Welcome to another TBA Festival! This year we have made it official—a festival is about celebration, and what better time to do that than on a holiday? Join us for the festival kickoff over Labor Day weekend and start your year off right. This time around, we bring you to the school year of your dreams as Team PICA takes over the former Washington High School—home base for the Works, visual arts programming and live art performances in the fantastically old-school auditorium. On Labor Day itself, meet us on the school field for a day of picnics, old-fashioned games, and art that pushes the envelope.
The TBA Festival is about bringing together emerging ideas and important artistic voices from around the world, the United States, and the Pacific Northwest—all in the fabulous city of Portland. We mix a heady cocktail of art and audience and this is an opportunity to participate in Portland at its creative zenith. Whether you live here or are visiting, we know it will be a one-of-a-kind immersive experience.
We have brought together a fantastic roster of artists and programs: a textured, bracing, and complex festival experience. Yes, times are hard right now—the artists in this festival are exploring anxiety, but also the sheer exhilaration of pushing ideas, energy, and physicality to the breaking point. We welcome the funny, the dark, the brilliantly imagined, and the sublime—all coming together in a variety of artistic manifestations.
This year I am honored to be the new guest curator in town, and it’s been a truly collaborative experience to work with Kristan Kennedy, Erin Boberg Doughton, and the entire PICA staff. As we assembled the group of artists we most want to see, we also uncovered some undeniable TBA themes: meditations on the nature of private experience brought into the public arena, the intersection of the American landscape and the individual imagination, and the dynamic relationship between insiders and outsiders. Come and visit, come and stay—tell us how these themes resonate with you, and join the TBA mix. Enjoy the festival!