Transforming Space: Cultivating the Imagination and Promoting Pedagogic Change

Abstract

Transforming Space, a collaborative project to present Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, is a multimedia musical composition that describes the plight of 19th century coal miners in the Anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania. The music was performed at Roebling Wire Factory located in Trenton, a depressed urban center in central New Jersey. Modifying the space with theatrical lighting, acoustical panels, and microphones to enhance sound transformed the now empty warehouse into a community concert venue. Children from underserved populations attended a matinee performance, and inspired by the performance, transformed a space in their own school buildings into one that would be aesthetically and artistically significant. Framed in a lens of critical pedagogy, assessment data from participants were coded. Themes of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking emerged. The authors concluded that the project fostered a critical consciousness that acknowledged the importance of community engagement and social justice.