about Solid Seam
about Ellen Chenoweth
I am a culture worker / performance-lover based in Philadelphia.
I am the Director of Finance and Operations for Works & Process. I work with Circle O / Kayla Hamilton as the Management and Programs Partner. I write grants for a number of different artists and organizations. I'm the copyeditor for Dance Chronicle, an academic journal. I also serve on the Advisory Board for Cannonball.
In the past, I’ve worked at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago as the Lead Curator and Director of the Dance Presenting Series and a full-time faculty member, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Pig Iron Theatre Company. I was part of a three-person leadership team at the Dance Exchange. I have degrees from Rice University and Texas Woman’s University, and a graduate certificate from the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University.
I enjoy seeing work, reading things, talking to artists, and taking naps.
about the newsletter
Solid Seam - a dance blog is an independent publication launched in July 2024 by Ellen Chenoweth.
As our field continues to shift underneath our feet, it's sometimes hard to figure out what's going on out there. <squints into the haze> What's happening? Who's trying new things? How are we working together as institutions crumble or merge or hibernate? This newsletter is intended to be my little drop in the bucket to parse what's going on. I'm based in Philadelphia, so I imagine there will be a healthy amount of Philadelphia-specific information. But I'm also in New York a couple of days a week, and have lived in Chicago and Washington, DC and some other spots, so the scope won't be limited to only Philly.
All posts are free for now. I'm not sure how long this project will last or what form(s) it will want to take, so if you enjoy a post or have feedback of any kind, it would be very helpful to hear. Or do you have a tip or a curiosity about the Philly arts scene? Drop me a line at solidseam at gmail punto com!
about the name
I came up with the name Solid Seam and had this logo made in 2014. At that point, I had never made a quilt, hadn't really sewn anything, and barely knew what a seam was. Ten year later, I own two sewing machines, I know how do half a dozen different kinds of seams, and I have so many quilts in the works (and some Eagles-themed quilt overalls). I imagine my younger self honing in on some latent hot spots, not ready to act on them yet but sensing some activity not yet visible.
And even though I actually know how to construct a seam now, I'm still interested in stitching structures of support. I'm still interested in how we make an ecosystem that works better for artists and other cultural workers. I'm still interested in connecting things, elements that wouldn't otherwise be joined.
Back in 2014, I also had yet to discover the joys of the seam ripper. I had no idea! If you make a mistake in sewing, very often you can just rip out a few stitches and give it another try. No big deal. It might be a little tedious, but you can fix it.
So yes to solid seams that hold us together, but also yes to seam rippers that allow us to try again when the previous structure isn't working. It might take some time, but we can fix it.
