HISTORY
glo’s work in Atlanta and rural communities began in 2009 when one visionary Southern woman artist- lauri stallings- recognized real potential in using choreography as a tool box to directly address the pressing social, economic, and spiritual needs of her Southern heritage. Where others saw obstacles, stallings saw a future site for positive, creative, and transformative experiences in the Deep South. With a team of female moving artists, a nimble staff, board, and volunteer guild, stallings began to explore how they could be a resource to the community and how movement might be an engine for social transformation. This is how the glo story began.
With our platform engaged with a community of creative thinkers and the neighbors around them, glo quickly began to shift the understanding of dance from traditional studio practice to a more conceptual base of transforming the social environment. While glo was a platform of artists, they were also advocates.
glo is and has always been a unique experiment in activating the intersections between art, enlightenment, and restoration. Mindful of the history and depth in civic-minded movements in Georgia, glo began deep listening on what a practice would look like if it encompassed the living histories stored in the bodies of Southern women and all marginalized communities.
Over the next 13 years the platform brought together groups and pooled resources to materialize sustainable opportunities to meet communities where they are at: on Main Street in rural towns, sidewalks in big cities, public schools in marginalized neighborhoods, preservation landmarks, museum galleries, and symphony halls, helping to cultivate artists to disrupt the traditional systems.
While the glo approach is informed by many points of view, not the least of which is that of community members, our team is inspired by the thinking of Joseph Beuys, a conceptual artist who coined the term “Social Sculpture” to represent ways that bodies of information stored in the daily lives of people are art. Adopting Beuys’ philosophy implied a specific commitment to breaking the rules of the art world by subscribing to a new line of thinking- the sidewalk was the studio, the studio operated as a space for process, process is made up of the community, the community are the people, and the people are where what matters resides. In this case, the artists and people participating in glo are the art, making something new, and that something is their being.
Early “Mapping” initiatives for public groups of dancers and people that centered the notion of the deep South as a formal exercise–one defined by collective body, creative agency, and theory synthesis–informed and shaped the ideals of glo. “Outsider artist” was a style that originated in the South and expressed geography isolation, and can be called improvisational or “my way” art. Uninhibited by the norms of traditional art, we are guided by a faith in personal vision; building anew in each encounter; each time remembering how the shape of your hand fit softly into mine. Remembering the pathways to the river, to the church, to the school and honoring each of those moments with the same reverence. This is archeology of gestures, gesturing.
glo offers on average 55 free and public live art engagements each year in the Deep South. According to past surveys, more than 73% of glo’s audience earn less than the median household income, and is comprised of people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.
