ADA and Arezzo?
It is an excellent opportunity and space to develop a conscious approach to art. It is a great advantage to have the availability of a place like ADA in Arezzo.

Claire Seaton: Summer Arts Student and CrisisART Collective Member

What was your favorite moment of the CrisisART festival? Why did you decide to get involved?
My favorite moment of the CrisisART Festival is one I saw repeated over and over throughout the week: people from all over the world coming together to use their artistic gifts to connect people and change the status quo. I saw it in the sparkle of peoples’ eyes during conversations over meals, in the shared touch of workshops and performances, and in the laughter that flowed like wine in the evenings outside at the bar. Each of those moments was one of tearing down barriers and building bridges in their place, and it was so lovely to witness and participate in that.
I wanted to get involved with the CrisisART Festival because it’s the intersection of the two things I’m most passionate about—using the arts to address the very real crises of injustice that plague us every day. It was also an opportunity to meet other people who live and breathe in the art-ivism world, a world I am just entering into and loving the community that I am discovering!

What are you most looking forward to about Summer Arts?
I’m really excited to take the lessons I learned from the CrisisART Festival, and put those ideas into practice as I delve further into commedia dell’arte and documentary filmmaking with the Summer Arts Program. Oftentimes we have incredible, transformative experiences—like this past week—that we’re unable to translate into practical life once we leave. So I’m grateful for the opportunity to ride on that wave of momentum into these next four weeks of creativity and learning! And of course I’m super pumped to make some incredible friendships and eat lots of gelato along the way!

What is your overall impression so far of the ADA and Arezzo?
When I first applied and was accepted to this program, my concept of Italy was one of tourists gawking at ancient history, and a lot of really good food. The former is true in certain places, and the latter is true everywhere. But since being at the Accademia dell’Arte and getting to explore Arezzo, the simple truth that there is so much more to life than the American treadmill I’m used to has crystallized. And the picture-perfect view from the roof of the Teatrino? It’s real life!

Can you describe your workshop and performance during the CrisisART festival?
For my workshop on Monday, I invited people to share their stories of crisis with me—writing down how they had seen art used to change hearts and minds. Throughout the week, festival participants submitted responses in a box I’d left out, and from those responses I wrote a poem. In the poem, I wanted to explore the themes of isolation versus community that recurred in almost every submission, and to capture some of the inspiration and hope I’d experienced during the workshops, lectures, and performances. On the last evening of the festival I performed the poem for the entire collective, and I can honestly say it was one of the most thrilling moments I’ve experienced as a performer.