SCHOOL OF CELEBRATION

28 months ago CABINET OF CURIOSITY began a dynamic apprenticeship program called THE SCHOOL OF CELEBRATION, which immerses college age students, emerging artists, and community members in the development of personal and public ritual.

The apprenticeship has already seen over 35 graduates, many of which have found paid employment through our enterprise, and equally importantly provided them a platform of authorship, leadership, and ownership.

Three times a year 5 to 7 apprentices are accepted to a formal apprentice program where they are trained in the “art of celebration” (through a curriculum created by Frank’s 25 years of civic practice).

The Apprentices work alongside skilled professionals and diverse community organizations to create rituals that explore contemporary issues in evocative yet accessible ways.

Most importantly, the collaborating organizations return to their own communities and continue to create connections through ritual.

We define “ritual” as a process of community engagement, community authorship, and public expression culminating in an original event — framed by images of hope, surprising devices, original music, moments of wonder, and audience interaction often occurring in unexpected locations. We believe that the act of celebration is a social imperative.

We use celebration to tackle isolation, facilitate dialogue, inspire hope and humor, create beauty where others may fail to see it, and ignite sincere collaborations.

APRIL 1, 2020

When we were forced to suddenly close our spring show, and take a very tough financial hit, and then swallow the difficulty of accepting all of our spring and early summer events canceled, I turned to the current apprentice team- students from six different Colleges in 4 states (after their dorms closed mid-March) — and instead of concluding our semester early due to lack of funds, social distancing, fear, frustration, ambiguity, and project high jacking, we leapt towards developing an experiment of “digital interactive ritual”.

Are these experiments successful? Not yet.

Is the collaboration critical and necessary? Absolutely.

At the heart of these digital endeavors is Cabinets mission.

To uniquely engage diverse artists from significantly different backgrounds and varieties of career levels and artistic accomplishments to make art TOGETHER, and to permit them to develop their own celebration through their unique voices and life experiences.

I chose to provide little direction, as authentic collaboration means opening one’s heart and spirit to the unexpected ideas of a team.

It would and could have been easy to have subjected the group to the hammer of directorial tyranny, but that is not who we are, and not what these times need.

Polish means little. Spirit means everything, as does the courage to keep working, in the dark, with mystery before us and fear storming upon us.

Cabinet is an outlet for diverse voices and unpredictable outcomes along with an attempt at intimate ritual in these complicated times.

Do I hope that these digital experiments continue? Yes.
Only briefly though.

Humans need to be together. We need to be in contact and in direct dialogue. We need to celebrate and gather.

Until that time comes though, we will work with what we have to embrace differences, cross boundaries, include others different than ourselves in our School of Celebration.