The Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State is excited to host the second session of our innovative partnership with the National Parkinson's Foundation WNY to present Art Moves Me, a dance program designed for people living with the brain disorder.
The initiative at The Center will distinguish Buffalo as one of only five cities in the world to offer therapeutic dance designed for this audience in an art museum setting. Two locations are in Europe, the Tate Britain and Museo Civico in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. In the United States, the Burchfield Penney will join the ranks of MoMA in New York City and Dallas Museum of Art.
Art Moves Me is a site-specific program developed especially for The Center by Cynthia Pegado, based on the fundamentals of Dance for PD® by Mark Morris Dance Group, Brooklyn, NY. The class is open to the public, and welcomes anyone with a curiosity to explore new ways of experiencing visual art.
“Each class begins in the gallery with Charles Burchfield paintings or works by other Western New York artists. Participants discover their innate ability to interpret visual art using movement. “Guided improvisation techniques will awaken the physical artist in each person present as we interactively explore the collection”, describes teaching artist Cynthia Pegado, BFA. "We also listen to passages from Charles Burchfield’s journals, reacting in creative movement response accompanied by live interpretive music. We create movement motifs in collective group work and individually." A supportive atmosphere invites creative investigation and every class experience is unique.” Some classes include kinetic art-making, as we create a work to represent our movement explorations and our studies of Burchfield. Guided by our theme “Hope Paints the World in Goodness”, this Art Moves Me community-made artwork will be presented to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus as our gift of hope to the medical and patient community.
The classes (17 sessions), free of charge, are open to any adults and accompanied children ages 8 and up, interested in exploring aesthetic appreciation of art. Registration is required, to sign up please call (716) 878-6011 during museum hours of operation.
The class schedule is as follows:
Wednesdays 10:00 AM -11:30 AM
10:00-10:15: Arrival and sign-in
10:15-10:30: Class-specific tour of gallery
10:30-11:30: Burchfield journal reading and movement class.
Schedule:
July 25
August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
September 5, 12
October 3, 10, 24, 31
November 7, 14, 21, 28
Art Moves Me is exclusively designed for people living with movement disorders, no prior dance experience required. “We have special accommodations for those who use wheelchairs or walkers,” said Pegado. “If a participant cannot stand for very long, has difficulty with balance or is unable to stand at all, it does not bar them from dancing in this class. As an interpretive improvisational class, I use choreographic strategies that allow for self-expression within the range of individual ability, while challenging and expanding movement vocabulary and quality of movement. Some activities will be done with all participants seated.”