Dana Salisbury

Visual Artist and Choreographer

I’ve had two art-lives, 20+ plus years in the visual arts, then about 20 more in the performing arts.

In my work, I’ve sought to understand my place in the world. Strangely, most often I did not know what I was reaching for until what I made revealed to me my underlying desire or concern. For example: Only in retrospect did I see that the drawings, paintings, and sculptures of “Scenes from the life of Watteau’s Gilles” (1980-1985) was an exploration of the end of adolescence. The performed work “Whoopee in the Dark” (2002) probed the role of witness and the paralyzing effects of powerlessness. “Whole-Body-Seer” (2004) considered non-visual perception. “Unseen Dances” (2009-2013) and “Dark Dining Projects: Sensory Feasts Served to Blindfolded Diners” (2005-2013) brought connection with audiences through embodied immersive experiences.

SELECTED VISUAL ARTS EXHIBITIONS: In NYC, The Drawing Center and Broadway Windows. In New England, Real Art Ways, Berkshire Museum, Boston Center for the Arts, DeCordova Museum, GWV Smith Art Museum, and Boston University. SELECTED PERFORMED WORKS: In MA: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Northampton Center for the Arts, A.P.E., Art on the Brain: Intersections of the Arts, Neuroscience & Society. In NYC: University Settlement, Dixon Place, Irondale Center, Performance Mix, American Can Company, and Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Over 120 iterations of Dark Dining Projects (sensory feasts served to blindfolded diners) at Camaje Bistro, Galapagos Art Space, and Art Beyond Sight Conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC; KO Festival of Performance in MA, and Science Gallery at Trinity College in Ireland. Awarded a New York Dance and Performance Award (a “Bessie”).