an exhibition and multimedia installation by Craig Harris & Candy Kuehn, in collaboration with Kym Longhi & Jim Peitzman
Do you Wonder about the Past?
Do you Dream about the Future?
Are you Curious about how our lives create what follows?
In Legacy Dream Space composer/multimedia artist Craig Harris and visual artist Candy Kuehn continue their long term collaboration with artists Kym Longhi and Jim Peitzman to create the Legacy Dream Space, a multi-dimensional story space designed to explore Loss, Hope and Legacy – wondering about the past, dreaming about the future, and engaging in the future’s unfolding.
Exhibitions include a freestanding multimedia installation, digital illustration prints on walls, hanging painted/printed fabrics, music, soundscapes and performance opportunities, and community gatherings. A series of events provide opportunities to explore the theme, capture new content, and integrate a community’s presence and stories into future instances of the work.
Legacy Dream Space is rich in visual, aural and thematic content, evolves through community engagement, and incorporates what has transpired into the present content. The Legacy Dream Space requires public engagement to realize the project vision. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to engage with the material available, to explore stories and previous engagement, and to make offerings to this living time capsule.
Legacy Dream Space will be in the Twin Cities in September 2024!
Please check out our new Legacy Dream Space website for details.
Here are some videos showing more information from the Owatonna Arts Center exhibition showing the Play Spaces and Sharing Wall:
Legacy Dream Space exists as an ongoing creative environment. The work originated in 2017, and has evolved throughout the pandemic. The project is designed to easily mount future exhibitions at art centers and other locations in communities regionally and nationally.
Legacy Dream Space at Owatonna Arts Center
Each instance of Legacy Dream Space is an artwork – a collection of materials, events, gatherings and performances designed to invite communities into this ongoing pursuit to collectively create a legacy that supports mutual understanding, healthy communities, and a sustainable future for humanity and the planet.
Legacy Dream Space had its inaugural exhibition at Owatonna Arts Center in Owatonna, Minnesota from September 5 – October 15, 2023. We are currently working to bring the exhibition to the Twin Cities during 2024.
Here are some pictures taken illustrating the Owatonna exhibition:
Here is an article by Josh LaFollette for the Owatonna People’s Press about Legacy Dream Space.
And here is a segment about Legacy Dream Space on Minnesota Public Radio’s Art Hounds this morning. The segment begins at time 2:40. (FYI – the music background for the segment is not Craig Harris’ music and is not part of the exhibition.)
We invite you to join us for Legacy Dream Space:
- to experience;
- to participate; and
- to create what follows.
An opening reception event with the artists will take place on Sunday September 17, 1:00pm – 4:00pm. There will be a special event at 2:00pm. The artists will present their work, and guide people through the exhibition. Another event will take place on October 8, 2023 from 1:00pm – 4:00pm, also with a special event held at 2:00pm.
Legacy Dream Space visitors of any age are invited to explore this glorious sensory world, and to engage in the unfolding of our shared future.
Support Legacy Dream Space Project!
The Artistic Team
Craig Harris is a composer, designer, and performer who creates multimedia dramatic stage works, interactive sculptural environments, and creative story spaces. His work has been presented on stages around the world and at several international festivals and conferences. Craig is a recipient of a Right Here Showcase Commission, and grants to support his work from the Hanson Institute for American Music, the McKnight Foundation, the American Composers Forum, Jerome Foundation, and Rimon.
Candy Kuehn creates wearable art, wall pieces, digital illustrations, sculptures, and costumes for dance and movement.
As a painter her mediums range from fabric dyes with paints, IPhone apps to ceramic glazes. Candy’s work has appeared at the Textile Center of Minnesota, Frank Stone Gallery, Owatonna Arts Center, the Phipps Center for the Arts, and the Fine Art Show at the Minnesota State Fair.Her “Health and Healing” exhibit has been presented at hospitals in Hudson, WI, and Owatonna.
Kym Longhi is the Artistic Director of Combustible Company and the writer/director of their work, including: Monster Heart, Bluebeard’s Dollhouse, and Herocycle. Prior to co-founding Combustible Company, she was a core company member and featured performer with Margolis Brown ADAPTORS Company for 12 years.
Other directing projects include SenseAbility (Interference Arts), Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia, and Dr Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County (Mixed Precipitation).
Kym has served on faculty in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Theater Arts and Dance since 2001.
Integrating media with live theater, Jim Peitzman’s video design and installation work has been featured in a variety of innovative performance environments, including composer Mary Ellen Childs’ “Dream House,” with acclaimed NYC string quartet Ethel, Interference Arts’ evocative new works “It Is She Who I See” and “SenseAbility,” and several Combustible Company original theater productions.
Jim’s video artistry has been integral to a variety of Margolis Brown Theater Company productions since 1995, including a DigiFest site-specific work at the Roebling Bridge in New York.
Project Background
Legacy Dream Space began with the creation of Craig Harris’ keyboard suite GONE, originally composed in 2017 to serve as music for the Emotion Gallery, one scene in the dance theater production “Dancing on the Belly of the Beast,” created by the company Off Leash Area. The show explored adult orphan-hood, and the scene represented a series of emotions that accompany the loss of one’s last living parent. “Dancing on the Belly of the Beast” was performed at the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis in June 2017. The multi-generational cast were all adult orphans, having lost their parents at various stages of their lives.
The 2017 version was created to be performed live on a digital keyboard sampler along with pre-recorded audio tracks. The music was further developed into a solo keyboard version to be performed on a grand piano or digital keyboard sampler, and it premiered in September 2018 at the Owatonna Art Center to celebrate artist Candy Kuehn’s retrospective exhibition of her wearable art, painted cloth and digital illustration work. Video imagery created by Candy Kuehn was projected onto the wall above the piano for this concert.
The imagery and design has evolved since that original version, creating an immersive experience and a more integrated and flexible performance, and this work became the foundation for the creation of Legacy Dream Space.
To learn more about GONE, including some video and music examples, please visit the GONE web space here.
Thanks to our Collaborating Organizations!
