1999 PROJECTS (Click here)
2000-2001 PROJECT (Click here)
1998 Project (Mother Tongue)

ABOUT VISUAL DIALOGUES:

The Visual Dialogues Project was founded in 1997 as a non-profit art organization. Its purpose is to promote the use of arts in community dialogue and social action. Projects sponsored by the organization include art exhibits, interactive arts installations, workshops and seminars, and collaborations with other arts organizations and artists. It has provided special services to Edgewood Children’s Center, Guardian Angel Settlement, and the Open Door Art Studio. VDP has collaborated with Gash-Voigt Dance Theatre Company on two lobby installations. Its current project is TREC: Talking Race, Engaging Creatively, an art-based interracial dialogue project in collaboration with FOCUS St. Louis' Bridges Across Racial Polarization program.

VDP was the outgrowth of "Masked Encounters, An Interactive Art Dialogue"  an installation of women’s artwork based on the twin themes: "mask" and "woman". The exhibit was housed at St. Louis Design Center for seven weeks in 1997.  There, public lectures, workshops, performances, and an on-site art studio encouraged area women to continue expanding the exhibit with their own artwork. Public enthusiasm propelled the founders to create a means to keep this kind of activity alive in St. Louis. The result was an early collaboration with Gash-Voigt Dance Theatre Company's production of MIRA (May, July and November, 1997), the incorporation of Visual Dialogues Project (1998), and the major Mother Tongue in St. Louis project in Fall, 1998.

MIRA artists engaged in a group dialogue prior to the installation of their artwork
in the Visual Dialogues Gallery, May, 1997.

Shannon Earnest makes a mask in the on-site open studio,
Masked Encounters Installation, February, 1997

1999 VDP PROJECTS      Mother Tongue       LEFT BANK EXHIBIT      TREC: Talking Race, Engaging Creatively