Shana Sippy, PhD
Exhibitions
I have been privileged to have the opportunity to collaborate with a number of performing, and visual artists in a range of different settings. I have also curated three different exhibitions, some of which have incorporated the voices of community members and/or have involved student projects.
Collaborations have involved a number of projects with members of Ragamala Dance Company with support from Minnesota State Arts grants, including performances of Stree, which included community engagement programming and educational partnerships with local high schools and performances of Sacred Earth, which also included an artist-in-residence workshop with Warli artist Anil Vangad, a performance and workshop with singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya and company, with commentary and translation by Dr. Linda Hess ("Songs of Longing and Liberation: Featuring the Devotional Poetry and Protest of Dalit Singer-Saints). I have also organized guest lectures and screenings with choreographer and dancer Dr. Ananya Chatterjea, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, as well as a number of poets and novelists.
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Beyond Borders: the Art of Siona Benjamin, Centre College Norton Center for the Arts, which was generously supported by a grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund. The exhibition began at Centre College and is traveling to the Milwaukee Jewish Museum, the Skirball Museum in Cincinnati, and the Cleveland State University Art Museum. The solo show of Benjamin's work was augmented by gallery talks recorded by students in two courses Performing Tradition: Art Religion and Globalization and a first-year seminar Imagining Home: Religious and Cultural Identities in Diaspora. Some of these talks and more about the exhibition can be heard on the website linked above and here. The website, which includes a copy of the exhibition catalogue and an online version of the exhibition, will be augmented by students of Professor Samantha Baskind at Cleveland State University. This website is still under construction.
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Sita in the City: The Ramayana's Heroine in New York, curated with Anne Murphy at Columbia University's Low Library Rotunda. Incorporating the work of visual artists, ritual objects, and community voices from within the greater New York area.
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Hearing the Voices: Celebrating Diversity at Faribault High School, Faribault, MN—an outgrowth of the ReligionsMN Initiative and community partnerships developed through my Seeing is Believing: Global Religions in MN fieldwork-based course, taught at Carleton College.