Scottsdale Museum Of Contemporary Art Announces Tania Katan Book Launch And Performative Talk

After more than 10 years of smuggling creativity into the business sector without getting busted, Tania Katan's new book "Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life" is a refreshing look at how to fit creativity into the seemingly mundane. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a one-of-a-kind book launch at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, 2019.

Katan is a creative disruptor by nature and one of the brains behind the viral sensation #ItWasNeverADress, which aspired to shift perceptions about women, initially by transforming the ubiquitous bathroom sign from a dress-wearing woman to one donning a superhero cape.

Formerly the curator of performing arts at SMoCA, Katan cultivated community engagement with her original Lit Lounge storytelling series. The popular monthly event invited select authors and performers from Arizona and across the country to share their stories paired with live music, in front of an audience in the SMoCA Lounge. Katan later became the brand evangelist for tech company Axosoft. Currently she empowers people and companies to be a little unruly and sneak more creativity into less overtly creative spaces like cubicles and boardrooms.

Published by Penguin Random House, "Creative Trespassing" is peppered with stories of Katan's own shenanigans from organizing a wrestling match in the middle of SMoCA to staging a corporate culture intervention via Post-it notes. This book (and event) is a rollicking, uninhibited guide to using creativity as fuel for a freer and more awesome life.

"This book is an invitation to find inspiration where others see only limitations, because when we believe that logic and limits are subject to change, the world is full of possibilities," says Katan.

The much-anticipated book's launch on Feb. 22 is in partnership with Changing Hands Bookstore. Katan will impart hilarious stories, wacky, battle-tested exercises for flexing your creative muscles and a presentation featuring "Fire Hierarchy" and "Transform the Norm." This performative talk will deliver tools and strategies for taking more creative risks, leading with more imagination, facing fears and embracing obstacles as an opportunity to accelerate growth and the ability to find inspiration where others see only limitations.

Tickets:
Individual plus one signed book $40 / Pair plus one signed book $60 / VIP (includes one signed book, VIP reception and reserved front row seat) $75

Organized in partnership with Changing Hands Bookstore.

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TANIA KATAN is creative disruptor, inspirational speaker, and co-creator of the internationally viral #ItWasNeverADress campaign. She has been a featured speaker at CiscoLive!, Expedia, Humana, Etsy, S.H.E. Summit, Social Innovation Summit, TEDx, Comedy Central Stage, and more. Formerly the curator of performing arts at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and then the brand evangelist for tech company Axosoft, Katan currently empowers people and companies to be a little unruly, a lot imaginative, and sneak more creativity into less overtly creative spaces like cubicles, boardrooms, and bathrooms. Her creative sneakery has been featured in The New York Times, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, Huffington Post, Glamour, TIME, BuzzFeed, Mashable, USA Today, CNN, and other media outlets. Katan's forthcoming book, "Creative Trespassing," will be published by Penguin Random House in February 2019. www.taniakatan.com

SCOTTSDALE ARTS
Through its partnership with the City of Scottsdale, the nonprofit Scottsdale Arts (formerly known as Scottsdale Cultural Council) creates diverse, inspired arts experiences and educational opportunities that foster active, lifelong community engagement with the arts. Since its founding in 1987, Scottsdale Arts has grown into a regionally and nationally significant, multi-disciplinary arts organization offering an exceptional variety of programs through four acclaimed branches - Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), Scottsdale Public Art and Scottsdale Arts Education & Outreach - serving more than 400,000 participants annually.

SCOTTSDALE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Founded in 1999, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) explores the best of contemporary art, architecture and design. Global in its focus, the Museum is a unique and vital cultural resource for the Southwest, serving local audiences as well as visitors from the United States and abroad. Designed by award-winning architect Will Bruder, SMoCA's minimalist building (an ingenious renovation of a former movie theater) has four galleries for showcasing changing exhibitions and works from the Museum's collection, along with SMoCA Lounge, a living, functional art installation and space for community engagement. The Museum presents a wide variety of educational programs and special events for adults and families, including lectures, readings, performances, docent-led tours, workshops and classes. SMoCA also features an outdoor sculpture garden housing James Turrell's "Knight Rise," one of the renowned artist's public skyspaces, and "Scrim Wall," a monumental curtain of translucent glass panels by James Carpenter Design Associates. The Museum's retail store, Shop@SMoCA, offers classic design objects and furnishings, contemporary jewelry, art and architecture books, and imaginative gifts for all occasions.

CHANGING HANDS BOOKSTORE

Changing Hands is Arizona's leading independent bookstore, offering new and used books, unique gifts, toys, and more than 300 author events every year. In Tempe since 1974 (currently at 6428 South McClintock Drive), Changing Hands opened a second location in 2014 at The Newton, an innovative adaptive reuse project that re-purposed the iconic Beef Eaters restaurant in central Phoenix. This second location (at 300 West Camelback Road) is home to Changing Hands' own First Draft Book Bar, one of a small handful "book bars" in the U.S. that serve wine, beer, and coffee drinks in addition to book and event offerings