Mobile Arts & Community Experience with creator CarlosAlexis Cruz and students from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte College of Arts + Architecture.

A native of Puerto Rico, CarlosAlexis Cruz is an assistant professor of theater at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He and Associate Professor of Urban Design Jose Gamez developed the concept for the Mobile Arts & Community Experience – or MAX – as a multiuse mobile venue that will bring people together to invigorate the cultural landscape across the Charlotte region. MAX, funded by a three-year, $350,000 grant from Knight Foundation, debuts April 10-11.

For me, the mobile arts experience is embedded in my own education. At the university in Puerto Rico, we had what is called the Teatro Rodante, a traveling stage. We mostly performed Golden Age Spanish theater, and we took it to places that had never been exposed to theater. We followed the premise that a university has two components: It educates both the university community and the community surrounding it; and it asks questions that matter both for the university community and the surrounding communities. RELATED LINKS

“Pop-up public space will use arts and culture to connect Charlotte residents as part of University of North Carolina at Charlotte Mobile Arts and Community Experience” — press release, 04/08/15

The idea of traveling stages is not new; it has been a part of the history of theater since the beginning. We forget. We have made theater for the people who can afford it, instead of for the people.

In Charlotte, we don’t seem to nurture enough different kinds of art. It appears to me that the arts are largely based in the center of the city, and not everybody has access. Perhaps if we take different kinds of art out to the communities, we will create that sensibility needed for society to function properly. Because for me, a society that is not sensitive to art is dry: Life becomes object oriented, rather than truly living.

I see MAX, the Mobile Arts & Community Experience, as more than a traveling stage, but a character that is trying to tell its own story. It is being born this week, and then it will start growing and learning. Like a trickster character, it will make choices and find its path. MAX will travel on its own journey.

Everything we present with MAX needs to have a connection to the community. It is not only to share the work that we do, but also to inspire each community that MAX touches to be part of it. We will have residencies in neighborhoods so that people can use the arts to express themselves and find solutions to their problems. The idea is to communicate with communities through art and to allow those communities to bring themselves into the art.

Knight Foundation’s support will enable us begin this work. We have a lot to do, but we are driven by our desire to help people build connections that will make Charlotte stronger.  We all see the need. We all feel it.

I think art’s main purpose is to help people understand life. Life happens so fast, and to give people the opportunity to sit down together and experience something and perhaps ask questions about it – that is our job. The Charlotte region keeps expanding, and as we keep growing, the university is there to help the city grow. UNC Charlotte belongs to everyone in our region, and MAX, by going out into the streets and the neighborhoods, will represent that.