You are the ceremony. This is the ritual.

Torn Space Theater's Duodecennial at Silo City

Retrospective exhibition coming soon to the Burchfield Penney Art Center

Opening Party Saturday, November 21, 4–7 pm

The Burchfield Penney Art Center proudly presents You are the ceremony. This is the ritual. Torn Space Theater's Duodecennial at Silo City, on view November 21, 2026, through March 28, 2027. An opening celebration will be held Saturday, November 21, from 4 to 7 pm.

The exhibition looks back on twelve years of site-based performance at Silo City, the campus of abandoned grain elevators and industrial structures on Buffalo's waterfront. The works were created by Torn Space Theater, an experimental performance company founded in 2000 by Dan Shanahan and Melissa Meola in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. The project combines theater, installation, architecture, sound, and public ritual.

At the center of the performances is an invented parallel society, an evolving ceremonial culture with its own symbols, rituals, beliefs, and systems of governance. Through this imagined civilization, the annual performances explore identity, resistance, transformation, and evolution. Each piece functions as both a public spectacle and social ritual, inviting audiences into shared reflection tied to the seasons, communal experience, and the changing culture of early 21st-century America.

Set in the Burchfield Penney’s expansive East Gallery, this retrospective presents the material record of a civilization that otherwise exists only in performance. Artifacts, installation elements, photographs marked with each work’s ceremonial symbols, and video and audio recordings trace the society’s evolution across twelve years. Among the highlights are excavator arms recalling the Silo City performance The Gathering, a pendulum marking ritual time, and a ceremonial table set with objects gathered from across the series. Lighting by longtime collaborators Eclectric Oil and Light completes the scene. The exhibition continues with a multimedia installation in the Project Space, and an accompanying publication will be available in The Museum Store.

“Over twelve years of creating performances across the sprawling campus of Silo City, we developed a visual language of recurring symbols, rituals, and materials. This exhibition offers a new way to encounter that world. The images and objects carry traces of the people, places, and shared experiences that shaped the work, while the gallery setting invites a new relationship with their meaning, highlighting the designers and performers who brought this world to life.” —Dan Shanahan and Melissa Meola, co-founders of Torn Space Theater

“It’s no small accomplishment to establish an avant-garde theater company and sustain it for over a decade. We’re extremely excited to share the work and ideas of one of Buffalo's most dynamic and forward-thinking cultural organizations. Torn Space has made it a routine part of their regimen to provoke, to challenge, and to inspire through images and actions. Their productions are steeped in local and cultural history, yet always look forward, asking how our past and, above all, our present prepare us to plunge into the future unknown and find our space.” — John Massier, Chief Curator, Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Celebrate the exhibition opening on Saturday, November 21, 2026,  4–7 pm at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Admission is free for this special event.

SUPPORT FOR THIS EXHIBITION
You are the ceremony. This is the ritual. Torn Space Theater’s Duodecennial at Silo City has been made possible through the generous support of the Zemsky Family Foundation. Additional support comes from Rigidized Metals, and a generous donor in memory of Annette Cravens.

ABOUT TORN SPACE THEATER
Established in 2000 Torn Space Theater presents original performances, re-interpretations of classic drama, site-specific works and Western New York premieres of internationally recognized contemporary drama otherwise absent in our community.

Torn Space Theater’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Cullen Foundation, M&T Bank, Erie County, City of Buffalo, Fatta Foundation, Balbach-Bace Family Foundation at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Rupp Pfalzgraf, Montante Solar, Bond, Schoeneck & King, and our partner organization the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle.

ABOUT THE BURCHFIELD PENNEY ART CENTER
Established in 1966 on the campus of SUNY Buffalo State University, the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s mission is to cultivate and elevate the work of Charles E. Burchfield and Western New York artists. 

The Burchfield Penney Art Center’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The Burchfield Penney receives generous public support from SUNY Buffalo State University, Erie County, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Buffalo. Private support is provided by The Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation, the Cullen Foundation, the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation, M&T Bank, The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, the Joy Family Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Designated Inclusive Arts and Culture Organizations Endowment Fund, a component fund of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Inc., Elizabeth Elser Doolittle Trust, the Mary A. H. Rumsey Foundation, the James Carey Evans Endowment, and many additional individuals, corporations, foundations, and Burchfield Penney members. The Burchfield Penney Art Center is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Media Contact:
Julia Norris
Director of Communications
Burchfield Penney Art Center
norrisjl[at]buffalostate.edu
716-878-3457