Joelle Worm is a Milwaukee dance artist who has danced and shown her choreography in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., Minneapolis and Toronto, Canada. You may have seen her performing with Danceworks Performance Company or with Hyperlocal, a Milwaukee-based improvisation group. Ms. Worm facilitates The Field Milwaukee. Fieldwork sessions run every season to provide artists with a place to workshop creations-in-progress.
What is The Field Milwaukee?
The Field Milwaukee is an extension of an original site in New York, part of a national network of sites and two in Europe, as well.
What’s the purpose of this network?
It’s to give a forum for artistic support. The Field Milwaukee is very local and grassroots, but at the same time it’s connected to a larger organization. Its real mission is to support the work of artists in a specific locality, but it also connects artists in different cities through the fieldwork protocol.
Can you explain that a bit?
It’s a process for artists who are creating original works. The specific feedback given in fieldwork provides an opportunity for artists to workshop their art while being able to view other artists’ work—much of it being of a different discipline—and to give feedback in return. As well as being interdisciplinary, fieldwork is non-curatorial. It’s open to artists at any stage of their development; whether you are a novice or advanced artist, there’s a spot for you.
Could you explain what happens in a typical session?
Sure. First, artists show work without a preamble—no info that an actual audience won’t have. Then, the group gives feedback in a non-directorial manner. They talk about their experience of the work and the work itself rather than what they’d do differently. Editing is a responsibility of the artist who is providing work, not of the group itself. This engages a person to enter an editing process of their work, keeping them involved even after the group is gone.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
What kinds of artists are invited to participate?
Any! Here we’ve had dance, music, theater, visual art, photography, writing, tai chi, yoga... other network sites have puppetry and I’ve even heard of a chef bringing food and passing it around. Basically, it’s open to anyone who’s in a creative practice. Gardening could be a creative practice that we could apply fieldwork to!
What was it that drew you to The Field originally?
I’m very interested in the process needed to make a product, and I felt there was space for this in Milwaukee’s artistic scene. I was seeing a lot of work being produced straight to the stage, without necessarily seeing a transparent process behind the work, at least within the worlds of dance and performing arts.
So, would you say there’s a specific goal in this process?
I think the goal is to provide a tentative audience, to see how the work is reading to the public before a performance or presentation.
So, with Milwaukee Fringe Festival coming up…
Yes! This is a great way for artists to work on their Fringe pieces leading up to the event. I feel that way year round, but especially now.
How do you think this could benefit Milwaukee’s arts scene?
My hope is that it will build a community between artists who wouldn’t interact otherwise. It definitely brings people together who would normally not interact! Also, fieldwork increases the capacity to talk about the art. It can be so integral to an artist’s development. Rather than working in a closed system, you find these moments in feedback that draw you back into your own work, which in turn creates a more sophisticated result.
