MIDDLETOWN, CT.- Of All The People In All The World is a performance/art installation that uses grains of rice to bring formerly abstract statistics to life. In this exhibition, each grain of rice is equal to one person and the viewer is invited to compare the one grain that is them to the millions that are not. Over a period of days, a team of performers carefully weigh out quantities of rice to represent a host of human statistics. The statistics and their juxtapositions can be subtle, witty and thought provoking.

The work has been performed in cities from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Madrid to New York City, and past installations have included the people born today in the world and those who will die today, everyone who was killed in the Holocaust, all the millionaires in the USA and everyone who is HIV positive. As part of Feet to the Fire, Wesleyan’s campus-wide project on global climate change, the university’s Center for the Arta has commissioned Stan’s Cafe to produce a version of the work which will help humanize those issues. At the conclusion of the installation, the 11,000 pounds of rice used in the project will be donated to local food banks.

Of All the People in All the World, USA runs from Friday, February 20 – Tuesday, March 3 at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery and at satellite locations including Olin Library, as well as others to be announced. The Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery is located on the Wesleyan campus at 283 Washington Terrace in Middletown, Connecticut. Admission is free. For information, special hours and off-campus locations visit www.wesleyan.edu/feettothefire or call 860-685-3355.

To see video of a previous version of Of All the People in All the World, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDWcuBygAUw

Of All the People in All the World, USA is a part of Feet to the Fire: Exploring Global Climate Change from Science to Art, an eighteen-month project which includes research opportunities for a team of students and faculty to explore first-hand the effects of global warming, fieldwork studies in art and science, performances, pedagogical exchanges in existing courses, commissioning of artists, and convening of experts. The project is funded in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Wesleyan’s grant is one of only eight grants given to challenge campus-based performing arts presenters to integrate their programs more organically within the academic environment. Related events for the project will take place throughout the Spring 2009 semester—a press release on the events will be released in the coming weeks. For more information about Feet to the Fire visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/feettothefire

Stan’s Cafe is a group of artists from a variety of disciplines, though primarily theater practitioners, working under the artistic direction of James Yarker. The company consists of a core of long term collaborators and a range of associated artists.

Stan’s Cafe has a history of making unusual performances dating back to their formation in Birmingham in 1991. The Black Maze is a fairground ride built in the back of an old post office lorry. Lurid and Insane is a satirical rock gig which premiered in a farmer’s barn, and for Space Station they built a new stop on the Midland Metro Line. While this list makes the company sound like art mavericks, they have also performed at The Royal Court and Birmingham Rep, they have been commissioned by the English National Opera, had pieces broadcast on British National Radio and toured extensively to festivals across Europe. Visit www.stanscafe.co.uk