Celebrating Weird & Wonderful Art: Maelstrom Collaborative Arts' Saturnalia 2024

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I decided to write this blog post for two purposes:

• First, to thank the leadership of Maelstrom Collaborative Arts for their Saturnalia 2024 gathering which took place on Saturday, January 27, 2024.

  . . . kick off our sixth year with the return of Saturnalia, our night to celebrate the art and artsy made at Maelstrom Collaborative Arts!

• Second, and the more important reason, is that Saturnalia 2024 represents a return to normality, and kicks off the realization of more great art events in the future!

  Our last Saturnalia party was December 2019! Obviously, a lot has changed since then . . .
  
  We had such plans at that Saturnalia, plans that did not account for a global pandemic. But despite it all, we continued to make an array of boundary-pushing art.

I look forward to more events at their location, and recommend that everyone visit their website to learn more: MaelstromCollaborativeArts.org

Here is a video I created from my photos and videos from the Saturnalia 2024 evening. I hope you enjoy viewing them, and that they encourage you to attend one of their shows in the future:

I recommend viewing this video in full screen mode!

Thank you to Jasmine A. Golphin for sending me the names of the performers in the order they appear in the video above, and their names on Instagram:

1. MWMM (Muddy Window, Muddy Mirror)
   Instagram: @vocal_columna
2. Dusty Bucket
   Instagram: @Dvstybvcket (with a "V" instead if "U")
3. Molly Andrews-Hinders
   Instagram: @mollyandrewshinders
4. Double D'Lee and Issa Vybe
   Instagram: @double.d.lee and @im_issavybe

 

 

Learn about Maelstrom Collaborative Arts' Mission, Leadership, and Location

Mission
Maelstrom Collaborative Arts is dedicated to serving the growth of innovative artists at the borders of diverse genres, disciplines and media. We produce live performances that foster collaboration between artists and audiences and invite them into new adventurous territory.

I support what Maelstrom Collaborative Arts has created, and I was impressed by the friendliness of everyone at Saturnalia 2024. The format of the evening allowed the performers to become the audience for other performers, and therefore encouraged everyone to socialize.

Jeremy Paul - Executive Artistic Director
Jeremy Paul is the founder and Executive Artistic Director of Maelstrom Collaborative Arts since 2006. Primarily working in the field of devised theater, Jeremy has led the creation of the original productions Who We Used To Be, Don't Wander Off, Broken Codes, The Turing Machine, The Grand Celebration of the Celestial Mystery, TingleTangle, Code: Preludes, The Excavation, and Marble Cities. He is also the co-creator of the original works The Last Day (with the Maelstrom Cadre), NICK&JEREMY (with Nick Riley), Absence (with Michael Rau) and The Beetlebug and the Bad Worm (with Faye Hargate). Jeremy has also directed the world and regional premieres of many plays in Northeast Ohio, including Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, Stranded on Earth, Black Cat Lost, My Barking Dog, Inoculations and Anna Bella Eema. Jeremy graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with dual majors in Theater and Film, and has post-graduate training with the Pig Iron Theatre Company, New World Performance Lab and the Celebration Barn International School for the Performing Arts. Jeremy is a recipient of CPAC Creative Workforce Fellowships in 2012 and 2016.

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It was good to talk to Jeremy Paul, who is the founder and executive artistic director of Maelstrom Collaborative Arts. I remember meeting him years ago at theatre performances I attended, which included: Broken Codes, The Turing Machine, and many more. Most of his work that I have experienced was under the name of the predecessor of Maelstrom Collaborative Arts. I told him that now, post-pandemic, things have returned to normal, and I look forward to experiencing his new work.

Jasmine A. Golphin - Associate Artistic Director
Jasmine A. Golphin is a filmmaker, visual artist and producer born and raised in several Cleveland neighborhoods. She has created and managed film education programs with leading non-profits such as MyCom and the Cleveland International Film Festival for over 8 years. Jasmine's words have been published in HitRecord's Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Shadow And Act and Alturus. Her film work -which spans from documentaries to web series and feature films- has been recognized by Octavia Spencer’s Short Film competition and the Short. Sweet. Film Fest. No, she hasn't seen that whatever show you are about to suggest but she promises to add it to her ever expanding queue.

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It was so good to see Maelstrom Collaborative Arts Associate Artistic Director Jasmine A. Golphin again! The last time I saw her we were all wearing COVID-19 masks, but I still greatly enjoyed her “Above | Below” original virtual reality (VR) show in September 2022. If she ever presents her show again with the virtual world she created, I highly recommend attending. Here is some information about “Above | Below,” and some photos of what I shared on social media. I have also included photos that Jasmine took of me exploring her VR world in 2022:

JASMINE A. GOLPHIN PRESENTS
Above | Below
A surreal, meditative VR project about the (life)cycles we find ourselves on.

Guests will experience Above | Below in two parts: Exploration and Creation within the virtual worlds designed with Open Brush. You’ll see the (other) world I created and be invited to create your own.

If you’ve seen Facebookland or the VR component of Four Futures, know that this project is more expansive and intimate than those previous ones. If you haven’t, just know we’ll be exploring space, the collective unconscious, religion, nature, conflict, resolution, the unknowable, and just like, a whole lot of weird feelings.

Enlarge Images from 2022
     

Maelstrom Headquarters
In 2017, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts moved into an historic storefront at West 54th and Detroit to accommodate our smaller productions and provide rehearsal, workshop/classroom space and administrative offices. Maelstrom HQ is now the hub of our collaborative work and continues to help us grow and advance our mission.

Maelstrom Collaborative Arts's rehearsal and performance studio is located in the Gordon Square Arts District.

 

 

Related Blog Posts

I always like to include in my blog posts a list of related posts, but I have so many under these tags that I will just recommend exploring the following:

• Art

• Theatre

I hope this blog post encourages you to learn more about Maelstrom Collaborative Arts and to partake in some of their entertainment!