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Congratulations to Dance/USA members Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, CityDance Ensemble, Dakshina, Limon Dance Company, Ragamala Music & Dance Theater, and Step Afrika!
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is pleased to announce the second round grantees for the 2009 USArtists International ("USAI") program, the only national initiative solely dedicated to ensuring that the impressive range of the performing arts in the United States is represented abroad. The program works to strengthen the creative and professional development of American dance, music and theatre artists by providing grants to support their performances around the world at significant international festivals and engagements that represent extraordinary career opportunities.
In this latest round of funding, 37 grants are awarded to support performing arts ensembles and soloists at festival engagements in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. This is an increase over 17 grants awarded in the first round. Grantees range from Alonzo King's California-based ballet company Lines, to the experimental jazz of New Jersey's Jason Kao Hwang's quartet Edge, and from New York theater pioneers Mabou Mines to the traditional Cajun music of Louisiana's Feufollet. A complete list of funded ensembles can be found here.
Atlanta Ballet Director Stepping Down
by John Manasso
March 12, 2009
Atlanta Business Chronicle
After having spent only two years as executive director of the Atlanta Ballet, Barry Hughson said there were few jobs for which he would have left.
One of them arose and Hughson will depart in May after the company’s production of Don Quixote is complete.
He will take over the Boston Ballet, one of five largest ballet companies in the country. Its $25 million budget is more than three times that of Atlanta, which has a budget of $8 million.
read the press release from the Boston Ballet
Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago Names Gregg Gustafson New Executive Director
Gregg Gustafson has been named to succeed Ben Hodge as Executive Director of Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago effective March 1. Hodge will work in tandem with Gustafson through March to assist in the transition and will remain as Executive Director of Jazz Dance World Congress through this year’s event, slated to take place in Chicago July 22-26.
“I am thrilled to join Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago as its new Executive Director,” says Gustafson. “Enhancing identity and guiding arts organizations through times of change have been recurring themes throughout my arts management career. I’m excited about this company and I look forward to working with Artistic Director Nan Giordano and the GJDC board as they build upon the legacy established by company founder Gus Giordano.”
National Endowment for the Arts Announces Upcoming Education Leaders Institutes
How does arts education fuel the nation’s economic prosperity and innovation? Or capitalize on new media trends? These and other questions will be addressed at two upcoming Education Leaders Institutes, an NEA initiative that convenes “dream teams” to develop coordinated state arts education plans. This spring, the NEA will assemble policymakers, educators, advocates, and artists to design arts education plans for their respective states. With these upcoming Institutes, the NEA will have gathered 19 policy teams since the program was launched in 2007. On Monday, March 16, the NEA announced the state teams who will attend the third and fourth Institute, to be held this March and June in Chicago, Illinois.
Flemming Flindt, Dancer, Dies at 72
by Jack Anderson
March 12, 2009
The New York Times
Flemming Flindt, a Danish dancer, choreographer and company director who both preserved his country’s ballet heritage and staged controversial new productions, died on March 3 at his home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 72 and also had a residence in Copenhagen.
The cause was a stroke, said Erik Aschengreen, a Danish dance historian and critic.
by Robin Pogrebin; compiled by Patrick Healy
March 13, 2009
The New York Times
President Barack Obama has established a staff position in the White House to oversee arts and culture in the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs under Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser, a White House official confirmed. Kareem Dale, right, a lawyer who last month was named special assistant to the president for disability policy, will hold the new position.
Margo McCann affirmed as Managing Director for Texas Ballet Theater
March 12, 2009
by Pegasus News wire
Suzanne Charriere, Chair of the Board of Directors, announced today that Margo McCann has been affirmed as the Managing Director of Texas Ballet Theater, effective March 1, 2009. The announcement follows a unanimous vote by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors during their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 5, 2009.
PNC Launches Program to Fund Regional Arts
by Stephan Salisbury
March 11, 2009
The Philadelphia Inquirer
A new $5 million program of regional arts giving by PNC Foundation is to be announced today, doubling the foundation's commitment to the visual and performing arts in the region.
PNC Foundation, the charitable arm of PNC Financial Services, plans to dispense grants of at least $25,000 in an effort to build and engage new audiences, support new programs, explore technology, and foster organizational innovation.
The initiative, dubbed Arts Alive, will unfold over five years.
MacArthur Foundation Appoints New President
by Ian Wilhelm
March 10, 2009
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Robert L. Gallucci, a former American diplomat and weapons inspector, has been chosen to be the next president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest foundations.
He will replace Jonathan F. Fanton, who has served two five-year terms and under the Chicago organization’s policy is required to step down.
Arts Groups Lose Out in Fight for Funds
by Mike Spector
March 18, 2009
The Wall Street Journal
Museums, theaters and operas, already reeling from the recession, are having a tough time attracting support amid perceptions that vital services like soup kitchens and homeless shelters should receive funds first.
Arts organization are retrenching, and in some cases closing, as a result of fewer sales of tickets and merchandise, arts leaders say. They're also seeing fewer donations from individuals and corporations, and cutbacks in government funding. About 10,000 arts organizations, or 10% of the U.S. total, are at risk of folding, according to Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit lobbying group in Washington, D.C.
$20 Million Donation to Dance at the Music Center
Glorya Kaufman's gift is among the largest endowments ever made to Los Angeles' Music Center and its resident companies.
by Diane Haithman
March 17, 2009
The Los Angeles Times
In one of the largest such gifts ever to the Music Center or any of its resident companies, Los Angeles philanthropist Glorya Kaufman is donating $20 million to the Dance at the Music Center program.
The donation, to be announced today, surpasses all but a handful of contributions to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Center Theatre Group or the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
"It's a record -- and, as far as we know, the largest gift to support dance ever in America," Music Center President Stephen D. Rountree said in an interview.
Drop in Revenue Explains Cutbacks at Nevada Ballet
by Kristen Peterson
March 12, 2009
Las Vegas Sun
Nevada Ballet Theatre’s announcement Tuesday that it would let go nine dancers and cut its final concert of the season came as almost no surprise.
The 37-year-old dance company is one of the city’s big three cultural institutions, two of which had previously taken hits from the bad economy. The Las Vegas Art Museum closed its doors indefinitely and the Las Vegas Philharmonic is bouncing back from a $200,000 deficit after almost canceling youth concerts.
Accepting Cutbacks at Ballet Theater
by Roslyn Sulcas; compiled by Dave Itzkoff
March 10, 2009
The New York Times
The 86 dancers at American Ballet Theater have agreed to accept a proposal by management that would eliminate the company’s pension contributions and the dancers’ vacation pay in 2009. Management made the request because of the financial crisis. and at the meeting on Monday, the dancers voted unanimously to approve the plan, Rachel S. Moore, the company’s executive director, said.
Senior Cunningham Dancers Will Be Let Go
by Roslyn Sulcas
March 10, 2009
The New York Times
Three of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s most senior dancers — and among the most respected artists in contemporary dance — were told two weeks ago that their contracts would not be renewed at the end of their current period of employment in May.
Holley Farmer, Daniel Squire and Koji Mizuta, who have all performed with the company for more than a decade, were informed of the decision by Trevor Carlson, executive director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The action, which was not formally announced to the news media, comes as the company is rehearsing for its season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which will open on April 16, Mr. Cunningham’s 90th birthday.
But while there is consensus from board members and dancers that the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, like most other arts organizations, has been affected by economic hard times, Mr. Carlson, speaking by telephone from Barcelona, Spain, said that the decision not to renew the dancers’ contracts was a purely artistic one.
Philadelphia Mayor Pledges to Maintain Support for Arts
March 9, 2009
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
In contrast to past Philadelphia city administrations, Mayor Michael Nutter is pledging not to single out the arts for budget cuts in tough times, according to the Associated Press.
Dance Company's Show Postponed
March 7, 2009
IndyStar.com
A performance by a popular Philadelphia-based dance company has been postponed at the Madame Walker Theatre.
Philadanco was scheduled to perform March 28, but the program is being rescheduled "because of the effects of a slow economy on ticket sales," according to a Walker news release.
Artists are Losing Jobs Fast and Furiously
by Sherry Stern
March 4, 2009
The Los Angeles Times
The country's dire economic situation is hitting artists hard -- harder than other professionals.
According to new research announced today by the National Endowment for the Arts, working artists are unemployed at a higher rate than other workers, and at a rate that is rising more rapidly than other professions. Presumably as a result, more artists are leaving their profession.
The study, "Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008," looks at artist employment patterns during two spikes in the current recession -– the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008.
A Proposed Job Swap To Save American Capitalism
by Liz Lerman
Community Arts Network
Do Wall Street executives deserve big bonuses during hard times? Does increased arts funding have a place in an economic stimulus package? I’ll leave it to others to debate these controversies. Meanwhile I’d like to make a modest proposal to solve some of our economic problems: Let’s do a job swap. We’ll put the corporate executives to work as artists while the artists run Wall Street.
Arts Get Whacked by Rich as Companies Face Losses in Endowments
by Patrick Cole
March 4, 2009
bloomberg.com
Corporations and wealthy individuals are donating less to nonprofits, with arts groups taking the biggest hit, according to two new studies.
Of 158 companies polled by the economic-research group the Conference Board in February, 45 percent said they have reduced their 2009 philanthropy budget and 16 percent are considering it. The survey said 35 percent of the companies will make fewer grants in 2009 and 22 percent are thinking about it.
