Kristy Edmunds Falls Forward into a New Year
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Photo of Kristy Edmunds by Lovis Ostenrick/Courtesy CAP UCLA
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"Last March I spoke to Kristy Edmunds, Executive and Artistic Director, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, about her decision to cancel the remainder of their season early in the pandemic. I reached out again to find out how Edmunds and CAP UCLA navigated 2020 and what she expected 2021 to have in store for the arts.
We spoke on December 15th as 2020 was nearing its end; the Covid crisis was escalating instead of diminishing; a new president had been elected and three weeks before the turmoil that shocked the world on January 6th.
Last week we got an update on CAP UCLA’s remaining events in their 2020-2021 season when it was announced on January 15th that all previously scheduled live events for this season had been cancelled. Not a surprise after what Edmunds told me.
What follows are excerpts from that conversation which have been edited for length and clarity.
When we spoke in March you said that it was important on an emotional and structural level to have a future time you can work towards. How have you managed the constantly shifting realities of the pandemic and how that impacts your ability to put a schedule together?
You know what I did at the beginning, I think you fall forward towards your biggest values. It clarifies things, at least for me. I had to pull my mind towards what is it we can do. What is my top priority? I decided early on to start initiating commissions, as in micro-commissions, commission with a small “c,” to as many different artists as we could to manifest different kinds of work.
What are you seeing as the cultural response, particularly in the creation of new material, to this past year?
There’s a lot of pretty deep soul searching. What is the work that feels the most necessary? Not necessarily my next idea, but what do I have to offer into this dialogue now where this economy is profoundly altered. I think many of them – and it depends on the art form – what are the stories that need to be told that help the public find a way back together. They are composing and making and thinking. You watch artists really authentically try to invent how they can contribute their artistry in a different way, which is revealing their humanity in a different way. There’s been a lot of really remarkable results.
Our biggest concern is how we put our bodies back together and try to hold a stage in a meaningful way. An audience is going to be ready to see us at top speed. It will take us a while to get there."—Craig L. Byrd, Jan. 20, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full interview on the Cultural Attaché website.
Read more about Kristy Edmunds.
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