Image: Ballroom Marfa
Image: Ballroom Marfa
Image: Ballroom Marfa
Marfa Dialogues Houston
Looking at the future of the planet
In my role as Operations Manager for Ballroom Marfa, I led the organization and execution of the fifth Marfa Dialogues symposium in partnership with FotoFest International and the Public Concern Foundation.
This three-day event, "Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet," examined climate change through multiple perspectives including artistic practice, environmental policy, theoretical frameworks, and climate science. Working remotely from Marfa, I coordinated programming across three prominent Houston venues: The Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The symposium represented a significant interdisciplinary effort that positioned cultural institutions as essential contributors to climate discourse. By integrating diverse perspectives and facilitating dialogue across traditional boundaries, the project extended the reach of the Marfa Dialogues initiative (established in 2010 by Ballroom Marfa Artistic Director Fairfax Dorn and Hamilton Fish) while maintaining its commitment to meaningful public engagement with complex environmental challenges.
Challenge: Managing operations for a complex interdisciplinary symposium spanning multiple prestigious Houston venues while based remotely in Marfa, Texas. This required coordinating numerous guest speakers, supporting the curator, director, and board members, and ensuring seamless execution across distances. Beyond logistics, the project demanded effectively bridging artistic practice, environmental policy, theoretical frameworks, and climate science while maintaining intellectual coherence and accessibility for diverse audiences with varying levels of subject expertise.
Methodologies: Institutional coordination across multiple arts organizations, multi-venue event management at The Menil Collection, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAM), and Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH), project management for high-visibility cultural programming.
Connected Projects: Prada Marfa, Emerging Technologies presentation for Museum Computer Network (MCN), NASA Artemis Moon Tree.
Insights: Cultural institutions can effectively facilitate public engagement with complex environmental challenges, interdisciplinary dialogue creates unique entry points for understanding climate issues, artistic practice offers perspectives that complement scientific and policy approaches, regional cultural organizations can contribute meaningfully to global environmental discourse
Outcomes: Successfully delivered three-day symposium across multiple Houston venues, supported a platform connecting artistic perspectives with environmental science and policy, extended the reach and impact of the established Marfa Dialogues program.
Applications to future work: Model for producing interdisciplinary events addressing complex global challenges, framework for collaborative programming between diverse institutions, approach to engaging public audiences with scientific and policy issues through cultural frameworks, methodology for bridging creative practice with contemporary global challenges, foundation for future climate-focused cultural initiatives.
Themes: Interdisciplinary climate discourse, cultural production, art as catalyst, global futures, alternative futures.