We create original, multidisciplinary performances that illuminate the painful truths and joyful triumphs of the underheard in order to catalyze collective healing and a more just society.
Founded in 1995 by Kathy Randels ArtSpot was incorporated in Louisiana in December 2000 and received its 501(c)3 status from the IRS in October 2002. Our performances have toured throughout the world, we offer workshops, and practice partnerships with artists and organizations in New Orleans and beyond who are committed to eliminating oppressions and creating a more just and equitable nation and world.
Our work addresses challenges that persist in southeast Louisiana: the oppression of women and gender equity; the legacy of slavery, from systemic racism to mass incarceration; and our reliance on the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of our ground, water, air and selves. We see our performance work as aiding in healing our people and our ecosystems, and strive ultimately to help shift our state’s economy from extractive to regenerative and healing.
We believe that all stories and voices deserve expression, and that performance is an essential element of collective healing for all communities, especially those whose voices are not often heard. We have worked with one of these underheard communities—currently and formerly incarcerated women—for almost 30 years. In that time, we’ve witnessed just how rancid Louisiana’s criminal legal system can be—and that has connected us more deeply to advocacy groups and other organizations that are working to ameliorate, reimagine and end the damage caused by incarceration.
A focus on environmental issues in general, and Hurricane Katrina in particular, committed us to making site-specific work; it became important to us that the community and place in which we worked and performed be as integral to the creation of new work as the artists involved. Since 2005, we’ve created eight original site-specific outdoor performances and partnered with organizations such as A Studio in the Woods, the Gulf Restoration Network (Healthy Gulf), and Gulf Future Coalition, to name just a few.
Sean LaRocca grew up in New Orleans’ Riverbend neighborhood. He attended Berklee College of Music—where he began to develop a love of reggae music and a new appreciation of the music of his hometown—and St. John’s College, where he studied composition with Joseph Weber and Douglas Allanbrook and received the award for best musical composition in 1988 and 1989. After returning to New Orleans, Sean studied guitar with Steve Masakowski, participated in a composers’ group led by Hannibal Lokumbe, and spent about a decade winning Big Easy Awards playing behind two of New Orleans’ greatest singers with The Shepherd Band and Cool Riddims & Sista Teedy.
In the late 1990’s, Sean saw Kathy Randels perform Rage Within/Without at New Orleans’ Contemporary Arts Center and began a gradual move away from playing in bands and towards making music for theater. Since 2000, Sean has served as ArtSpot’s managing director, providing accounting, grant compliance, contracting, website design and maintenance, and more. He has composed and performed music for several productions including Chekhov’s Wild Ride (2004 Ambie Award Best Original Score); Cry You One (2013); and Sea of Common Catastrophe (2018), and has served as a lead project manager and/or producer on several large-scale projects, including Artistic Ancestry: An International Festival of Alternative Theatre (2006); the Loup Garou tour (2010); Cry You One’s touring and concert engagements (2014-15); and Remembering: A Celebration of ArtSpot Productions’ Twentieth Anniversary.
info@artspotproductions.org
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