Cedric Mitchell is a glass artist based in Los Angeles who for the last 10 years has created an array of both decorative and functional pieces. He has completed residencies at some of the most prestigious craft institutes in the country, including Penland School of Craft, Pilchuck Glass School and Corning Museum of Glass. In 2018 he officially launched his own business, Cedric Mitchell Design, through which he continues to create blown glass for retailers nationwide. Cedric is also the events-and-resource manager for Crafting the Future, a nonprofit that works to diversify the fields of art, craft and design by connecting BIPOC artists with opportunities that will help them thrive. In the last three years, Crafting the Future has provided 70 scholarships for artists and craftspeople to attend instructional programs throughout the country. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Cedric, who to this day remains one of the very few Black glass blowers in the field, describes how a combination of curiosity, initiative and generosity has led him to be an admired professional as well as a mentor in the field. https://cedricmitchelldesign.com/ https://www.craftingthefuture.org/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

While working on a project in Portland, OR over a decade ago, theater-maker Aaron Landsman accepted a colleague’s invitation to attend a city-council meeting. In between moments of boredom typical to such meetings, Landsman, who had made a career of making works of theater in a variety of unusual settings, glimpsed inherently theatrical moments. The clincher came when a well-dressed sixtysomething by the name of Pete Colt, clearly well-known to and barely tolerated by the city councilors, testified about the drug-related paraphernalia that littered a children’s park in the city. At the end of his testimony, to make his point, he dumped the contents of his briefcase — the very litter he'd railed against — on the table in front of him. Thus was sown the seed of what would become “City Council Meeting,” a participatory theatrical event that Aaron — along with his collaborators, director Mallory Catlett and theater artist and visual designer Jim Findlay — mounted in several American cities, including New York City, Tempe, AZ and Houston, TX. Just this past summer, University of Iowa Press published Mallory and Aaron’s “The City We Make Together: City Council Meeting’s Primer for Participation,” a thorough and galvanizing examination of their process that is sure to inspire a new generation of artists looking to engage communities in the intricacies of making democracy. Since “City Council Meeting,” Mallory and Aaron have continued building their remarkable and eclectic careers. Mallory is now the co-artistic director of the legendary Mabou Mines theater company and is developing several new operas, and Aaron is artist in residence at Abrons Art Center in New York and is preparing the premiers of “Night Keeper,” a new work commissioned by The Chocolate Factory Theater, and “Trouble Hunters,” a performance created in collaboration with artists in Serbia. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Mallory, who studied dance as a high schooler at UNCSA, and Aaron describe how they developed their unique theatrical viewpoints and esthetic and how throughout their careers they’ve succeeded in hewing to their iconoclastic artistic passions.  https://mallorycatlett.net/ https://www.maboumines.org/ http://www.thinaar.com/ https://perfectcity.org/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

With a bachelor’s degree from Juilliard and a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Midori Samson is not only exquisitely trained in her instrument, the bassoon. Throughout her education she also studied social work, even minoring in the field as she earned her Ph.D. For Midori — who describes herself as equally a bassoonist, educator, activist and scholar — her commitment to equity and social inclusion is inseparable from her artistry. She is a longtime member of Arts Ignite, a non-profit that works with artists to unlock children’s imaginations and potential. Arts Ignite works throughout the country and as far away as India and the Philippines. She is also the proud co-founder and artistic director of Trade Winds Ensemble, a group of professional musicians who teach workshops incorporating music composition, songwriting, interactive games and creative writing to children around the world. Midori’s most recent educational foray abroad took place a few days after this interview when she flew to Turkey to take part in past Art Restart guest Sahba Aminikia’s Flying Carpet Festival, where she was looking forward to creating music with refugee children. In this conversation with Pier Carlo Talenti, Midori explains why her musicianship relies on her social-justice work and vice-versa and discusses the many ways in which the teaching and performing of classical music could be transformed to be radically welcoming. https://www.midorisamson.com/ https://artsignite.org/ https://www.tradewindsensemble.org/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Though Sekou Cooke did not invent the term or the theory of hip-hop architecture, he is one of its leading proponents and practitioners. An architect, urban designer, researcher and curator born and raised in Jamaica and educated at Cornell and Harvard, he currently serves as the Director of the Master of Urban Design at UNC Charlotte. He also owns and operates Sekou Cooke STUDIO, which recently earned a 2022 Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York. Sekou’s recent projects include “Grids + Griots,” an architectural intervention commissioned for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the soon-to-be-built Syracuse Hip-Hop Headquarters that will convert a derelict building in the city’s Near Westside into event and performance venues and a variety of education and office spaces. Two of his designs are also now included on the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety’s list of Approved Standard Plans for Additional Dwelling Units. In 2021, Bloomsbury published Sekou’s “Hip-Hop Architecture,” a monograph that, true to its title and inspiration, is a manifesto and exploration constructed more like a music album combined with expansive liner notes than a traditional academic tome, with its foreword written by noted sociologist and author Michael Eric Dyson. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Sekou draws a line between the fluid and inherently anti-authoritarian nature of hip-hop culture and the kind of equitable and fully participatory built environments hip-hop architecture envisions. https://www.sekoucooke.com/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/hiphop-architecture-9781350116146/ https://www.archdaily.com/435952/keep-talking-kanye-an-architect-s-defense-of-kanye-west Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Maria Sykes earned her architecture degree from Auburn University just as the 2008 recession paralyzed the nation. Unable to find a job right away, she decided to join a classmate who was volunteering with AmeriCorps in the small town of Green River, UT. The plan was to spend a summer in Green River before buckling down to launch her architecture career. That summer turned into her own yearlong commitment to AmeriCorps, which then turned into a second year, with Maria always thinking she’d leave when the economy turned around. What she hadn’t planned on was falling deeply in love with the place and its people. To wit, thirteen years later, she remains not only an enthusiastic Green River resident but also an invaluable community leader. In 2009 she co-founded Epicenter, a community-service nonprofit that over the years has served Green River in a number of ways, from offering low-cost home-repair services to elderly, disabled and low-income homeowners to rehabbing abandoned community parks. Today she remains Epicenter’s executive director. Maria’s own artistic imagination drives much of Epicenter’s work, but she has established a pipeline that guarantees a steady influx of fresh creative visions. Through its Frontier Fellowship program, Epicenter has welcomed scores of artists from around the country and as far away as the UK to reside in Green River, develop their own work and engage with the community in creative, respectful and galvanizing ways. This year the team at Epicenter will proudly mark the culmination of their deep investment in the community when they break ground on Canal Commons, their first multi-unit affordable-housing development, planned in close partnership with Green River stakeholders. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Maria explains the intricacies, joys and challenges of serving a remote, rural community through artistic engagement. www.ruralandproud.org https://vimeo.com/161476495?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=2213578 Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

On January 6, 2021, hearing that Trump supporters were descending on the U.S. Capitol, freelance photographer Shedrick Pelt grabbed goggles, a respirator and his Canon 5D Mark 4 and ran to the scene to document the event. The arresting images he captured on that terrifying day constitute “Attack on Democracy: Through the Lens of a Black Photojournalist,” a traveling exhibit that opened at Gallery O in Washington, DC one year after the attack on the Capitol. Shedrick’s instinct to run towards the danger of that day was based in a bone-deep commitment to community and local storytelling. Moving to D.C. in late 2017, he quickly embedded himself in that city’s artistic community, working with such arts organizations as Exposed DC and Dupont Underground, where he serves as cultural ambassador. He currently sits on the board of Focus on the Story, an internationally recognized non-profit dedicated to promoting the work of leading photographers and providing education and resources for visual artists. His work has been featured in Washingtonian magazine and in exhibits at such institutions as the International Center of Photography in New York and at the Phillips Collection in D.C. He also curates the Look Hear Gallery, which is a revolving gallery that features the Black experience in DC through the lens of Black photographers. And as of 2022, he is a contributing photographer for Getty Images. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Shedrick describes the artistic journey that led him to the Capitol on that fateful day and makes a case for supporting hyper-local artists and storytellers. https://www.sdotpdotmedia.com/home Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Ayo Janeen Jackson enjoyed an enviable dance career after earning her BFA at UNCSA. She danced with two of the world’s most renowned contemporary companies — Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and Ballet Preljocaj — before joining the company of Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Yearning to learn more ways to express herself, though, she shifted her career path. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Arts, and today she remains a performing artist firmly rooted in her body with the difference that she has added several skills to her artistic repertoire, including filmmaking and font design. Along with recent “Art Restart” guest Gregg Mozgala, Ayo received a 2022 Artpreneur Alumni of the Year Award from UNCSA. The award recognizes not only Ayo’s artistic experimentations but also a new skin-care business she has created that is inspired by her artistic research and . In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Ayo describes why and how she set out to broaden her artistic horizons and explains the historic and artistic ethic behind her new business venture. https://www.ayojackson.com/ https://vimeo.com/498440544/5ea55cbbf3 Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

UNCSA alumnus Gregg Mozgala, after years of performing on some of Off-Broadway’s finest stages, is enjoying a well-earned banner year. He recently completed a national tour playing the title character in “Teenage Dick,” a modern take on Shakespeare’s “Richard III” centered on the experience of a high school student with cerebral palsy, and this summer he appeared in “Richard III” itself, alongside film and theater star Danai Gurira, in the Public Theater’s revered Shakespeare in the Park season. This fall he will cap off the year with his Broadway debut in Martyna Majok’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Cost of Living,” reprising the leading role he performed in the play’s premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2018. Gregg can credit that success not only to his acting but also his producing skills. In 2012, determined to make disability and people with disabilities more visible on the nation’s stages, he founded The Apothetae, a New York-based theater company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the disabled experience. The Apothetae has developed several new plays and adaptations from and with both established and up-and-coming artists — disabled and non-disabled, Deaf and hearing — and it is through The Apothetae’s commissioning program that playwright Mike Lew completed “Teenage Dick.” In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Gregg describes how an understanding of his cultural lineage as a disabled performer led him to create a company that celebrates displaying disabled bodies and their stories with unassailable authenticity. http://www.greggmozgala.com/ http://www.theapothetae.org/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

A neuroscientist-turned-artist, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, has long known how to “make the invisible visible,” as her artist statement declares. Her ability to make intricate scientific concepts accessible through art and design earned her a TED residency as well as the opportunity to speak on two TED mainstages. Her numerous works — including an AR installation immersing viewers in the world of microbes and “Beyond Curie,” a project that harnessed both technology and design to celebrate the most badass women in STEM history — have been featured in spaces all over the world, from a highway tunnel in the Netherlands to New York’s Cooper Union.  In the last couple of years, Amanda has focused her talents on engaging with and revealing often-hidden parts of the human psyche, from the bigotry and racist violence that have reared their heads throughout the country to the cumulative trauma and grief of the COVID crisis. As an artist-in-residence with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, she created a citywide mural project titled “I Still Believe in Our City” to counter anti-Asian violence and center the lives and experiences of Asian Americans and people of color as crucial threads in the American fabric. Soon after the shootings at a spa in Atlanta in 2021, Time magazine featured images from the series on its cover. Pier Carlo Talenti spoke to Amanda while she was taking a brief break from troubleshooting one in a series of installations on Lincoln Center plaza in New York City. In this interview she describes the challenges and joys of expanding her artistic practice to invite even more collaborators — from institutions to the public at large — into her creations. https://www.alonglastname.com/ https://www.istillbelieve.nyc/about https://www.lincolncenter.org/series/summer-for-the-city/s/GATHER:%20A%20series%20of%20monuments%20and%20rituals Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

It’s a good thing that director Lear deBessonet and producer Clyde Valentín have extensive experience in community-engaged participatory art — nine years ago she founded the acclaimed Public Works program at the Public Theater in New York City; he was the inaugural director of Ignite/Arts, a renowned community-arts incubator in Dallas since 2015 — because the scope of their newest project, One Nation/One Project, would overwhelm most artists and administrators. One Nation/One Project, a partnership with the National League of Cities, is a truly national multi-year health-and-wellness initiative. Over the next two years, 18 communities scattered throughout the country will create hyper-local participatory and collaborative art works that in July of 2024 will be shared with a national audience. It’s a hugely ambitious project, a reimagining of the 1930s Federal Theatre Project, that looks to capitalize on a well-documented fact, namely that participating in the arts makes individuals and communities healthier. Among the first cohort of nine sites that One Nation/One Project recently announced is the Kenan Institute’s very own community of Winston-Salem and surrounding Forsythe County. The Institute is working with several local partners — including the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, Forsyth County Department of Public Health, United Health Centers and the City of Winston-Salem Department of Community Development — to support the program. The other eight communities chosen are Gainesville, FL; Chicago, IL; Utica, MS; Providence, RI; Rhinelander, WI; Harlan County, KY; Edinburg, TX; and Phillips County, AR, focusing on the cities of Elaine and Helena. In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Lear and Clyde describe how they conceived and designed their ambitious project and share their hopes for the national healing the 18 local creations might engender.  https://www.onenationoneproject.com/ Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.