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Connected Roots Summit

Connected Roots Summit

Welcome to the Connected Roots Summit Portal.

Date: Friday, Nov. 17, 2023
Where: Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), 273 E. Erie St.

Please note: event registration is closed. No walk-ups permitted.


We are excited to welcome you to the Connected Roots Summit on November 17! This professional development opportunity draws inspiration from "Emergent Strategy" by adrienne maree brown, offering adaptable approaches to social and organizational change through biomimicry, imitating natural systems.

Our "aha" moment came from the idea that certain plants, trees, and fungi share root systems to communicate, strengthen, and nourish themselves. In a way, the Partnership for the Arts & Humanities serves as the shared root system nurturing youth in our community. By enhancing our communication, connections, and knowledge exchange, we make our "plants" stronger and more resilient.

Summit presenters will dive into this content through artistic lenses, offering captivating "spark workshops." These workshops aim to ignite your creativity and encourage fresh perspectives on your work, whether it's in programming, partnership building, or embracing change. Guided reflections in each workshop provide the time and space to apply your learnings to your work.

We recognize our partners’ wealth of knowledge and years of experience, and we believe professional growth can happen by sharing our collective expertise. This belief will fuel the creative networking portion of the summit, where attendees will be paired based on how they answer a series of questions before the summit. Each conversation has the potential to further connect or reinforce our shared roots in service of young people.

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  Event Schedule

12:30-1 p.m. - Registration, questionnaire, and pre-event activity (Lower Level) 

1-1:15 p.m. - Welcome remarks Student Union (Lower level) 

1:15-3:30 p.m. - Spark Workshop presentations and guided reflection by Symphony Swan, Madam Chino, and Klassik Student Union (Lower level)

3:30-3:45 p.m. - Fika (coffee and snacks) Student Union (Lower level) 

3:45-4:30 p.m. - Creativity pairings Classrooms (4th floor) 

4:30-4:45 p.m. - Wrap, evaluation/post-event activity Student Union (Lower level)

4:45-5:30 p.m. - Break 

5:30-6:30 p.m. - Program crawl at Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. (optional - pre-registration required) 

6:30 p.m. - Optional Off-site networking at Merriment Social (240 E. Pittsburgh Ave.)

  Check-In

The event starts promptly at 1 p.m.

Please allow time for parking. Plan to arrive as early as 12:30 p.m. to sign in, complete a pre-event activity, and get settled.

Feel free to bring program materials or swag to share with Summit guests so that we can learn more about your program.

  Transit & Parking Information

MIAD is accessible from several public transit lines with bus stops nearby. 

There is a mix of free and metered street parking on both sides of the river within three blocks of MIAD. There are also all-day paid lots available.

  Food & Drink

Coffee and snacks will be provided. We encourage you to bring a refillable water bottle.

  Accessibility

Ramps are available to access the main entrance. Elevators are accessible to get to all spaces needed within the Summit at MIAD.

  Program Crawl

5:30-6:30 p.m.

Optional. Pre-registration required. Space is limited. 

If you pre-registered for the optional program crawl, we will meet at Radio Milwaukee at 5:30 p.m. (220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.) 

There will be a break from 4:45-5:30 p.m. to allow time to move cars if needed and commute to Radio Milwaukee. 

On Nov. 17, we will see Grace Weber’s Music Lab, a free monthly music and arts education program for greater Milwaukee area high school students. At the Music Lab, students have the opportunity to learn about the music and entertainment industries through featured guests. They are also given the opportunity to collaborate, perform, and build relationships with their peers. The Lab on Nov. 17 will be a collaboration between Radio Milwaukee and Milwaukee Film’s Take 1 youth filmmakers. 

The Program Crawl is an opportunity to get to see programming from fellow organizations within the Partnership for the Arts & Humanities network. While we will just be visiting one program on Nov. 17, the hope is that this will kick off a larger program crawl in 2024 so that grantees get opportunities to learn from and be inspired by one another.

  Post-Event Off-Site Networking

Networking continues from 6:30 p.m.

Optional off-site networking at Merriment Social (240 E. Pittsburgh Ave.)

  What are attendees hoping to gain?

"I am looking forward to the workshops and the insights the presenters will be bringing. I am constantly seeking new ways to foster more creativity within our youth."

"I am excited to continue my professional development and meet other arts education professionals!"

"I am excited to make connections with other groups and hopefully open doors for future collaboration and partnership."

"I am super excited about the intentional partnering this summit will provide. Milwaukee's youth non-profit sector has often been viewed as siloed organizations and I believe initiatives such as this one disrupt that narrative!"

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Spread the word! Let your arts & humanities network know that you are attending Milwaukee Recreation's inaugural Connected Roots Summit.

Click to download a social media graphic here.

Meet the Presenters

Symphony Swan

Symphony Swan-Zawadi, BFA, M.Ed. is an interdisciplinary artist, archivist, art teacher, non profit leader and arts and cultural curator. She is the founder of a rising community third space, THE CR8TV HOUSE, INC., which houses a teaching art gallery, accessible studio spaces, and a communal Black family archive.

A Milwaukee native, Symphony sits on the Board of Trustees for the Milwaukee Art Museum, Signature Dance Company, and Life reDefined.  She is also the co-founder of BlankSpace MKE, which launched Milwaukee Black Restaurant Week. She is a member of the Gener8tor Art Fall 2023 cohort and centers her personal art practice on integrating family and place. Her evolving artistic practice involves skillfully layering historical narratives with contemporary elements, visually articulating internal dialogues about people, place, and time, now with a pronounced community-focused approach.

Symphony holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a graduate degree in educational leadership from Cardinal Stritch. Symphony strongly believes that artists can help solve complex problems and leverages her network to ensure artists get the support, opportunities, and access they need to do just that.

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  Symphony Swan's Presentation Summary

"Designing Your Emergent Strategy" is a curated workshop based on Adrienne Maree Brown's "Emergent Strategy." It introduces participants to the nine principles of Emergent Strategy and helps them create a radical roadmap and strategy aligned with community work.

The workshop includes interactive activities with post-it notes and specially designed worksheets for sharing and inspiration. The primary goals are to encourage participants to read the book and reevaluate their approaches to change and collaboration.

Madam Chino

Vanessa Devaki Andrew (Madam Chino) is an artist, illustrator, clothing & textile designer and producer, community educator, and reuse entrepreneur living and working in Milwaukee.  Milwaukee is home to her U.S.-made, sustainable, reuse clothing brand, Madam Chino, which started 2003 and strives to remove the vanity and social irresponsibility from fashion through creative reuse.

She has been teaching sewing, entrepreneurship, and community arts to youth and adults in the Milwaukee area for 20 years through her own shop and over 15 amazing local organizations, afterschool programs, and schools.

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  Madam Chino's Presentation Summary

The presentation will explore the themes of repurposing and discovering new connections and meaning in existing materials, emphasizing the beauty in what already exists. Madam Chino will discuss the positive impact of incorporating nature-inspired modalities into art and education.

Through examples of Madam Chino’s work, she will highlight concepts like found-object art, zero-waste constraints, materials-informed design, and the importance of prioritizing the creative process over the final product, with an emphasis on facilitating and guiding rather than controlling materials or students.

Klassik

Kellen “Klassik” Abston is an award-winning Milwaukee-based musician, producer, songwriter, performing artist, and community curator. Named the City of Milwaukee's 2021 Mildred L. Harpole "Artist of the Year", Klassik's jazz-saturated hip-hop/soul, informed by years of traditional jazz study and Milwaukee Public Schools arts education, has taken him from summer festival stages and crowds of thousands, to classroom settings inspiring youth of all ages throughout Wisconsin.

His 2019 LP, "QUIET.", was named the no. 1 album of the year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and was awarded Critic's Choice and Solo Artist honors at the 2019 Radio Milwaukee Music Awards. In 2022, Klassik collaborated with both the Milwaukee Art Museum, producing the original composition and video performance "Nobody's Watching", and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, producing and performing an all-original score for their production of Brian Quijada’s "Where Did We Sit On The Bus?". A true "Klass Act," Klassik works to stir the souls of listeners into action with empathy, passion, and purpose through his own vulnerable and self-reflective sonic art.

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  Klassik's Presentation Summary

In this workshop titled "4 The 4est," we will explore how intention and awareness contribute to stronger foundations, much like the root systems of a dynamic "4est" (a nod to my love for the "414"). Using a music production and songwriting metaphor, participants will collaborate on an original composition, building upon provided instrumental and chorus elements.

Klassik will emphasize the importance of understanding space within the composition, allowing room for different "branches" (lyrics/verses) to grow. Following a breakdown of the initial song structure, participants will brainstorm and collectively arrange words and phrases, leaving them inspired to approach their work with intention, awareness, and creative problem-solving.

Contact

April Heding 

Afterschool Arts & Humanities Manager
Phone: 414-475-8508
Email: April [at] mkerec.net

(When emailing our staff, please replace the "[at]" with a traditional "@" symbol. Ex: Staff@mkerec.net)

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