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A couple of days in to our stay, Deb told me she thought I would find much in common with her Jamestown Community College colleague and friend Shannon Bessette, (Debra is art professor there). Shannon is anthropologist and Director of Social Sciences at JCC. (www.sunyjcc.edu)
Deb invited Shannon for breakfast one morning and hit it off straight away and had the opportunity for lots more conversations over the two weeks. As well as being an academic Shannon also practices archaeology and is extremely active in her community, being involved in running a community growing scheme and also in animal welfare charities. I suspect that this is only scratching the surface and I am sure that She is involved in a ton more stuff – she seems like that sort of person, who does stuff. Like talking to Deb, it was a gift having the opportunity to develop a connection with Shannon too and to talk about our experiences of art, activism, community and politics. I am particularly drawn to Shannon’s anthropology practice and to discovering more about the interstices of art and anthropology particularly in terms of the ethics involved in working with people.
One lunchtime, at the excellent veggie cafe Labyrinth, Shannon myself and fellow COLONIZE artist Kimbal Bumstead were getting stuck in to these ideas (Kim also works with people in his journeying and performance work: http://www.kimbalbumstead.com/art/Home.html) and it struck us that here we have the basis for a potential future collaboration, to examine the nature of exchange and what it means in our respective practices. Deb is also very interested in developing this idea, so already we have started tentative discussions to talk through the possibilities for our next joint Jamestown/UK collaboration… I am very, very excited.
