Designed as an artistic theater initiative to cultivate communication between artists and between artists and their audiences, New WORLD Theater launches the first phase of Future Aesthetics Project with four events this spring.

The Future Aesthetics Project will commence with a workshop performance by the hip-hop dance group Universes on February 22. It will continue throughout the season with New WORLD Theater's latest progressive venture, a Poetry-in-Performance Series featuring internationally-acclaimed performance poets Tracie Morris and Caridad De La Luz. A third poetry performance starring an Asian American poetry ensemble named Born with Two Tongues is also being planned for the spring season.

The goal of the Future Aesthetics Project is to expand understanding of the artistic process by promoting the participation of community members in events such as poetry events, "artist-to-artist" creative exchange workshops, and intimate sessions with regional artists. These sponsored events will reach out to new audiences by forming partnerships with local art organizations and by employing non-traditional theater settings in campus and community spaces. Participating artists will have the opportunity to interact with their audiences and enter into dialogues concerning the cultural aesthetics and content of the performance.

Another primary objective the Future Aesthetics Project is to develop a new audience of young adults who are already active participants in youth performance culture in the region. The Project will facilitate interactions between these youth and professional artists with the hope that such interactions will give youth valuable exposure to theater. Furthermore, such interactions will provide performers with the chance to integrate the influence of a "new aesthetics" emanating from this youth culture.

A prestigious grant awarded to New WORLD Theater by The Association of Performing Arts Presenters will help support the Future Aesthetics Project by enabling the Theater to plan and implement audience development projects such as artists' residencies and programs that encourage interaction between artists and audiences. The Theater was one of only three arts organizations in the country to be awarded such a grant.

New WORLD partners in the Future Aesthetics Project include WMUA 91.1 FM, The Teen Resource Project of Holyoke, the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts, and The Poetry Center at Smith College. For more information on New WORLD Theater's upcoming events, call 545-1972.

Photo: The hip-hop dance group Universes appears on February 22.