Founder, Executive Artistic Director/Honorary Board Member Joan Myers Brown steps down and Kim Bears Bailey is named Artistic Director of Philadanco! Read more here During the month of June, in the midst of the BLM protests in New York, Angel, Danyele, Donte, Rj, and Stev – the Artists in Residents (AIRs)—were invited by People’s Space — a group of artists from our 02020 initiative—to work with Performance Space New York. What started as a project to offer refuge for protesters quickly shifted to a mutual aid space for those facing houselessness. After securing temporary housing for the AIRs, it soon became apparent that the five artists needed a more permanent solution.
People’s Space and Performance Space are now helping the AIRs raise funds to collectively purchase a home outside of NYC, and to provide seed funding for their artistic careers. With your support, the AIRs will be able to secure both long-term housing for themselves and eventually other houseless, Black and trans artists. Help us raise $60,000 by October 15 to lift up impacted communities and most of all, help keep them safe, sustained and supported! The donation will not go to Performance Space; 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the AIRs. More: GoFundMe Performance Space New York The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) announced 41 grants today in support of the Philadelphia region’s artists and cultural organizations for exceptional programs, events, and artistic work. The 2020 awards total more than $10.5 million, $1.6 million of which is provided as unrestricted general operating support for the 29 project grant recipients, and $900,000 of which goes to 12 individual artists as Pew Fellowships. Performance artist Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is one of the 41 grantees, he says: “I am especially interested in presenting narratives that disrupt conventional performance to recast the historical positionality of the Black body, confront trauma, and offer creative processes for healing.” Read more about all 41 grantees here Read the news about Urban Bush Women.
UBW, along with only 19 other cultural organizations, has been designated one of “America’s Cultural Treasures” by the Ford Foundation. Or read here. MERCE CUNNINGHAM TRUST EXPANDS BOARD TO BROADEN THE DIRECTION AND REACH OF CUNNINGHAM’S LEGACY10/14/2020 FROM THE FOLKS AT THE CUNNINGHAM TRUST:
Dancer/educator Shayla-Vie Jenkins and arts administrator/consultant Georgiana Pickett have joined the Merce Cunningham Trust, bringing the number of Trustees to nine. The expansion adds new voices and expertise to leading the pioneering choreographer’s legacy into the future. Jenkins, who performed in Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event at BAM, danced professionally with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, for which she also stages work. She has also performed with artists including Susan Marshall and Yara Travieso and has presented her own work in numerous New York venues. Jenkins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Dance at the University of the Arts and regularly teaches at the American Dance Festival and NYU’s Summer Dance intensive. She is a graduate of the Fordham Ailey Dance program. Jenkins said of her appointment to the Board of Trustees, I was fortunate to be asked to perform in the Merce Cunningham Night of 100 Solos, which gave me the opportunity to inhabit and witness up-close the remarkable movement. As a new trust member, I am excited to bring an outside perspective and Black female voice to an ongoing conversation of how to imagine the Cunningham legacy into the future.” The arts consultant Georgiana Pickett was Executive Director of Baryshnikov Arts Center for eight years (2011-2019), during which time she oversaw major initiatives at including the establishment of the Cage-Cunningham Award and the Cage-Cunningham Studio. Pickett has extensive leadership experience, having previously served as Artistic Director of Miami-Dade College’s Cultural Affairs Department and Executive Director of 651 Arts in Brooklyn. She has been a panelist and/or consultant for many organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford and Doris Duke Charitable Foundations, and the New York State Council for the Arts. Pickett said, “I am looking forward to digging into this dynamic phase of the Cunningham Trust’s work that will continue its already impeccable record of carrying the Cunningham legacy forward, while now broadening its programs to include new students, scholars, dancers and communities.” The Trust also announces today that Trevor Carlson, a Trustee since 2011 and, previously, the final executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, has stepped down. While at the helm of the company, Carlson was the driving force behind the design and implementation of its groundbreaking legacy plan. Over the past decade, he played an active role in building the Trust’s activities, culminating in his pivotal role as producer of last year’s Cunningham Centennial and as creative producer of its centerpiece, Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. With that production, staged in London, New York, and Los Angeles on Cunningham’s 100th birthday (April 16, 2019), the Trust set out to broaden the performance of Cunningham choreography to include dancers from a wide range of backgrounds, practices, and companies. Read more here The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) has awarded $2,030,000 through the National Dance Project (NDP) to support the creation of 20 new dance works that will be shared across the United States.
2020 NDP Production Grant Recipients:
2020 NDP Finalist Awardees
Find out more here From Jennifer Stahl/Dance Magazine's Editor in Chief:
Since 1954, Dance Magazine has celebrated the living legends among us with the Dance Magazine Awards. This year, in light of deep reflections on racial equity inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, the selection committee decided to take a close look at exactly who the magazine has honored over the past seven decades. Unsurprisingly, the list is overwhelmingly white. Although it's grown more diverse in recent years, many brilliant artists of color have been left out for far too long. So for 2020, in order to reckon with and take a step toward repairing that history, the committee chose an outstanding group of all-Black artists. I'm delighted to announce our incredible honorees for 2020: Carlos Acosta Debbie Allen Camille A. Brown Laurieann Gibson Alonzo King Chairman's Award: Darren Walker Harkness Promise Awards: Kyle Marshall and Marjani Forté-Saunders Read more here |
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AuthorI am a performer, historian, consultant and dance writer. I am a Empire State College's online program Center for Distance Learning. I am also a former faculty member at The Ailey School and the Alvin Ailey/Fordham University dance major program, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College (Guest), Kean University and The Joffrey Ballet School's Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program. I write on dance for The Amsterdam News, Dance Magazine and various publications. Click below to read more about me at my home page - "About Me." |