A nonprofit art organization promoting art, artists, and land conservation.
Virtual Exhibit
2021-22 ARTservancy, Artist in Residence
Muriah Donegan Kraker
Not all artists create for the sake
of the end product.
For some artists the experience
is the art.
This is true for traveler
Muriah Donegan Kraker who
creates through
movement,
feeling and sound..
Her yearlong virtual exhibit features
walking meditation scores
inspired by experiencing nature.
River Revitalization Foundation
Image borrowed with permission from A Wealth of Nature blog by Eddee Daniels about Muriah Donegan Kraker Click here to visit the blog.
Muriah's Story
Muriah is a midwesterner, a collaborative performance maker, a walker, dancer, teacher. she believes in walking around the block and through the city as a means of attending to choreographic unfolding of time cycles in the body + land.
Mauriah’s background in athletics (competing as an olympic-level athlete, being named athlete of the year by usa gymnastics, touring with pilobolus dance company, and being raised in a family that walked and biked everywhere) is a driver in the creation of physical works and movement experiences that live somewhere in the realms of dancing and walking. she has developed audio tracks for walking, communal walking and mindfulness practices, outdoor dance curriculum for schools and intergenerational programming in the midwest. she has led folks on site walks through the italian alps, sound walks in southern france, and outings to highway underpasses and prairies in the midwest- the walks culminating in participatory scores and dance performance.
Mauriah holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving scholarship for outstanding performance, the wanda m. nettl prize for choreography with collaborator Leah Wilks (l+m), while serving as the Director of the Children’s Dance Community Program. for the past decade, Mauriah has worked with wild space dance company as a dancer and an artistic associate. in 2018, she danced alongside Jennifer Monson, premiering the critically acclaimed duet bend the even at the chocolate factory in new york. find her teaching in the Theatre Arts Department at Lawrence University and walking the Milwaukee River/Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee lands where she is serving as an artist in residence of the Milwaukee River Greenway.
Artist StatEment
I am a movement artist, a collaborative performance maker, a long-distance walker primarily invested in slow travel: walking around the block and through the city as a means of attending to choreographic unfolding of time cycles in the body + land.
Another way to say this: I am interested in place and time.
My interest in place has taken me around the globe. Working with movement and dance as my primary means of expression, I have led folks on walks through the Italian alps, to outdoor skating rinks in Taiwan, to highway underpasses and prairies in the Midwest—the walks culminating in participatory events and dance performance.
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Collection of walking scores
Click here to visit Muriah's website and walking scores
audio scores for walking are gentle ways to say a little hello to body, a hello to the place you are in. these walks are meant to be taken at a slow to medium pace. the duration of each walk is about 45 minutes. the walks were recorded along paths and rivers in the midwest and can be experienced in urban, rural, indoor and outdoor place. nothing is needed to take this walk except you, a place to walk (or sit and listen) and some headphones for listening. download the audio, put on some headphones, and go for a walk!
SAMPLE SCORE
