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January 7, 2009

Fabian Barnes Honored as a 2008 Washingtonian of the Year

Congratulations to Dance Institute of Washington Founder/Artistic Director, Fabian Barnes, whom Washingtonian Magazine has recently honored as a 2008 Washingtonian of the Year. The magazine highlights his continued service to the community, developing children and youth through quality dance training and arts education, and broadening Washington's cultural wealth through meaningful dance performances. Please check the Washingtonian website or pick up the January 2009 magazine to read the full article.

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Regional Dance America Names Executive Director

Regional Dance America (RDA) has named Gretchen L. Vogelzang, M.FA., executive director of the now fifty-two year old organization. Ms. Vogelzang has a long history with regional dance having started as a dancer in the National Association for Regional Ballet over thirty years ago. She has since served as an Artistic Director of a regional dance company for fifteen years and then President of Regional Dance America for five overseeing the successful RDA National Festival in Pittsburgh in 2007. Most recently, she has served as the Managing Director of RDA.

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National Dance Project Announces $240,000 in Tour Grants

National Dance Project (NDP), a program of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), has designated $240,000 to support U.S. tours of six contemporary dance projects in the 2009-10 season. Allocated up to $40,000 each, projects were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicant projects representing artistry based both in the U.S. and abroad. Those chosen will enhance the range and reach of NDP-funded projects throughout the U.S.

These six tours are in addition to touring activity of projects by fifteen dance artists and companies that received NDP production grants in July 2008. Together, these program components will provide up to $840,000 of dance touring funding during the 2009-10 season. The full list of all 21 projects receiving support is available online at: www.nefa.org/grantprog/ndp/ndp_grantees.html.

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Daniel Nagrin Dies at 91; Modern Dancer and Choreographer

by Jennifer Dunning
January 2, 2009
The New York Times

Daniel Nagrin, a choreographer, performer, teacher and writer who was known for intensely dramatic solos that became modern-dance classics, died on Dec. 29 in Tempe, Ariz. He was 91 and lived in Tempe.

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Most NY Arts Groups Face Cuts Amid Weak Donations, Survey Finds

by Sue Hoye
January 5, 2009
The Chronicle of Philathropy

A survey of close to a hundred New York City cultural organizations found that 79 percent have reduced or plan to reduce their budgets.

Dramatic declines in corporate financial support following the crisis on Wall Street — combined with lower than normal individual donations and cuts in state and city support — have several arts groups cutting the size of their staffs and scaling back programs, according to the survey.

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Recession Hits Arts Groups Especially Hard

by Sue Hoye
January 2, 2009
The Chronicle of Philathropy

Despite generally strong attendance at many nonprofit museums and theaters in recent months, many arts charities around the country are laying off workers or adopting hiring freezes and cutting other expenses in response to a falloff in donations from companies, individuals, and governments. And most are bracing for much tougher times ahead.

For some cultural groups, the strain has already reached a crisis point. Since September, several arts institutions have closed or come close to closing, including the Baltimore Opera; the Bead Museum, in Washington; Santa Clarita Symphony, in California; Opera Pacific, in Santa Ana, Calif.;and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

And as the economy worsens, philanthropy experts say arts groups could have a harder and harder time competing for donations against social-service groups.

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No Bailout for the Arts?

by Michael Kaiser
December 29, 2008
The Washington Post

While government bailouts are being offered or considered for financial institutions, the auto industry, homeowners, and so many other needy and worthy sectors, one group is quickly and rather quietly falling apart: our nation's arts organizations. In the past few months, dozens of opera companies, theater companies, dance organizations, museums and symphonies have either closed or suffered major cash crises.

As someone who has made a career out of fixing troubled organizations, I know that the problems faced by arts groups are often related to poor management and governance. I also know that the difficulty in improving productivity in the arts is a central cause of our financial challenges: It takes as much time to play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony today as it did when the piece was composed, and the same number of actors are required for "Hamlet" as when Shakespeare wrote the play more than 400 years ago. Unlike other industries, the arts cannot cover the cost of inflation by improving worker productivity.

This is why subsidies -- in the form of government grants or private contributions -- have long been required to help arts organizations balance their budgets. Well-managed arts organizations have typically been able to find the money required to operate if they create interesting programs, market them aggressively and build strong donor bases.

But these times are different.

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Put Culture in the Cabinet

by William Ferris
December 26, 2008
The New York Times

In 1935, as part of the New Deal, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Farm Security Administration, which reached out to rural families as they struggled during the Depression. Roy Stryker, who oversaw the agency’s photo documentary program, captured the strength of American culture in the depths of the country’s despair. The photographs of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks showed us both the pain of America and the resilience of its people.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson drew on his Texas roots when he created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, organizations that share America’s arts and humanities with the American people.

Both Roosevelt and Johnson demonstrated their forceful commitment to the preservation and celebration of American culture — and they did so in challenging times.

So what will President-elect Barack Obama do? Well, here’s a suggestion.

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Troubled Ballet Cancels Spring Tour

by Dave Itzkoff
December 26, 2008
The New York Times

Days after announcing that it had sold enough tickets to its year-end performances of “The Nutcracker” to keep the production alive, Ballet BC, the Vancouver dance company, has canceled a spring tour, the CBC reported. The planned five-city tour of Canada, in which the company was to perform a ballet version of “A Streetcar Named Desire” choreographed by its artistic director, John Alleyne, was scheduled for April.

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Ballet down, not out
The orchestra returns to Atlanta Ballet, but the live music from the pit may not be enough to soothe sounds of bad economy.

by Pierre Ruhe
December 22, 2008
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For two humiliating years, the Atlanta Ballet couldn’t afford an orchestra, and the dance company suffered public scorn, a freeze in artistic quality and a slight erosion in ticket sales.

When two donors gave a $250,000 gift in September and brought musicians back to the pit, the arts community cheered. But it had zero effect on tickets.

In fact, “Swan Lake,” its season-opening show with orchestra at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, was a critical success but a whopping 30 percent below expectations for box office revenue —- an early indication of the financial problems arts groups face during a prolonged recession.

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Task Force Releases Report on the Arts

December 10, 2008
Harvard University Gazette Online

A concerted effort should be made to put the arts at Harvard University on par with the study of the humanities and sciences, according to a report released today (Dec. 10) by a University-wide task force that examined the role the arts play in campus life.

The report makes a powerful case for the role of the arts within a research university. Harvard, as an institution, values creative thinking and leadership. The arts provide direct experience of these values, both in how to imagine the new and how to turn fresh ideas into reality. If Harvard is to continue to be a place where dreams are born and exciting collaborations push the boundaries of knowledge, it must do more to include the practice of the arts in the curriculum and embrace it as an integral part of intellectual life on campus.

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