Youth Insights Leaders collaborate with AUNTS
Oct 27, 2015

On October 27, Youth Insights Leaders met with AUNTS, an expanding community of artists that challenges the conventions of performance art. AUNTS establishes an authentic interaction between the audience and the art, forging an active relationship that one wouldn’t regularly witness at a typical art institution. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Laurie Berg and Liliana Dirks-Goodman, who discussed the organization’s history and helped us plan our Halloween teen event.

I found AUNTS’s process particularly fascinating. They usually showcase ten to twenty emerging artists who perform from five seconds to five hours, in locations such as convents or former hospitals. AUNTS provide the space, lighting, and sound systems for the artists, but they never ask them what they will  perform the night of the event—thus generating a mysterious atmosphere, an enigma of sorts, since no one really knows what is about to take place. Every show is unique and different. Because you won’t encounter the same artists at the same location, the community is constantly changing and always testing the limits of performance art.

 Furthermore, the admission price for an event is by donation to either a free bar or a bartered-goods boutique, adding to the show’s social aspect. After all, you are not attending just any mainstream event, you’re attending AUNTS: a chaotic and impromptu dance party. Hence, AUNTS aims to alter the etiquette and encourages the audience to create their own experiences, changing the way they perceive art and life.

By Iga, Youth Insights Leader