Kickstarter

SHADOWS: A Live-Art Installation.  Free to the Public and open to all ages.

With the audience watching from the street, physical performing artist Mik Kuhlman projects historic photographs of the 1950s Civil Rights Movement onto the windows of vacant storefronts, and climbs into them as a shadow, highlighting stories that sparked a revolution - one that continues to this day.

The second phase of SHADOWS was a public presentation as part of Vashon Island's First Friday Gallery Cruise and Theatre Puget Sound's ArtsCrush. I have a team of collaborators helping me develop the show and continuing with me as my artistic team. This month we will evaluate that presentation, create marketing materials and research contacts to garner further support and development. This is where you come in. This all takes time and money. Help us move the project forward.

We live in a global media of 24-hour news, instant mobile uploads and history boiled down to simple sound bites. Stories of Emmet Till, Rosa Parks and Little Rock Nine are fading. Or rather, the knowledge of them is fading. SHADOWS brings these iconic images out of their thumb-sized, confined forms into a larger, publicly accessible format to allow the impact of history to resonate deeper into our lives and inspire all of us.

I am raising funds to pay my  collaborators and the immediate research needs and administrative costs associated with moving this artistic and educational project forward.

SHADOWS launching was supported in part by an Independent Artist Grant from 4Culture and the show became an Associated Program of Shunpike, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides business support for small to mid-sized arts groups. That phase consisted of securing a storefront, image research and story-boarding, building the artistic team and staff, and a first presentation for audience feedback. 

In addition, through a grant from the Vashon Allied Arts Artist in Schools program, Mik worked with high school history teachers and the entire junior class at Vashon High School to develop an educational component to SHADOWS. She did a three week artist residency inspiring students to explore the Civil Rights Movement through iconic imagery and physical theatre.

This fall is phase two. The focus is on content with a refinement of the exact imagery and an exploration into the shadow's interplay inside the images. Plus, photo and video documentation of the presentation as a means of articulating the projects unique approach to garner further support and contacts. There are additional research and administrative costs associated with taking the next step.

Thank you for your support and joining our team. SHADOWS is as an artistic educational tool in keeping these early and vital stories of the Civil Rights Movement alive.

Photo credits:
Duncan Berry and Michelle Bates