MEDIA
Speaking engagements and documentary media
Brett Cook & Liz Lerman: Reflection & Action — Living Labels
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
YBCA Senior Fellows Brett Cook and Liz Lerman dive deep into the exhibition’s core themes and their life-long careers of manifesting collective inspiration and transformation in community. Watch the conversations:
> “People, Always”
> “Retrospective in Forward Motion”
> “When Spirit Shows Up”
> “Alchemy of Relationship”
> “Art as a Verb”
Ep. 68: Reflection and Action — My conversation with Brett Cook
A long way from the block with Anthony Thomas
A conversation with Brett Cook about the origins of his recent large-scale exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco with choreographer Liz Lerman which featured performances, public events, and conversations in community.
Studio Check In With Brett Cook
The Studio Museum in Harlem
Brett Cook speaks with Ilk Yasha from The Studio Museum in Harlem as part of their ongoing conversation series, Studio Check In.
Meet the 2022 Rainin Fellows: Brett Cook (Public Space)
Rainin Foundation
“The Rainin Fellowship recognizes diverse, visionary Bay Area artists working in dance, film, theater, and public space. These artists push the boundaries of creative expression, anchor local communities, and advance the field.” – Rainin Foundation
Brett Cook discusses his work as the recipient of the 2022 Rainin Fellowship.
BRETT COOK ON THE PRACTICE OF BUILDING COMMUNITY
NOT REAL ART PODCAST, HOSTED BY ERIN YOSHI, JUNE 2021
A conversation with Brett Cook on art making as a tool of transformation, flattening the hierarchies that stand in the way of artists’ success, and using the arts alongside administration to contribute to a more whole, healed world.
Videography: Yoram Savion Editing: Sophie Becker Music: Justine Lewis
Destiny Arts: Reflection and Action – Black (W)Hole Project Beginnings
DESTINY ARTS CENTER COLLABORATION, OAKLAND, FALL 2019
The Black (W)hole was a healing, celebratory experience to mourn and honor the lives of six young people who died in and around Oakland before the age of 32. Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company’s collaboration with Brett Cook began in fall 2019 with a visit to his studio, just a short walk away from Destiny Arts Center. There, the group meditated, created, and set intentions for the collaboration to come. Little did they know what 2020 would bring, but as The Black (W)hole project evolved, dedication to process, to community, and to the collective remained central.
Brett Cook on belonging in community
OTHERING AND BELONGING CONFERENCE, OAKLAND, APRIL 2019
Brett Cook leads attendees at the 2019 Othering and Belonging Conference through the creation of a rubric on community and belonging, and shares how this practice of reflection and action has guided his creative practice for over two decades.
Brett Cook on Reflection and Action
IMAGINING THE SOCIAL IN ARTISTIC AND MUSEUM PRACTICES, SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, JUNE 2018
Brett Cook describes the HOPE SF Arts and Healing Assessment project, a community engagement opportunity that proposed how creative expression could be used as an instrument of healing and community-building for San Francisco Public Housing residents.
The Best Laid Plans: When Artists Engage Institutions
IMAGINING THE SOCIAL IN ARTISTIC AND MUSEUM PRACTICES, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, June 2018
Moderated by independent curator Elizabeth M. Grady, this panel featured Brett Cook, Pepón Osorio, and jackie sumell and explored the practices of socially engaged artists working at different proximities to cultural, civic, and educational institutions.
Video by Rava Films for A Blade of Grass
FIELDWORKS: BRETT COOK, Reflections of Healing
A BLADE OF GRASS FILMS, NOVEMBER 2015
A look at Brett Cook’s Reflections of Healing project, championing health and wellness with participatory portraiture at Oakland’s Life is Living festival.
Video by Christie Goshe, B-roll by Jerisse De Juan
Brett Cook: Transformative Worlds of Color
CREATIVEMORNINGS OAKLAND, HOSTED BY TRISH ANG, IMPACT HUB OAKLAND, OCTOBER 2014
For CreativeMornings Oakland, Brett Cook describes how color in his work has been a healing tool used for uplifting communities, sociopolitical expression, and showcasing different threads of culture.
Video by Rava Films for smARTpower
SMARTPOWER: COMMUNITY COLLABORATION IN LAGOS, NIGERIA
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, BRONX MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS AND WOMEN AND YOUTH ART FOUNDATION, 2013
The U.S. Department of State’s smARTpower initiative sent U.S. artists abroad to create community-based art projects with local artists and young people. Brett Cook’s project in Lagos, Nigeria, included workshops that centered the collaborative creation of artifacts, celebrations, public art installations, and digital documentation to foster new connections and build community.
Video by Dimitri Moore
Reflections of Healing
Life is Living FESTIVAL, OAKLAND, 2010-2012
Reflections of Healing was a multifaceted process of community building that featured Bay Area residents who, through practice or legacy, demonstrated healing. Reflections anchored Life is Living, an eco-equity, interdisciplinary festival that centers historically underserved neighborhoods and communities with programming in public spaces that have been otherwise neglected.
VIDEO BY LUKE BOUGHEN, REBEKAH FERGUSSON, AND NEIL WILLIAMS AND THE CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES
FACE UP: TELLING STORIES OF COMMUNITY LIFE
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, MAY 2008
Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life was a documentary and public art project that grew out of local conversations about neighborhood goals in Southwest Central Durham, North Carolina. The project blended the Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with collaborative documentary exploration and art making in community settings across Durham.
Video by Eric Gottesman
AMHERST COLLEGE PORTRAITS: BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH LEARNING
AMHERST COLLEGE, JUNE 2008
Amherst College Portraits was a multifaceted process of community building that included the collaborative development of eighteen large-scale public works made by students, faculty, and staff from Amherst College. Participants explored community building through a number of contemplative, educational, and creative exercises, led by Wendy Ewald and Brett Cook and anchored in Ewald’s fall semester class “Collaborative Art: Theory and Practice of Working with a Community.” The project culminated in a public display across the Amherst College campus, at the Mead Art Museum, and in an exhibition catalogue.
> Learn more about Amherst College Portraits
> Continue Watching: Amherst College Portraits: Part II
Video by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Clenched Fist Productions
REVOLUTION: CELEBRATE HARLEM 127TH STREET – A COLLABORATION
HARLEM, NEW YORK, 2004
Revolution: Celebrate Harlem 127th Street – A Collaboration was a festival that aimed to build divine relationships through collaborative visual art experiences, short film screenings, video stations, and DJ/music performances. At the center of these exercises for positive shared experiences was a commentary, if not a representation, of revolution—with the focus being the people of Harlem, most specifically folks from 127th Street.