Why Wow Studio creates inspiring spaces for dialogue to spark civic imagination. Why Wow Studio is the creative practice of Meranda Flachs-Surmanek (Queens, NY) and Diksha Pilania (Dallas, TX), artists whose work spans public art, devised theater, and design justice.
Through original performances, creative strategy, public space interventions, and workshops and trainings, we work with everyday leaders to reclaim the collective sensory experiences that tell the stories of their communities, and shape just futures.
“Why Wow Studio’s work demonstrates a skilled hand in coalescing a group of essential strangers around a shared vision and collaborative practices, a courageous pursuit of truthful performance, a fierce determination for effective action, and an instinct for humor that releases the imagination into new comprehension.” - Robert H. Leonard, performer, teacher, and scholar
Spectrum Arts Productions, Developing Generational Bridge, a storytelling program with teens and older adults that will bring shared ideas alive through theatre
Lippitt Hill Critical Oral History Project, Supporting an effort to document stories about—and take action on—displacement, urban renewal, land use, spatial justice and the housing crisis in Providence, RI
Center for Arts in Medicine, Creating a tool to understand the work that the arts can do to heal social isolation
ARTS IN HEALTH ENGAGEMENTS
We have led workshops at health organizations across the U.S., including Carilion Clinic, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Denver Health Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, Northwell Health, Oncology Nursing Foundation, Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, and Staten Island University Hospital.
The activists and artists Why Wow Studio supports are organizing to uplift the best parts of their communities.
We are active in the grassroots movement to safeguard public housing in NYC. We are supporting artists and activists across Appalachian Virginia to create new forms of culture that uphold democracy at the local level, to democratize history, and to rehabilitate culture and lifeways nearly lost policies of genocide and erasure. Across NYC, we develop living history projects to counter social isolation through creative means. In Nagpur, India, we work with residents in informal settlements to redesign the interiors of their homes.
The groups we work with show their communities and our country that people have always resisted targeted depravation with hope and strategy.
We work with an emphasis on collaborative research and ingredients for a welcoming experience that ilicit novel thinking. We are seriously playful, and we love leading processes where everyone is a teacher, everyone is a learner, and all learn together to envision a more just and beautiful future. Side effects include new abilities to navigate complex systems, leadership development, and new relationships.
We currently offer: - Arts-in-health program development - Community engagement strategy - Communication + collaboration coaching - Curriculum development (grade school - university) - Design + social architecture - Documentary theatre residencies - Fundraising strategy - Facilitation - Program evaluation - Program development - Qualitative research - Strategic planning
We are accepting 2025 clients, collaborators, and partners.
