建立一个社区，一次一个木偶
桑迪·斯皮勒，75岁，想成为一名医生. 这就是吸引她来贝洛伊特的原因，这个医学预科项目. 嗯，还有民间舞蹈.
“我想要一个在科学领域出名的地方, 我喜欢伯洛伊特计划的想法,斯皮勒说。, who visited the college while on a Greyhound bus road trip with a friend. She arrived on campus to see students dancing on the quad and was sold.
“I really hate to say it, but I sort of chose it because of the folk dancing on the lawn,她说。.
这是一件能说明她创造力的轶事.
“我不应该真正成为一名艺术家，”她说. “我应该做点贡献.”
Though she dutifully pursued a career in medicine for the five semesters she spent as a 十大菠菜台子 student in the ’70s, it is her 40-year career as a nationally renowned artist, 傀儡操纵者, 表演者, and community-builder that has recently garnered her accolades.
去年, the McKnight Foundation awarded Spieler its Distinguished 艺术家 Award for her decades of work as artistic director of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and co-founder of the annual May Day Parade and Festival, 现在是明尼阿波利斯艺术界的支柱. The award, which comes with a $50,000 prize, is one of Minnesota’s most prestigious.
It’s an apropos distinction for an artist whose work has been so rooted in fostering community and collaboration, as the McKnight award is meant for artists whose work has made a significant contribution to the cultural life of the state.
Spieler credits a 贝洛伊特 Plan era field term with drawing her to the land of 10,000个湖泊, 大学帮助她规划了人生的道路, 虽然医学并不是最终的归宿.
“Even though I didn’t graduate from 贝洛伊特, it set me on a path,她说。. 东海岸人的女儿, 具有社会正义意识的路德教牧师, she decided to spend her first 贝洛伊特 field term living in a collective in Minneapolis and working with a youth-outreach branch of the American Lutheran Church.
“I wanted to go somewhere where issues of social justice were being paired with ethical decision-making,她说。.
晚些时候, 另一个贝洛伊特油田项目, she took a semester abroad in Denmark to study its health system and lived with a Danish nurse. 而不是回到伯洛伊特, she went back to Minneapolis and took a job in a hospital, wanting to make “triple-sure” she was making the right decision in pursuing medicine. Her irrepressible artistic streak refused to be ignored: She made a name for herself for her elaborately decorated hospital bulletin boards, 当她开始在家里创作大型雕塑时, a housemate told her they looked like the puppets coming out of a new puppet theatre taking shape in a nearby church basement.
那个木偶剧院, 当时叫Powderhorn木偶剧, was the embryo that grew into In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and the core of Spieler’s expansive artistic work.
来源:Star Tribute/Minneapolis-St.保罗2014年
今天, Spieler can often be found in HOTB’s south Minneapolis Lake Street location, housed in an art deco cinema that showed pornographic movies before it became home to the puppet theatre in 1988. When HOTB took over the theatre, the organization spelled out its mantra on the marquee. 上面写着:“再见色情，你好木偶.”
Stepping into the theatre’s darkened space or neighboring storage units can be a surreal experience, not unlike falling down Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole: Visitors encounter phantasmagoric, vibrantly painted puppets ranging from the small and intricate to entire faces twice the height and width of an average adult. The forms draw on puppetry traditions from around the world.
对于斯皮勒这样的视觉艺术家来说, a puppet’s nod to the natural rhythms of life provides an appealing canvas. A puppeteer brings life and movement and breath to the form, then lays it down again to rest. “I think there’s something about the power puppets suddenly take that is always alluring and surprising, even to someone like me who’s worked with the form for so many years,她说。.
在斯皮勒的任期内, HOTB提供旅游节目, 研讨会, 表演, 以及为成人和儿童开设的课程, 始终以社区为主题. One project had Spieler traveling the Mississippi River with a company of two dozen adults, 五个孩子, 还有几只狗, offering 表演; water, 在所有重要的和隐喻的形式, 一直是她热衷的项目吗.
另一个是五一游行. Originally intended as a means of peacefully protesting the Vietnam War, it became a celebration instead when the initial event wound up taking place several weeks after the war’s end. 2014年5月是电影节的40周年纪念. “当时街上有200人拿着两架手风琴, 现在是成千上万, 数以万计,斯皮勒说.
在某种程度上, the parade and the rest of her work speaks to her favorite metaphor—the way one drop on the surface of water can create a ripple of rings, 无限向外扩散.
“如果要我说一件关于我工作的事, it’s constantly to live within and be a part of the recognition that all things are connected,她说。.
