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Meet Christopher Brazelton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Brazelton.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up, it was all “performing”. I was on the stage, extraverted, loud, and frequently in front of people. Chorus, Drama, singing, football, track… you name it and I probably tried it and enjoyed it.

As all of us, I was about to go into college and thus planning the rest of my life (because we all know it always goes according to plan) and someone asked me to help out with producing a concert to benefit the Indian Ocean Tsunami victims back in 2004. While I was planning on more of a stage performance route for a career, I felt like I had enough background to contribute to helping so I agreed. We partnered with a Hindu Temple as the venue, made all of our guests take off their shoes, and called it the Shoeless Tsunami Show. It was a wild success, and I was instantly hooked. The entrepreneurial aspect of creating something for people to not just purchase, but take part in was a challenge and attractive to me.

I began to craft more events and plug them into my “social entrepreneur” experiment. Successes and failures, I loved it! Slowly but surely my “art” that was solely focused on performing began to evolve into a passion for people participating in the performance, their community, or a larger cause.

Please tell us about your art.
I took this to college and wanted to put my theatre and theatre management classes into practice so I started a non-profit production company. This organization, Leave Your Mark Productions, was focused on using entertainment as a cause – using the revenue from the productions to go to some of the timely needs around the globe at the time. To me, it wasn’t just the aid we were providing, it was the active and willing participation from the audience to contribute to something greater that was important. The choice to not just “observe” but to “engage” in what was at hand was a critical step for the production on the stage to matter.

I found my way to Atlanta, and was hired on at Elm Street Cultural Arts Village as their Operations Director. As we continued to grow, it became important for the organization to have its audience participate. Now as Executive Director, we’ve taken this same strategy and applied it to people becoming more involved in their community. Using the art at hand as a means, for people to become more engaged.

So, in a way, I guess you could say my “art” is getting people to participate in art, but not stop there, use it to grow themselves and their community. Use their art as a vehicle to become more engaged. I hope that people become engaged community members, not just bystanders or observers. I want the art to be a catalyst to be involved and awake.

Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
In a broad sense, you could argue that the responsibility of an artist, or art center hasn’t changed. To equally nurture and challenge a community has always been a part of what an artist does. Certainly though, the what that specifically looks like changes drastically.

I think that the local artist matters more than ever. With technology, we all have the capability to transition from local to international overnight. So, an artist’s message being broadcast for the world to see is no longer a true challenge, and certainly not for the “well known only” artist. I think that this only cements the importance of the local artist even more however. The needs for authentic, in-person, and uninterrupted moments are only growing. These moments are as not possible (or at all) if you are observing through a screen.

I think the role (and challenge) of the artist in the next decade will be to figure out how to interact with the world at large while also being authentic to the local, in-person moment at hand.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Well Elm Street Cultural Arts Village will continue to grow. As it does, people should come visit! As people come, I think it is also about participating in some of the “supplemental” events that happen. We try hard to make our productions, events, galleries, etc. as accessible to anyone, we really don’t like the “highbrow” vibe. My personal “win” is when someone comes into an event saying they are “only here because my wife dragged me” and leaves in tears or laughter saying they have to get involved in whatever that show might’ve entailed. Again, it isn’t just about the work, but watching what happens because of that work.

A huge win for us was reports of “spikes in volunteerism” for organizations helping with Mental Illness issues in the area after we produced a show called Next to Normal. The show was fantastic, but what we are really proud of is watching a community realize there was an issue and try to do something about it because of that show.

So, I imagine that if you want to “support” my work, I would say get involved. If it is with Elm Street, great, but just getting involved [in anything] is what is important.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Jillian Melko, Rachel Williams, Michael Flagg

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