• City Opera Cedes Dates to City Ballet in Lincoln Center Deal
• Settling the Score with Choreographer Mark Morris
• Helgi Tomasson's 25 Years At San Francisco Ballet
• The James Irvine Foundation Appoints Josephine Ramirez as Program Director for the Arts
• Ohio University gets $13 million for arts center
• January 29 Webposium for Teaching Artists
  

City Opera Cedes Dates to City Ballet in Lincoln Center Deal
by Robin Pogrebin
January 6, 2010
The New York Times

Starting this year the New York City Ballet will be taking over full use of the Lincoln Center theater that it shares with New York City Opera for four weeks in September and October — severely curtailing the opera company’s fall season — as part of an agreement that will give the opera some relief from its forthcoming building payments.

The new arrangement will allow City Ballet to present its first fall season of repertory performances since 1965. 

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Settling the Score with Choreographer Mark Morris
by Molly Glentzer
January 8, 2010
Houston Chronicle

Mark Morris, at 53, has earned the right to enjoy a little silent treatment. Most choreographers will tell you their art begins with music, but few breathe notes into movement as deftly as this rock star of contemporary dance — perhaps the rock star, since Merce Cunningham's death last year.

Creating more than 120 dances since the early 1980s — for the barefoot artists of his Mark Morris Dance Group as well as pointe shoe-clad primas — Morris has brought the scores of composers in virtually every style vividly to life onstage. He's collaborated with superstars of the classical music world such as Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax and also directed a fair share of high-profile operas.

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Helgi Tomasson's 25 Years At San Francisco Ballet
by Allan Ulrich
January 17, 2010
San Franciso Chronicle

In 1985, the San Francisco Ballet took a huge risk in appointing Helgi Tomasson as its artistic director and the successor to Lew Christensen. Tomasson had just retired from a distinguished dancing career at New York City Ballet and elsewhere, winning acclaim for the purity of his movement style. He had earned his share of honors, including the silver medal at the first International Ballet Competition in Moscow in 1970 (the same year that Mikhail Baryshnikov took the gold).

But the Iceland-born artist had choreographed little and, except for organizing a small concert troupe, he had never really run a company. The San Francisco Ballet Board, still aglow from opening its sumptuous home on Franklin Street, had big ambitions. They were gambling. The dance world watched. The skeptics sneered.

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The James Irvine Foundation Appoints Josephine Ramirez as Program Director for the Arts
January 14, 2010

The James Irvine Foundation announced the appointment of Josephine Ramirez as Program Director for the Arts. Ramirez will join Irvine from the Los Angeles Music Center and brings more than two decades of substantive experience in the arts to this leadership role.

Since its founding in 1937, the Irvine Foundation has been a major supporter of the arts in California. Today, Irvine is one of the largest arts funders in the state, with more than $19 million in grants in 2009. The goal of Irvine’s Arts program is to promote a vibrant and inclusive artistic and cultural environment in California.

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Ohio University gets $13 million for arts center
by Dave Hendricks
January 12, 2010
The Columbus Dispatch

A 1938 alumna has pledged more than $13 million to Ohio University to establish a center for arts education, officials announced yesterday.

The gift from Violet L. Patton, 92, is among the 20 largest personal donations in Ohio University history, said Jennifer Bowie, director of development.

The money will be used to build or renovate a home for the center; fund scholarships, fellowships and residencies for visiting artists; and build links between the university and the region. OU officials haven't decided where the center will be.

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January 29 Webposium for Teaching Artists
What do teaching artists need to know to be successful when working with students with disabilities?

A free Webposium for Teaching Artists
Friday, January 29, 2010
12—1 pm (EST)

Join us online for a discussion about the challenges and successes of working with students with disabilities. The event will be streamed live and viewers will be able to join in the Q and A at the end of the session.

What do teaching artists need to know, understand, and be able to do to achieve success in a self-contained or inclusion classroom? The panel consists of artists and educators dedicated to making the arts accessible to all students. The panelists will discuss practical classroom strategies, lesson plan modifications, as well as the necessary questions to ask in order for everyone (artists, students, teachers, para-professionals, and administrators) to be successful.

Register now! Registration ends January 28 at 5 p.m.

Sponsored by the Dana Foundation.

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