Writer, Producer, Social Entrepreneur, Environmental Advocate
As founder and Leading Director of The Living Arts Institute, a 501(c)3 based on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, USA, Kahren Dowcett has initiated collaborative ventures for individual, social, and environmental betterment. She skillfully brings key leaders, businesses, and organizations together to create consciousness-raising outcomes using the arts as a mechanism for change. She has received awards for both her programming leadership and her work as a playwright.
Most recently, Ms Dowcett has created Will Oysters Save the World (WOSW) a venture to maximize local, national and international awareness about oysters. Its outcomes are to increase the demand for oysters; to call attention to oyster farming as a sustainable mechanism to improve and maintain coastal water quality while providing an efficacious means for micro economic development and protein source; to strengthen community, and bridge the gap between the general public and the scientific research community. As the springboard of WOSW, Ms. Dowcett authored a comedy called, Cirque de Sea that features an oyster as its main character. With humor, this scientifically based story for young and old alike, helps audience members learn about and appreciate the value of this remarkable keystone species.
Her unique style of performance art integrates larger than life masked and symbolic characters of both her design and those created in ‘quilting bee fashion’ through workshops. Her shows have integrated dance, pageantry, masks and original music to bring to life key themes to make the invisible, visible. She has created mainstage shows with 200 cast members, most notably Missa Gaia and Tales From the Ark, and smaller traveling teaching tales like Cirque de Sea.
Holding degrees in Theatre Production and Design, and Educational Leadership, Ms Dowcett brings her artistic entrepreneurial spirit to the social landscape, going to its boundaries to amplify issues and open critical conversations for our individual and collective betterment. She has lead initiatives both on and off Cape Cod around issues such as aging and ageism, interdependence, peace and non-violence – all standing as examples of her commitment to bettering the human condition. Uniquely combining grass-roots programming and creative engagement, with top down leadership and media optimization, Ms. Dowcett seeks to effect ah hah realizations for local and global change while promoting success in the marketplace.