How to ensure a donor’s legacy continues? What is our responsibility to protect it deep into tomorrow? It’s an interesting challenge for posterity, not to mention for promise making and keeping. Ron Fredman, chief development officer at Kansas City Ballet, has some thoughts.
"Arts leaders have gone through a period of professionalization in the past decade or more,” said Sixto Wagan, director of the Center for Arts Leadership, University of Houston. Read on for more on leading in the 21st century.
How can arts organizations more fully reach and engage their communities and audiences? The Wallace Foundation looked at how Philadelphia's Fleisher Art Memorial revamped its programs in the face of changing neighborhood demographics. Read on for more.
As I navigate my identity as a black, female artist, I’m especially
interested in creative efforts that prioritize cultural equity and
embody more empowering models of community participation, writes dancer and dancemaker Katrina Reid. Read on for more on opening up possibilities for women choreographers of color.
Lack of clarity on what diversity and inclusion mean in our current climate is a great way of not realizing either of them as a goal. Is diversity the same thing as inclusion? If we manage to create an environment of inclusion, does that mean we have diversity? Is it true that we can have diversity without any inclusion? And, finally, perhaps the most powerful question, why does it matter that we achieve either of these equitable goals? Read more in this essay from the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.
The average dancer leaves performing by their mid-30s, often facing the critical question: What’s next?
Until
recently, the answer has been all but clear. It
would seem obvious that decades of intense discipline, long hours of
practice and deep passion and commitment for the craft would produce a
valuable human being with a skill-set worthy of a potent and fulfilling
second career. Yet, many retired ballet dancers relegate themselves to
becoming teachers of dance – a noble endeavor that only some genuinely
enjoy – or transition to a similar profession utilizing a portion of
their physical intelligence (bodywork, Pilates, physical therapy, etc.)
What can dancers do beyond dance? Read what dancer and arts executive John Michael Schert has to say on this topic.
Joanna Mendl Shaw has taught dancers for many years. But it was when she began working with horses in large-scale choreographic pieces that she gained new insights into what dance teachers should be doing in the 21st-century studio to train healthy, competent and creative dancers. To learn more, read her piece exclusively in From the Green Room.
There has been a fundamental shift in the way corporations interact with universities. Though developed in a university environment, the Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officer’s Five Essential Elements should be of strong interest to the arts and culture sector and can provide a valuable guide to improving the ways in which cultural institutions can offer better value to, and enhanced relationships with, corporate partners. Read on to further explore these mutually beneficial partnerships.
A professional life in the dance field is often a fragmented one. Few choreographers have the luxury of working in the studio with a group of full-time dancers. One powerful antidote to this fragmentation comes in the form of artist residencies, which allow for time and space to develop choreographic projects. Read on for Ellen Chenoweth's look at a few models that support artistic exploration through the artistic residency.
Brandon Gryde, Dance/USA's director of government affairs, gives us the scoop on the legislative issues dancers, choreographers, company managers, board members and executive directors should be watching in Congress this fall.
