What is this?

Gabfestry will be an opportunity for politically minded artists (of all media) to geek-out, talk shop, learn from each other, and share our experiences and concerns.  This event will be a chance (for six days) to plug in to perspectives of a broader movement, when all-too-often it’s easy to feel like isolated cells working in a vacuum or specific genre. Each day will hold a variety of curated lectures, panel discussions, performances, and workshops. These moments of wisdom will be highly interactive, not just podium/expert wonky talk! We’re hoping you’ll reach out to us soon to let us know what you’d like to share as a participant/performer during this special opportunity for cross-pollination… and of course, we also plan to hold some time slots open so that participants can as-it-happens suggest/organize their own workshops or discussions on topics of particular interest to them. To keep the quality of the events and our interactions high, we plan to limit registration to 200 people “from away”, plus local folks from our hosting community.

Who is putting this on? Why?

This event is being initiated by individual members of the Missoula Oblongata and the Beehive Design Collective. We are co-creating this rare thinktank opportunity because, as political artists working full-time, there are far too few moments when we’re surrounded by peers and able to have advanced level dialogue about pivitol perspectives & strategies that pertain to our specific efforts. Also, many of our creative co-horts are SO extra busy, that we don’t always get to learn from what other folks are doing in their locales outside of peeks through the official-story lens created by the internet. We love backstory! In short, we feel a good old fashioned realtime hoot is beyond urgent! If you’re feeling that need as well, please come be here with us as we convene this special moment of co-evolution!

Right this second, all planning, correspondance and content is being handled by a team connected by human switchboard Donna Oblongata, and all hosting/Machias-based preparations are being made by the meticulous Kehben Grifter, the Beehive Design Collective and their local Machias collaborators.  If you’re interested in helping with either aspect of organizing this event, please be in touch.

For More Information visit: http://thegabfestry.tumblr.com/tagged/faq

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