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February 17, 2010

National Foundation Gives Kansas City Ballet $900,000 Toward Building a New Home
by Ann Spivak
February 10, 2010
The Kansas City Star

A national foundation has given the Kansas City Ballet exactly what it needed — a challenge grant of $900,000 toward completing construction of its new home on the west edge of Union Station.

The announcement by the Kresge Foundation has “shot the fundraising campaign back to a high energy level,” said Jeffrey Bentley, the ballet’s executive director.

Now it’s Bentley’s job to meet the Kresge grant challenge. In order to receive the $900,000, the ballet must raise $3 million over the next 18 months, which will go toward the total remaining campaign goal of $5.8 million.

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Paul Taylor Dance Foundation Downsizes by One
by Daniel J. Wakin
February 2, 2010
The New York Times

On the eve of moving into its new home, the Paul Taylor Dance Company said on Tuesday that it had eliminated an executive position to save money and was expecting to finish with a balanced budget this season, as it celebrates Mr. Taylor’s 80th birthday. The Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, which runs the company, said its executive director, Martin I. Kagan, resigned on Friday. He was effectively replaced by the company’s general manager, John Tomlinson, who was given the title of managing director of the foundation.

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NEFA's National Dance Project Gets Boon From Boeing
February 17, 2010

The New England Foundation for the Arts was the recipient of a recent $75,000 grant from The Boeing Company Charitable Trust for the National Dance Project. The grant will support the production and touring of contemporary dance works in the United States for the 2010-2011 season.

Launched in 1996, NEFA’s National Dance Project enables communities across the nation to experience the work of the most creative and compelling dance artists of our time. “NDP is a critically important national program supporting individual dance artists and companies across the spectrum,” said NEFA executive director Rebecca Blunk. “We are grateful to the Boeing Company Charitable Trust for recognizing the importance of this work.”

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National Performance Network Receives Support for Creative Development of Performing Art Work
January 21, 2010

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awards $100,000 to the National Performance Network to support the design and implementation of the NPN Forth Fund Pilot Program including developmental support for six Creation Fund projects

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the National Performance Network (NPN) $100,000 to pilot the NPN Forth Fund. The Forth Fund will build upon the NPN Creation Fund, a subsidy program that provides performing artists creating new work for touring with $10,000 of unrestricted support. By contributing an additional $15,000 towards the crucial production phase of development, the Forth Fund will enhance and deepen finished NPN Creation Fund work. Funds will be disbursed directly to Creation Fund recipients and commissioners, and will provide access to critical managerial, artistic and technical resources necessary to produce a new work for touring.

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Mayor Nutter, Mural Arts Program Announce Gateway Project at Philadelphia International Airport
February 2, 2010
philly.com

Philadelphia, February 2, 2010 – The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is pleased to announce How Philly Moves, a project that will place an extraordinary and vibrant new work of community-based public art on the parking decks facing Interstate 95 at the Philadelphia International Airport. The nearly 50,000 square foot mural, incorporating the photographic work of and designed by artist Jacques-Jean “JJ” Tiziou, will be produced over the next 18 months and is scheduled to be dedicated in June 2011. The project, developed in cooperation with the City of Philadelphia Office on Transportation and Utilities, will employ 35 artists and individuals in various Mural Arts Program workforce development and re-entry initiatives.

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As Garment Industry Moves Out, Theater and Arts Move In
by Alison Gregor
February 16, 2010
The New York Times

South of 42nd Street in Manhattan, the bright lights of Broadway start to fade and give way to the trimmings shops, fabric stores and designers’ ateliers of the garment district. But in recent years, much of the clothing trade has moved overseas, leaving vacant factory spaces that have lured growing numbers of theater and arts groups to the area....

“Small theaters in New York have always gone where there are spaces they can afford,” said Victoria Bailey, the fund’s executive director. “The small theaters go first, then the larger theaters or the larger service organizations follow. What’s happened is you’ve reached a bit more of a critical mass here.”

The Baryshnikov Arts Center recently opened a new venue on the western fringe of the garment district. In 2005, the arts center bought the top floors of a six-story building on 37th Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues. Called 37 Arts, the building was developed by a group that included the Broadway producers Kevin McCollum and Jeffrey Seller.

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Obama appoints painter, novelist and four non-artists to advisory committee on arts and humanities
February 4, 2010
by Mike Boehm
The Los Angeles Times

President Obama has picked six people to join the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanties; two of them, painter-photographer Chuck Close and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short-story writer Jhumpa Lahiri, will become the first visual artist and writer on an advisory panel weighted with actors and business people.

The other new appointees are entertainment executives and arts patrons.

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Where Are the Arts Important?
by Michael Kaiser
February 1, 2010
The Huffington Post

As I was preparing for my "Arts in Crisis" tour stops in a series of southern states, I was reflecting on the claims of too many politicians that the arts are the province of the elite in big coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles. This is used as an excuse for denigrating public support for the arts, and by extension, the arts themselves. The argument goes that investing in the arts only affects a very small, very rich, and very concentrated segment of our population.

While it is true that many of our largest arts organizations are in large Northeastern cities and that these arts groups have raised their ticket prices so high as to make them unaffordable for many, the arts play a vital role in virtually every community across the nation. It is not simply rich New Yorkers who care about music or dance or theater. People of all backgrounds and income levels are involved with the arts across the United States.

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