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The Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts at the Sawtooth, downtown Winston-Salem
Design, Art + Technology Symposium (DATS) is An Annual Piedmont Event About Important Ideas. Hosts include the Kenan Institute for the Arts at UNCSA, UNCG, High Point University, and the Center for Design Innovation. With the 2010 theme, Food For Thought, we’ll open at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in the newly renovated Sawtooth building in bustling downtown Winston-Salem. Food For Thought will engage timely issues with an influential audience from the region’s businesses, non-profits, educators and government. Meet innovators and trend-setters involved in everything from alternative food to new crops, from agricultural heritage to environmental green, from Southern hospitality to urban sustainability. Inspired by designers Charles and Ray Eames and their film, Powers of 10, they will consider the power of food to transform the daily life of our region.
It's getting close! DATS 2010 is coming together as a combo local-regional event, with plenty of grassroots energy and organization. (This year will be a breakout event: DATS will move out of academia and into the real world!) Food is about culture. It is one of those rare, big tent themes in which everyone in the Piedmont has an interest. Everyone can bring their experience and know-how.
The best gardener I knew was my grandmother. The most flexible cook I knew was my mom. Both were frugal and could do a lot with a little. In my view, those are high standards for designers, artists, and technology innovators, whether in good economic times or bad.
Recreation of a UN shelter, food and water at Festival Park.
The Challenge of DATS
The symposium is an annual event seeking to build a legitimate creative movement in the Piedmont. It answers a severe problem: With Charlotte, RTP and the Triangle all within easy drives, the area has suffered from brain-drain. Both Greensboro and Winston-Salem have seen revivals of their downtowns, nightlife and cultural activities, but the economic downturn has highlighted the unfinished work necessary to permanently change the area's future. Quite simply, the Piedmont has to figure out better ways to attract smart people and businesses and keep its brightest youngsters here.
DATS hosts include High Point University (High Point), UNC School of the Arts and Center for Design Innovation (Winston-Salem) and UNCG (Greensboro). Other colleges are associated with the event. I've been a supporter of higher ed's role in promoting regional growth but a steady critic of the event's smallish concentration on events and programs intended mainly for students.
In 2010 I proposed the food theme, a big-tent approach intended to excite and gather many diverse participants. While dollars are scarce, I have also advocated ground-up, community-based and local organizations' participation. The Piedmont is doing interesting innovation in the area of food, but you have to look hard. As usual, groups are somewhat isolated, duplicative, and unaware of overlapping interests. DATS 2010 is an opportunity to pull groups together.
Above: The Edible Schoolyard at the Children's Museum, with the Greensboro skyline in view, just months after Alice Waters’ visit. Below: Refugee guests at Weatherspoon Art Gallery, UNCG.
In 2010 I proposed the food theme, a big-tent approach intended to excite and gather many diverse participants. While dollars are scarce, I have also advocated ground-up, community-based and local organizations' participation. The Piedmont is doing interesting innovation in the area of food, but you have to look hard. As usual, groups are somewhat isolated, duplicative, and unaware of overlapping interests. DATS 2010 is an opportunity to pull groups together.Above: The Edible Schoolyard at the Children's Museum, with the Greensboro skyline in view, just months after Alice Waters’ visit. Below: Refugee guests at Weatherspoon Art Gallery, UNCG.
