Artistic research – new pathways to new knowledge?

A conversation with Shabnam Shirzadi

Interview by Hester van Hasselt, Academy of Theatre and Dance

Research at the Academy of Theatre and Dance – we know it’s happening, but what does it actually involve? In this interview (part 31 in a series) ATD take a peek behind the scenes, in conversation with Iranian artist, researcher and educator Shabnam Shirzadi, who teaches Performance Analysis at the School for New Dance Development. In 2025–2026, she was awarded the ATD Teacher-Researcher Exploration: the counter-perspectives fellowship.

A State of Bewilderment | Poetry as a way of knowing

I noticed in my classes that analytical approaches move very quickly towards interpretation and clarity, and that students are rewarded for arriving there fast. They wanted to write a good analysis that followed the rules and demonstrated their insight. I could feel how limiting this was, how certain aspects of the work and the experience of it were being excluded. They were getting ‘lost in analysis’, so to speak. There was something overly deliberated about it all.

I grew up in Iran, where poetry suffuses everyday life – I grew up in poetry there, it’s all around you. And it isn’t restricted to artistic or intellectual circles; it goes right across the population, woven into ordinary speech: we use lines of poetry in everyday conversation, and many of them live in our memory.

2 Charleston galleries are featuring Iranian artists isolated from the international art world

"Black Trace 3" by Sadegh Khalife. Courtesy The Post and Courier

by Chelsea Grinstead, The Post and Courier

Two Charleston galleries are teaming up to spotlight contemporary artists in Iran whose work rarely reaches international audiences.

“Voices from the Middle East,” presented by The George Gallery and Peter Anthony Fine Art in partnership with California nonprofit Parisa Projects, will bring paintings, sculpture and mixed-media pieces to both galleries for viewing Oct. 2-30.

An opening reception will take place simultaneously at both galleries from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 2. The abstract works in “Voices from the Middle East” will be shown at The George Gallery located at 54 Broad St., and the representational works can be viewed at Peter Anthony Fine Art located nearby at 15 Broad St.

The exhibition explores the personal experiences, resilience and creativity of 15 artists working amid political conflict, economic uncertainty and limited access to the global art world.

With the U.S. currently at war with Iran, this show underlines the universal need artists have to produce meaningful work and interpret what's going on around them, said Anne Siegfried, who owns George Gallery and Peter Anthony Fine Art Gallery.