2020 Vision
Moving from division to a greater Vision,
a 2-year Mmmwhah! initiative
What would our Vision be if we looked from a distance beyond 20 feet, with new eyes?
Note: We've had to make some changes due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and have moved this online to a social media campaign - just launched May 1, 2020!
See some sneak peaks and details in the Gallery>>
Mmmwhah's 2020 Vision Initiative
Mmmwhah's 2020 Vision Initiative
Partners
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Growing Up Boulder
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Natural Highs
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Centennial Middle School
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Boulder High School
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New Vista High School
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Whittier Elementary
Seeking more partners
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BVSD teachers
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groups, organizations, and
individuals who want to share
their "new eyes"
Thanks! for a partial sponsorship to
"20/20 vision" has been the baseline gauge since the year 1862 of how well we humans see at a distance of 20 feet, on average. But what's the gauge of our Vision with a capital "V"? And how do we want to define that? Surely, we need a perspective from further away than 20 feet!
Looking ahead just a smidge for starts, we expect the year 2020, with the next U.S. presidential election, may be another challenging year. The country and our communities have been experiencing increasing rancor and divisiveness that does not bode well for our collective future. In the 2020 Vision Project, we are nourishing and inspiring people and helping the evolution from Di-vision to Vision. Using a “Mindfulness through the Arts” approach, we activate and empower audiences and participants by providing inspiration, key tools, practices, and alternatives to oppositional, linear, and habitual thinking. We help participants and attendees gain access to “new eyes” and clarity of their own greater Vision, which can propel them to stay engaged through any difficult times.
This is a non-partisan project designed to promote engagement in our democracy, freedom of speech, and creative problem solving.
The 2020 Vision Project launched in January 2019 with workshops and playshops on topics such as “From Fear to Flow” and “Visioning through Art,” with more events and workshops to come. We are also re-emphasizing our Art & Activism practice of writing postcards to key officials and decision-makers as part of our daily lives and are engaging the schools and community in designing “2020 Vision” postcards that can serve to both get the word out about this initiative and prompt people to use the postcards to write decision makers and VIPs at any level -- from the head of one’s own household, to the principal of a school, to the Mayor or City Council, all the way to the President of the United States -- with ideas for how we can move from a divisive society to one with greater Vision.
Mmmwhah! is a grass roots movement that fosters and invigorates creativity and community among artists, friends, neighbors, and kindred spirits, countering the trend towards polarization, division, and linear thinking. Conceived in October 2016 by founder Merlyn Holmes, Mmmwhah! was spurred into being by the November 2016 U.S. Presidential election and her experience and observation of the acrimony and divisiveness that ensued.
That work is not complete. It's time to focus on 2020. Stay tuned...
Preliminary Events
Next Up: August 2019 - December 2020:
2020 Vision Postcard Design Creation and Writing Campaign
In partnership with Growing Up Boulder and Natural Highs, Mmmwhah! is spearheading a postcard design competition among K-12 children and youth of Boulder through the schools and community organizations. Young people will design what "New Eyes" might be needed for this new way of seeing that can help us move from division to a greater Vision. Then we'll launch a print and social media postcard-writing campaign to decision-makers at all levels using these cards to share ideas about how we can move from a divisive society to one with greater Vision, through the end of 2020.
2020 Vision: A Preview | May 24, 12:30 - 1 pm | Dairy Arts Center, Boulder
A second Mmmwhah! Ensemble-in-formation will explore what it is to have "new eyes" and what our 2020 Vision initiative might look like and sound like in a performance space, as part of Katie Elliott's "Open Space." Come support this inquiry. | 7 minutes between 12:30 and 1 pm | Free.
This multi-modality ensemble is comprised of musicians, dancers, and artists Kathryn Aronson, Chuck Ceraso, Khiri Lee, Judi Strahota, Michael Travers, Roy Willey, and founder Merlyn Holmes. Also Marta Aarli, James Marienthal, and Joy Schultz, who will not be present for this performance.
Second Sunday Mmmwhah! Gatherings
Free dance, art-making, and live improvisational music. | Jan 13, Feb 10: Visioning Theme | 2-4:30 pm | $10-$20+| Please RSVP. Location TBD based on numbers attending.
Art Visioning, a Mmmwhah! Art Playshop with Khiri Lee
What do you want to see happen as the year unfolds? Come create some "new eyes" that can help you see into and create your future.
We will play with a wide variety of unexpected and inspiring art materials, accessing creativities from different insights and angles and activities. The end result will be a spectacular, wearable sculpture/costume, which will serve to remind you how to access your artistic visions. Come embark on this site-seeing, sight-seeing, re-visioning, art odyssey with Mmmwhah!
$100 | Three Sundays, Jan 20 & 27, Feb 3 | 2-4 pm | "Boulder Circus Center
Moving from Fear to Flow, a Mmmwhah! Vocal Playshop, with Aileen Hayden
We'll be playing with specific techniques to identify when fear and unwanted inhibition begin to arise, then working with them to stay in our creative flow. Applicable far beyond our "vocal playshop" of course. This is a key skill to develop as part of our 2020 Vision Project. For vocalists and non-vocalists.
Mon, Jan 14, 6-8 pm | Boulder Circus Center
$25 or save by signing up for the whole Winter Series for $150
Every Wednesday | Art & Activism | 9:30-10:30 am
Art and Activism go together like Coffee and Bagels. Join us each and every week to tend the state of our nation and write postcards and make phone calls to elected officials and decision makers. It's way more fun doing this together! Coffee and bagels, postcards and stamps provided. Facilitated by Sandra Bierman. | Silver Sage Cohousing, 1650 Yellow Pine, Boulder