UNE’s Add Verb Productions Participates in International Conference on Applied Arts

University of New England’s Add Verb Productions will be among the artists, activists and academics from around the world who will gather at North Edinburgh Arts Centre in Pilton, England September 8-10, 2011 to explore developments in arts practices that can engage critically with society.  Add Verb’s Director Cathy Plourde will present on ethics of youth/community education related to eating disorders, dating abuse and sexual assault at the “Knowing Ways Conference: Critical Learning in Arts Practice,” an international conference on Applied Arts.

The conference brings together a wide range of practitioners from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa to share experiences and exchange ideas. In recent decades, with increasing and ever-changing social, political and economic pressures and crises in diverse societies, practitioners in the visual and performing arts have produced a growing range of approaches through which ordinary citizens use the arts to explore and express their situations, challenging the structures and people who limit their development.

Through a lively mix of formal presentations, workshops, exhibitions, screenings and performances, conference participants will encounter work with Somali refugees in Finland, with Hispanic Americans, with disabled groups in Northern Ireland, with tribal peoples in Orissa, India, with Black and Asian youth in Liverpool and Bradford, and many more projects, from the Shetlands to Croatia, Malaysia to Muirhouse.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.