RISK X REWARD Performance Series Returns This Fall With 7 New Commissions

Risk x Reward, MAD's annual performance series dedicated to expanding the possibilities of performance within a museum setting, returns this fall with seven new commissions that explore contemporary use of the theatrical in the shaping of worldviews. Cheat Out To The Audience: Risk x Reward 2013-the title referring to the theatrical stage term for engaging an audience through a sleight of hand-will run from October 24, 2013 through February 13, 2014 and highlight the ability of the theatrical to shape learning and opinion through dramatic performance and engagement with an audience, while borrowing techniques from fields as varied as politics, pop, fashion, marketing, and the arts.

This year's series features a diverse group of artists who explore how we attempt to influence one another through performance, the motivations behind these displays, and who influences and is influenced by the action on today's public stage. Katherine Hubbardexplores countercultural archetypes as cultural commodities reprocessed by mass-media, while Alaina Stamatis' free public tours of MAD peel off the educational and interpretative layers of the museum experience. Enlisting MAD's female employees for her project, Irena Knezevic aims to "suspend" the formal dissolution of the country of Yugoslavia via fashion production, whereas Julika Rudelius hosts a cocktail party manned by professional orators who engage the audience about the pursuit of happiness. item idem (Cyril Duval) examines the impact of spectacle on performance practices by staging a "disco cube" in a downtown Manhattan storefront during Fashion Week, offering an empty nightclub space for the audience to perform for one another, while Karen Mirza and Brad Butler of The Museum of Non Participation invite local residents to workshop and stage one of Bertolt Brecht's political "learning plays," as part of Performa 13.

Cheat Out to The Audience: Risk x Reward 2013 underscores MAD's continued dedication to and celebration of contemporary creation that defies simple categorization. Risk x Reward offers a platform for the presentation of new performance pieces and supports the development of bold and risk-taking works through residencies, rehearsals, and critical dialogs.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Cheat Out to The Audience: Risk x Reward 2013 is organized by Jake Yuzna, Director of Public Programs.

For more information about the series and a list of the events, visit http://madmuseum.org/series/cheat-out-audience

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN

The Museum of Arts and Design explores the value of making across all fields of contemporary creative practice. The Museum focuses on the ways in which artists and designers transform the world around us, through processes ranging from the artisanal to the digital. MAD's exhibition program is dedicated to creativity and craftsmanship, and demonstrates the limitless potential of materials and techniques when used by gifted and innovative artists. The Museum's Permanent Collection is global in scope and includes art, craft, and design from 1950 to the present day. At the center of the Museum's mission is education. The Museum houses classrooms and studios for master classes, seminars, and workshops for students, families, and adults. Three open studios engage visitors in the creative processes of artists at work and enhance the exhibition programs. Lectures, films, performances, and symposia related to the Museum's collection and subjects across the full spectrum of making practices are held in a renovated 143-seat auditorium.