Park Avenue Armory Announces Six Micro-commissions for Symposium: Sound & Color, January 14 and 15

Park Avenue Armory announces six micro-commissions to be presented on Saturday, January 14 and Sunday, January 15, 2023 as part of Symposium: Sound & Color - The Future of Race in Design, an interdisciplinary forum exploring how race matters in creative design for live performance, especially in the current moment of creative, technological, and cultural unrest. Commissioned artists will create installations and pop-up activations that push their respective disciplines to the forefront showcasing the unique artistry and high impact of designers on overall live performances.

Commissioned artists include: Barrymore-nominated scenic designer Marie Laster; designer and artisan Danielle DeLaFuente and sound designer Nina Field; queer, nonbinary interdisciplinary artist Gylanni Carrington; Mexican scenic and costume designer Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez; sound designer and composer Elliot Yokum; and lighting designers Christina Tang and Alex Vásquez Dheming. These young BIPOC artists have been selected in collaboration with Design Action, an intergenerational coalition of Black, indigenous, people of color, and white designers advocating for a radical shift in the landscape of North American theatre design.

"We are thrilled to have these commissioned artists participate at this timely gathering of creative voices," says the symposium host committee, including lighting designer Jane Cox, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman. "Their new works add additional context and dimension to this convening, broadening our perspectives with their points of view and bringing the spirit of live performance and energy to the weekend. We can't wait to see what works and connections they create as they push our industry into the future."

"The Armory's Public Programming series has a long history of commissioning in conjunction with our productions, conversations, symposia, and other initiatives" says Tavia Nyong'o, curator of Public Programming. "We are proud to continue this tradition and to spotlight the work of these young and rising BIPOC designers to the public and the live performance industry."

Symposium: Sound & Color will also include a series workshops, conversations, and interventions, intended to allow artists, intellectuals, and designers to explore lighting, sound, costume, and set design, as well as augmented reality, as sites of innovation, magic, and transformation. Further information about the symposium and overall schedule is available here.

Day passes at $45 (plus fees) and weekend passes at $60 (plus fees) are available for purchase online at armoryonpark.org and by phone through the Park Avenue Armory Box Office at (212) 933-5812, 10am to 6pm Monday through Friday. In person box office hours may vary.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Armory's 2023 Season Sponsor.

Support for Park Avenue Armory's artistic season has been generously provided by the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Leon Levy Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg, the Richenthal Foundation, and the Isak and Rose Weinman Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory's Artistic Council.