Newsletter / April 2013

New Mentorship Leadership Initiative Awards more than $30,000 Painted Bride in Philadelphia, PA received the Wesley V. Montgomery Award for Emerging Leaders of Color, with its project, “Extended Play,” a hands-on mentorship program with staff member LaNeshe Miller and Executive Director Laurel Raczka, which includes developing new interactive programs for younger audiences. Other MLI awards include: Fusebox Festival in Austin TX; Out North, Anchorage AK; The Theater Offensive, Boston MA; the Wexner Center, Columbus OH; and Youth Speaks, San Francisco CA. Read more… The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, as part of the Community Fund, is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MetLife Foundation, and American Express.

NPN & Japan Contemporary Dance Network Announces First U.S. Tour A Tokyo-based theatre known for its pop aesthetics and energetic groove will tour to three cities as the inaugural tour of NPN’s US/Japan Connection, after two years of dialogue and seeing performances in the U.S. and across Japan and Korea. The Faifai theatre company will travel to Cedar Rapids, Houston and New Orleans between November 25 – December 15, 2013, to present Anton, Nero, Kuri. Renata Petroni’s article includes a quick glimpse into the history of Yokohama, from fishing village to cultural capital, and an overview of contemporary performance in Japan. Read more…

Doin’ It on the Road Heads West to Seattle NPN, together with the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), will be presenting NET’S “ABCs of Today’s Touring Landscape” in Seattle at On the Boards, Tuesday, May 7, from 5-9 p.m. This workshop includes NPN’s usual Doin’ It on the Road as part of a larger conversation with individuals representing various aspects/expertise of the touring ecology, curated by Mark Valdez of NET. The conversation will explore the nuances of touring (networking, what presenters do, how they make their choices, and other topics of mutual interest). Artists of all disciplines are welcome. Register online at abcstouringseattle.bpt.me The registration fee of $20 is subsidized by NPN. Questions? Contact EnsembleABCs@ensembletheaters.net or call Park Cofield at 323-638-4870.

…and Speaking of the Network of Ensemble Theaters… NET (ensembletheaters.net) invites you to join the “part-festival and part think-tank” of MicroFest USA. The June 13-18 National Summit and Learning Exchange in Hawaii will build upon the three prior MicroFests in Detroit, Appalachia and New Orleans over the past year. Registration is open now. Read More…

Constellation Twinkles for Links Hall Links Hall, the venerable Chicago performance venue and creative incubator for the past 35 years, as well as an NPN Partner, is moving into a new space, Constellation, partnering with notable jazz musician Mike Reed. “Constellation is more than a new home for Links Hall,” said Roell Schmidt, Links’ director since 2009. “It is a fusion of the right time, the right space, and the right partner with a reciprocal vision — which just happens to be the ideal conditions for experimentation and artistic incubation.” The former Viaduct Theatre will more than double Links’ programming space. Read the Chicago Tribune article…

NPN Receives NEA Art Works Support for National Dance Programs NPN was recently renewed funding in the amount of $60,000 from the National Endowment of the Arts to support NPN’s dance programs. This funding will enable NPN to support NPN Partners, artists and communities through the Creation Fund, the Forth Fund, Performance Residencies, Freight Fund, Community Fund and Annual Meeting. Thank you NEA!

NPN to Partner with LINC with Funding from the Ford Foundation Capitalizing on its expertise in managing multiple grant programs, NPN has been asked to administer US/LINKS, a program of travel and residency grants offered by two national organizations seeking to increase knowledge and opportunities for the free flow of artists and ideas. Supporting Diverse Arts Spaces (SDAS), funded by the Ford Foundation, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC)’s Space for Change organizations, and individual professional visual and performing U.S.-based artists supported or commissioned by these organizations may apply for the curatorial/research travel grants or 3-5 week Creative Exchange Residencies. npnweb.org/partners/profiles/national-relationships/supporting-diverse-arts-spaces/uslinks/

MLI grants go to six NPN/VAN Partners The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, as part of the Community Fund, is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the MetLife Foundation, and American Express In addition to Painted Bride’s award, other projects that were selected by the NPN staff include: Fusebox Festival; Austin, TX Title: Making Decisions & Communicating Change Description: Artistic Director Ron Berry will work with mentor and consultant Dan Heath to define, analyze and communicate the rationale of major decisions about a proposed alternative financial model for Fusebox. Out North; Anchorage, AK Title: Immersion in Arts Midwest Conference & Texas Presenting Organizations Description: Three Out North staff members will travel to Texas to attend the Arts MidWest Conference and to visit NPN Partner organizations Fusebox Festival (Austin) and DiverseWorks (Houston). The Theater Offensive; Boston, MA Title: Community Arts Organizing Mentorship Description: The Theater Offensive’s new Programs Administrator Kaamila Mohamed will engage in an extended skill and neighborhood relationship building process that focuses on community organizing and the skills, knowledge, and relationships specifically needed to engage Boston progressive communities of color in LGBT arts. The Wexner Center; Columbus, OH Title: Outreach to Local Artist Communities Description: Sarah Swinford, performing arts program coordinator, will visit the three NPN Partners in Minneapolis to learn about their practices in program development, relationship development with local artists, and community outreach. The NPN Partners are Intermedia Arts, Pangea World Theater, and Walker Art Center. Youth Speaks; San Francisco, CA Title: Gaining Best Practices from the Field Description: Brandon Santiago, Youth Speaks program associate and youngest full-time staff member, will attend the National Conference for Community Arts Education, the 2013 NPN Annual Meeting in New Orleans, and the Maui Arts and Cultural Center during an NPN Residency to develop networking skills and bring back best-practices models from the field in order to advance his work. The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, as part of the Community Fund, is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MetLife Foundation, and American Express.

Japan News by Renata Petroni Two years into the US/Japan Connection, a project of NPN in partnership with the Japan Contemporary Dance Network (JCDN), NPN and JCDN are looking forward to the first artistic exchange planned for FY14. This project is designed to develop opportunities through knowledge building and the creation of a strong network of connections. Japan’s Faifai theatre company will come to the U.S. in the fall of 2013, touring to three NPN Partners. Anyone interested in receiving information on the company or in joining the tour, please contact Renata Petroni at renata@npnweb.org or (504) 717-5257 The tour will present Anton, Nero, Kuri originally created by Faifai’s director Chiharu Shinoda in April 2009. Faifai (www.faifai.tv) is a Tokyo-based theater company established in 2004 known for their pop aesthetics, energetic groove, and experimental style that transcends the narrative boundaries of dramatic theater. They depict human relationships in today’s complex society with humor and sensitivity. Though young, the company has come to the attention of critics and presenters in Japan, Asia and Europe. Their multilingual piece My Name is I LOVE YOU was awarded the ZKB Patronage Prize at Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Switzerland. In the words of our colleague Jordan Peimer of Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, “Language is of course an issue in performance, but the best work always transcends that. Especially exciting was Faifai’s (Japanese for “Fun-Fun”) work Anton, Nero Kuri. There were three simultaneous texts: a spoken one in Japanese, a movement score, and projected English translation which worked together in very different and exciting ways to portray a community in a housing block which comes together around a sick cat — improbable, but the most thoroughly charming work of the week.” Faifai will be presented by Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, IA (November 25 – December 1, 2013); DiverseWorks, Houston, TX (December 2-8, 2013); and Contemporary Art Center (CAC), New Orleans, LA (December 9-15, 2013) in conjunction with the NPN Annual Meeting. The group was first seen by the group of U.S. curators (see below) in 2012. This will be Faifai’s first tour in the U.S. The ensemble will spend one week in each city where, in addition to public performances, they will conduct residency activities in local communities, ranging from workshops with children to lecture demonstrations and workshops for artists. To develop connections, NPN’s International Program supports trips to and from partner countries. Following the JCDN partners’ trip to the NPN Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in December 2012, the U.S. curators traveled to Yokohama in February to attend T-PAM (Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting). The curators, from NPN Partner organizations, are Yolanda Cursach of MCA, Chicago; F. John Herbert of Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids; Sixto Wagan of DiverseWorks, Houston; and Dawnell Smith of Out North, Anchorage, accompanied by Renata Petroni, NPN International Program Director and Kyoko Yoshida, Executive Director of US/Japan Cultural Trade Network and consultant to the Japan Connection project. They had multiple objectives: a working meeting with JCDN partners to discuss the selection of a U.S. artist who will conduct a month-long residency at the Kyoto Art Center in FY14; participation in T-PAM sessions; seeing a wide range of performances; and a meeting with Faifai, to plan for their U.S. tour. Presenters and artists from Asia, Europe and the U.S. gather in Yokohama each year to attend T-PAM (www.tpam.or.jp), an important international platform for information exchange, networking, mutual learning and discussion. High energy and a whirlwind of activities is the mark of this encounter which never disappoints. Launched in 1995, T-PAM moved from Tokyo to Yokohama in 2011 because the city offered economic incentives, and its smaller scale made the organization of the meeting more manageable, while its proximity to Tokyo allowed a continued partnership with venues. Yokohama was a quiet fishing village until 1853 when the arrival of the U.S. fleet, led by Commodore Matthew Perry, demanding that Japan open its ports to Western trade, ended the policy of national seclusion of the Edo period and transformed this sleepy hamlet into a bustling center of international commerce. Since the inauguration of the harbor in 1859, Yokohama has been destroyed and rebuilt twice: the first time in September 1923 when the Great Kanto Earthquake caused more than 30,000 deaths and the second time in 1945 when, in less than one hour, U.S. bombing destroyed half the city. Located one hour south of Tokyo and with more than three million inhabitants, Yokohama was once considered the largest suburb in the world. In an effort to give the city its own identity, while decentralizing cultural activities away from Tokyo, major investments were poured into Yokohama on the occasion of the 2002 World Cup. A total face lift raised its status to cultural capital. Today, Yokohama boasts a large number of cultural facilities including the new Kanagawa Art Theater (KAAT), a major venue with a 1,200-seat theater, a 220-seat theater, and two flexible studios, as well as several new and renovated visual and performing arts spaces. Each year, the city and its cultural institutions partner with T-PAM to make it an exciting event. This year, in addition to more than 30 performances and visual art events that took over the city’s various neighborhoods, the meeting’s sessions and discussions revolved around the creation of the Open Network for Performing Arts Management (ONPAM), a network of art professionals loosely structured on the Informal European Theater Network (IETM) model. According to its 13 co-founders, ONPAM’s mission is to raise awareness of the social role of the contemporary performing arts and advocate for cultural policies that would benefit the performing arts and society. ONPAM reflects the need of a new generation of artists and arts professionals to “address the profound social, economic and psychological effects that the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have had on the Japanese population.” Since 3/11, through a series of workshops and discussions that provided a platform for reflection, T-PAM has been a catalyst for artists and cultural workers trying to cope with the senseless devastation and questioning their roles, philosophies and beliefs. In addition to the T-PAM sessions, the U.S. participants enjoyed an amazing program which included performances presented by venues in Tokyo, special selections performed in various spaces throughout Yokohama and surroundings, as well as showcases of emerging companies selected for T-PAM by three young curators, Takuo Miyabnaga, Katsuhiro Ohgira and Yukuko Ogura. Among the rich offerings, four companies caught the interest of the U.S. team: Mum & Gypsy (www.mum-gypsy.com), whose work the U.S. team has been following since their first trip to Japan in October 2011, is a Tokyo-resident movement-based theater company directed by Takahiro Fujita that is coming to international attention; Okazaki Art Theatre (www.okazaki.nobody.jp), a Yokohama-based theater company created in 2003 and directed by Yudai Kamisato, presented the Absence of Neighbor Jimmy; Maud le Pladec, one of the main figures of the new generation of choreographers in France presented Professor, an investigation into the relationship between music and movement; and choreographer/performer Daniel Kok (www.diskodanny.com), based in Singapore and Berlin, presented Q&A, a dance/performance created from on-line surveys about what the audience expects from a dance work. Kok designs his performance in accordance with the answers submitted about music, movements or choice of color. Finally, for the US/Japan Connection curators, T-PAM provided a great opportunity to deepen their partnership with the JCDN partners and work on its first artistic exchange for FY14. Part of the curatorial responsibility of the U.S. and Japanese teams is the commitment to select one Japanese company each year to tour to at least three venues in the U.S. and, reciprocally, one U.S. company each year to tour to three venues in Japan. JCDN curatorial team comprising Ritsuko Mizuno, JCDN Producer (www.jcdn.org), Reiko Hagihara, Program Director at Kyoto Art Center (www.kac.or.jp), and Kyoko Yokoyama, Program Coordinator at Fukuoka City Foundation for Arts and Cultural Promotion (www.ffac.or.jp) will travel to the U.S. for 10 days in April 2013 with the goal of selecting a U.S. artist/company. The trio will travel to the Fusebox Festival in Austin, as well as New York and Chicago, to see performances, rehearsals and meet with several artists. The selected artist/company will spend one month in residence at Kyoto Art Center in spring/summer 2014 and will be presented by Concarino in Sapporo and Fukuoka City Foundation for Arts and Cultural Promotion.

The Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) hosts MicroFest USA in Honolulu; National Summit and Learning Exchange, June 13–18. Sunrise and sunset performances, graffiti artists, stories of radical arts-based political action — the MicroFest is a journey across the island of Oahu. Beginning in Honolulu, NET will explore this urban environment, bridging the local and national through performances and conversations, ending with a group retreat to the rural North Shore for reflection and sharing. This National Summit & Learning Exchange is the culmination of the MicroFest USA series, asking: “How does art impact your community?” and bringing together local and national participants to share success stories, challenges, inspirations, and questions about art-based community development. We invite you to be a part of this national conversation about art-based community development. Read some of the case studies and reflections of the three MicroFests here. Registration is currently open and includes five days of housing, most meals, local ground transportation, and programming. Travel subsidies are available for NET members — Yes, you can join NET now and apply for the subsidy! For questions contact: Ashley Sparks, MicroFest USA Event Coordinator at ashleyasparkles@gmail.com.

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Newsletter / March 2013

Expanding the Web, Increasing Impact NPN cultivates Strategic Partnerships with peer organizations from across the country and the globe, working together to further the creation, presentation and public experience of contemporary art in the U.S. These partnerships build collective power and strengthen united advocacy efforts. Here’s a snapshot of NPN’s work with one of its Strategic Partners, Atlanta-based South Arts, written by National Program Director, Stanlyn Brevé. Read more…

“On the Road…” from Oklahoma to New York NPN’s signature workshop for touring artists — those who are poised to tour or those who want to step up their touring — will be offered on April 10 at 4pm in Tulsa, OK hosted by Living Arts of Tulsa, and on April 23 at 4pm in New York City, hosted by New York Live Arts. The free two-hour Doin’ it on the Road workshops are open to the public, but attendance is limited and pre-registration is strongly recommended. RSVP to steve@livingarts.org for the Tulsa workshop or to mboggia@newyorklivearts.org for the New York workshop.

Mentorship Grant Builds Capacity at Multiple Levels This winter, On the Boards in Seattle dedicated a Mentorship and Learning Initiative (MLI) grant towards growing the skills and capacity of Monique Courcy, manager of OntheBoards.tv. Monique attended the December 2012 NPN Annual Meeting to connect with the 13 NPN partners who have content on OntheBoards.tv and also attended Arts Presenters’ annual conference in January 2013 to meet strategic partners and funders. Read more about how MLI made a difference in Monique’s work life and OtB.tv’s impact and reach. The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, as part of the Community Fund, is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MetLife Foundation, and American Express.

Wegmann Addresses Structural Inequity at National Conference NPN’s CEO MK Wegmann was one of nearly 120 national arts leaders who gathered in Detroit in mid-February for Sphinxcon’s inaugural convening on Diversity in the Performing Arts. Her presentation explored how NPN addresses cultural equity, particularly through its intentional program design, from the perspective of regional isolation and funding inequities. Watch MK’s address (and others) at Detroit Public TV

Expanding the Web, Increasing Impact by Stanlyn Brevé In order to promote disaster preparedness, NPN has partnered with ArtsReady, a program of South Arts, to offer discount memberships to NPN/VAN Partners for Emergency Preparedness Services. NPN, like other organizations around the country, faced a very real disaster in 2005 after being displaced from its offices by Hurricane Katrina for six months. Thanks to planning, NPN was able to continue to work virtually, pay employees, and support the work of its Partners. Unfortunately, disaster is a reality — from hurricanes and earthquakes to unexpected facility problems to computer system failure. Catastrophes take all shapes and forms, and arts organizations, already working overtime with limited staff and budgets, are particularly at risk. Reality: Emergency Preparedness isn’t as sexy as planning your season, nor is it probably at the forefront of your organizational thinking, however it is a very real necessity many arts organizations are facing. Having a business continuity plan in place before a disaster can help to keep an organization functioning, in touch with its constituents, and stable. Why do readiness planning? To protect community and cultural assets To demonstrate sustainability to investors To show mitigated risk to insurance companies To be able to get up and running after a crisis Basic membership to ArtsReady is free, and includes a newsletter, updates on response, recovery and readiness, and access to the ArtsReady Library with over 100 free articles and publications. Premium membership includes access to the full ArtsReady planning tool. This web-based platform guides you through creating and maintaining a comprehensive readiness plan tailored to your organization. You will be able to assess your vulnerabilities based on your resources, assets, and activities; gain a customized, self-paced To-Do List so you can build out your plan; have cloud-based storage for emergency-related documents that you can access anytime, anywhere; receive a free associate membership in Fractured Atlas, and join the Battle Buddy Network where you can gain or give assistance in an emergency. The initial cost is $300; subsequent subscriptions are $225 a year. Recognizing its value, over 20 state and national organizations offer discounts to its members to receive the ArtsReady online business continuity, readiness and sustainability planning tool. NPN has partnered with ArtsReady to offer a 50% discount to NPN/VAN Partners. South Arts and ArtsReady staff are leaders in the growing readiness community and advocates for public policies that ensure artists and arts organizations have access to emergency resources by co-chairing the National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Emergency Response. Click here to learn more.

Two Video Shoots in One Day, 528% Increase in Library Use, and other Adventures On the Boards by the staff at On the Boards Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol’s El Rumor del Incendio Through the funding provided by the Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, On the Boards (OtB) has been able to help increase the capacity and skill-set of our OntheBoards.tv & Digital Media Manager, Monique Courcy, allowing her to evolve from program implementation to leading the OntheBoards.tv (OtB.tv) initiative at a strategic level. This growth has already begun to impact OtB’s ability to expand OtB.tv while also providing Monique the opportunity to understand the wider picture of the arts in the U.S. and develop her leadership potential as a young arts professional. In December 2012, Monique attended the NPN Annual Meeting with OtB Managing Director Sarah Wilke. During her first trip to the conference, she was able to get a sense of how On the Boards fit into the larger sphere of the NPN community. Monique was able to expand her knowledge of nation-wide performing art and the city’s venues by attending the variety of performances made available to conference attendees. As she attended the conference discussions and presentations, Monique gained a broader understanding of the NPN culture, experiencing the community created by the many partners, and observing the wide reach NPN has across the country to many organizations and artists. At the conference, she co-presented (with Sarah) on the current state of OntheBoards.tv, and was able to take the lead during the presentation and answer questions from the attendees. During the conference, Monique observed and interacted with regional and national peers and funders, participated in conversations about programming, collaboration and funding and began discussions with individuals interested in the distribution methodology and the web technology OtB.tv has developed. By participating in these conversations, Monique met individuals she previously had only spoken with via email or through executive management, and deepened relationships with some of the current OtB.tv partner organizations such as PS122, PICA and Fusebox Festival. This will be very helpful when she films in their venues in the future, working with them one-on-one. These partnerships also open the door to develop new relationships with future potential partners. NPN partners now contact Monique directly about all OtB.tv related activities and conversations, and she is more comfortable leading conversations about the program on her own. Having the ability to leave Seattle, visit a new city, and be able to observe excitement, interest and engagement in OtB.tv by her NPN peers helped Monique to appreciate the meaning of her role in this project, encouraging her to bring her work to the next level. After the NPN Philly meeting, Monique engaged in a strategic planning discussion with Sarah where she began to highlight long-term goals of the project and the steps to take OntheBoards.tv to a new level of performance as a functioning web platform. Some projects that came out of that conversation include: how to gain additional and regular content now that we have a codified filming model, how to create a better revenue structure to financially stabilize the program, and how to manage our mobile distribution strategy since this area of technology is growing rapidly. Monique has been leading these projects, and managing the first stage of our mobile strategy research with an external web company, Mobilidus. Alongside this mobile research Monique is delving into our own data gathering, developing a baseline that will allow OtB to make decisions about website updates based on the current usage. She led a website functionality testing and in-house analysis and has been working with Surale Philips on an online survey looking into what might be stopping individuals from purchasing. From that meeting, Monique has begun to strategically organize her work schedule to tackle OtB.tv’s larger projects while maintaining the day-to-day work structure. Additionally, Monique has been leading a new educational outreach plan; in January 2013 she attended the American Library Association conference in Seattle where she spoke with university and public libraries’ from around the U.S. about subscribing to OntheBoards.tv. In working so closely and directly with these individuals at the universities, Monique has developed partnerships with new networks. Her work has paid off, with our data showing that educational subscription viewing has increased by 528% in the past year alone. During the 2012/13 school year she has negotiated eleven new university subscriptions and three university trials. The trials allow Monique to deepen her relationships with the librarians purchasing staff, working with them to see how the OtB.tv content can work best on their campus, and developing the most helpful and communicative marketing materials for university librarians to easily share with their professors and students on campus. While maintaining these individual relationships with the universities, Monique has also been leading research since early 2012, looking at current educational subscribers with the research firm Decision Support Partners. This project is helping Monique understand OtB’s educational market by taking a deeper look at how the content is being used on campus, speaking with librarians, faculty and students about their experience with the product. This project research and analysis will be completed in March 2013, and will help to direct the next steps in strategically reaching out to new educational subscribers. In September 2012, Monique led the OntheBoards.tv filming project at PICA’s TBA Festival, filming Mexican-based company Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol’s El Rumor del Incendio. In attending the festival, she was able to strengthen her relationship with PICA’s staff and meet new local and national partners. During this process she independently coordinated the production with our film partners (Thinklab) arranging travel, equipment rentals, show previews, contracts and conversations with the artists. In addition, this film was created in a venue we have not previously filmed in, so the planning process was much more detailed. This practice gave her the experience she needed to once again film off-site in January 2013 at PS122. This was the first time OntheBoards.tv had attempted to film two performances in one day, a dance piece by Pavel Zustiak/Palissimo and a theater piece by Half Straddle/Tina Satter. To accomplish this, Monique was in close contact with PS122 staff (both executive and production), the artists and film crew. The filming coincided with Arts Presenters’ annual meeting, where she was able to attend performances and conference gatherings. She attended an artistic programming meeting with OtB’s Artistic Director Lane Czaplinski at New York Live Arts, made new networking connections in the NYC artistic community and gained a broader understanding of performing arts culture on a national level. Monique also met with peers such as TenduTV, past OntheBoards.tv artists, and co-presenters of OtB live performances. The Mentorship and Leadership Initiative, as part of the Community Fund, is made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MetLife Foundation, and American Express.

Southwest Airlines, Official Airline of National Performance Network

Newsletter / February 2013

National Endowment for the Arts Names New Councilmembers The U.S. Senate recently approved President Obama’s nominations to the National Council for the Arts. Among the new appointees are two with close ties to NPN: Maria Rosario Jackson, Senior Advisor to the Kresge Foundation and an NPN board member, and Maria López De León, executive director of NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture), one of NPN’s strategic partners. Click here for more information on all the Council members.

“All roads have come together. We are connecting our tribes.” Sharon Bridgforth writes a poetic and jazzy reflection on the long and increasingly textured journey of creating River See. From a chance encounter at an NPN Annual Meeting, to a Performance Residency at Links Hall, to a full-blown Creation and Forth Fund project, Bridgforth’s new work tests the limits of her own artistic and spiritual practice. Read more…

A Reflection on and Resources for Latin American/Caribbean Touring Sound artist and festival director Chris Cogburn of Austin Texas was one of six artists whose projects were supported by the Performing America Program’s Creative Exchange Residency Program last year. Read Cogburn’s deep reflection on his journey in Mexico. In addition to supporting NPN Partners who bring Latin and Caribbean artists to the U.S., the Exchange also supports U.S. artists traveling to Latin America and the Caribbean. Interested? For more information, go to: npnweb.org/whatwedo/international-program/performing-americas/guidelines/. Deadline is April 26, 2013 for projects between August 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.

Grateful for the Support… 170 generous folks contributed nearly $23,000 towards NPN’s annual fundraising appeal, many of them during December’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The number of people donating to NPN’s general operating fund showed an increase of nearly 40% over last year. Click here for the list of individual donors!

…and Happy to Provide Support Are you an artist who has been supported by a NPN or VAN Subsidy? Would you like to invest in an artist who has received an NPN subsidy? If so, you are eligible to fundraise or donate through United States Projects — United States Artists! Read more…

Reflections on Grace and Gratitude by Sharon Bridgforth Sharon Bridgforth, “River See” (photo by Vanessa Vargas) I think my name might be Roux. As in/the one that gets stirred. The base of the gumbo. It all started in 1993 when Chris Cowden (Women & Their Work) took a video of my theatre company’s show to a NPN Annual Meeting… but I guess that’s a whole nutha story/yeah. So I’ll fast forward to 2008 and the NPN Annual Meeting in Seattle. Deep listening. Simultaneity, polyrhythm, virtuosity, improvisation, innovation. Focus on process. Curiosity. Expansion. Being present. Collaboration. Spirit. My twenty years of community organizing, facilitating, presenting theatre nationally inform the metaphysics of this Work/this Jazz. Long-term ongoing connections with artists, scholars, scientists, healers, community leaders, presenters align. My body is central. Dang. This is a big mountain to heft forward. After hearing Erica Mott speak about the Education and Community Programs at Links Hall (NPN Partner in Chicago), I knew that I had found a place that I could call home. After inappropriately bursting out with, “I must work with you guys,” and a wee bit of stalking, even though Erica must have thought I was crazy, she encouraged me to stay in touch. I was living in New York at the time, but I did stay in touch. Once I found out that I would be the Fall 2009 Mellon Artist In-Residence in the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University, I contacted Erica and we started planning. We met. We talked. We visioned. Links received NPN Community Fund support that allowed me to facilitate a mentoring intensive with local artists. By this time Roell Schmidt came on as Director of Links Hall. This is an acoustic piece. One singer. One Actor. Dancers. A Choir of people speaking bits of text in as many languages as possible. Light Walkers: bodies creating patterns/circles, straight lines, diagonals that weave the ritual. Migrations. The entire room is the performance space. The audience is part of the Orchestra. The Orchestra responds to my signals. I no longer need musicians. I still want a big ole holy Gong. In 2010 I moved to Chicago to serve as the 2001-2012 Visiting Multicultural Faculty Member at the Theatre School at DePaul University. Dean John Culbert approved funding for me to curate The Theatre Jazz Institute in partnership with Links Hall. We bought in guest artists, we had public performances and workshops, and I facilitated an intensive ongoing mentorship process with 14 emerging artists. 16 Orchestra members-one actor-myself-the audience. Me and the audience. Multiple choirs-one actor-a dance company-myself and the audience in a huge chapel. A community center activity room. A class room. An auditorium/with part of the audience installed on the stage. Each experiment different. Each community different. So much to learn. #14 happens Feb. 24. At some point Roell pulled me aside and said that she could see how my work impacted and helped so many artists. “What do you want to do?” Roell asked me, encouraging me to think about my own work. What a profound question. What a gift! Like a jazz musician reaching for new sounds through repeated experiences of the same tune. I want to saturate myself in my texts. Working texts in different ways. Varying the cast size. In different kinds of spaces. Conducting the audience and the performers through an improvisational process. With the text as the structure. I want to explore living arrangements of blues as jazz. To activate Black American rural Southern traditions as the base for bringing people from different ethnicities, religions, generations, genders, sexual identities, places of origin, class backgrounds, abilities, and aesthetics/together. As performers. As collaborators. As audience witness-participants. A collective experiment with time. A process in which democracy, civic dialogue, and spirituality become verbs through an embodied art practice. Roell smiled, and said. Yes! Lets make that happen. And boyyee did she! With Links as the Lead Creation Fund Presenter, Roell gathered/and continues to gather/warrior-Visionaries in support of this work. Links Hall/The Theater Offensive/Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator/Pillsbury House Theatre/Living Arts Tulsa/Chicago Boston Miami Minneapolis Tulsa/New Dramatists/Southside Community Arts Center/Columbia College/The Theatre School at DePaul/Stanford/Harvard/Black Studies Suite UT Austin/Yale/Brown/Northwestern/University of Chicago/University of Michigan/Chicago History Museum//planes, trains, buses, cabs, walking walking walking, CTA, MTA, MBTA/in the car with Rosie/Roell/Abe/Steve/Faye/Noel…NPN Rosie (Diaspora Vibe) and I stayed in touch, pledging to work together since we met at the 2008 Annual Meeting; The Theater Offensive has been a home for me since 1996, when my theatre company (The root wy’mn Theatre Company) performed at TTO Out On The Edge Festival; I have worked with Pillsbury House Theatre pretty much every year since 2002; Roell said, I have someone that I think you are going to love working with, an organization that is a great fit for River See — Living Arts Tulsa (she was so right). Together we are rolling on the River BayBay! Thanks to Creation Fund and the Forth Fund, I am visiting each presenting community at least three times/working towards our NPN Residency Productions, and the eventual 2014 premiere at Links Hall. Along the way, organizations, scholars, activists, students and artists are joining up locally, and sometimes traveling to catch the River in other cities. In 2004 I worked with Helga Davis/who worked with Lawrence “Butch” Morris-who developed CONDUCTION. Butch Transitioned recently. Helga is a principle in Einstein on the Beach. I Love Robert Wilson’s work. I am obsessed with the idea of Conducting. Butch says all there is to say here/God Bless his Soul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykkp3F2bjRQ&feature=youtu.besh One of the reasons that an improvisational process works for River See, and that the show is tourable, is that one actor travels with me to play the role of SEE. SEE tells the story. Handles the body of text. I am therefore free to experiment with creating a moving soundscape made of bits of text distributed to locally cast Orchestras. Actors that so far have played SEE are: Sonja Parks, Florinda Bryant, Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Daniel Alexander Jones and Djola Branner. Can I get a Witness! Thanks to National Performance Network Forth Funding The answer is YES! In developing River See I realized that I need a friend/a long time collaborator in the room to help me make connections between my artistic foundation, the new form I am working in, and the new thing that I am doing that I can’t yet name. I know that it is critical that I dive into all that I am Inspired by and Am…to create my own cosmology for making this work. For fully realizing the text, the orchestration of the piece and how I talk about the project. So I gathered my Witnesses. They will be in the room/sometimes as performers. Sometimes as a collective. Sometimes individually. Always/bringing their brilliance and Light/in helping me Lift River See. Robbie McCauley Virginia Grise Omi Osun Joni L. Jones Nia Witherspoon Emily Morse, New Dramatists Director of Artistic Development, is Dramaturge for River See. While corresponding in preparation for our upcoming 3/1/13 Links Hall, River See experiment at Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago, Emily asked me, “Does the dramaturgy encompass what’s on the page and what happens in the room? Or maybe the question is, how do you see them separately but co-existently? Like, can you look at a Coltrane score independently of how he performs?” Sometimes I feel Full. I just have to lay down. Pillsbury House Theatre received MAP Funding in support of River See. We are doing a workshop production April 13-21, 2013. I’ve had some wonderful meetings with MAP Fund Consultant David Sheingold, during which I came to realize that River See is a Performance/Novel. I need the full complete version of all the stories to exist. The Performance Text will be excerpted from the Performance/Novel. I will change out which stories are performed based who is in the room, and what the community we are in feels like. My goal is to have both the Performance/Novel and the Performance Text published as a book that includes a curriculum, as well as notes from some of the scholars, presenters, activists, artists involved. Meanwhile…I have the Blessing of fierce support as I work through the Journey. What do I call this? How do I develop physical language to communicate with the Orchestra? Am I a Conductor? A Conjurer? A Trickster? All roads have come together. We are connecting our tribes. Falling in Love. Dreaming. Our River is Flowing. Wanna join up? The Creation Fund is supported in part by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Forth Fund is made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Chris Cogburn Digs Deep into Mexico’s Experimental Music Scene Photo courtesy of Chris Cogburn My participation in NPN’s Creative Exchange led to an unforeseen whirlwind of activity and the deepening of creative relationships in Mexico City over the course of five weeks between August 20 and September 24, 2012. The connections formed with artists, institutions, curators and other cultural generators in and around Mexico City was of such strength and dynamism that it kept me there for an extra 10 weeks, until my subsequent return home to Austin, Texas on December 4, 2012. All in all, through the unique structure of PAP, I was more able to fully embrace, actualize and transport my creative work to a new environment than on any preceding journey abroad. For the Performing Americas Program, I partnered with Mexico City classical guitarist and experimental musician Fernando Vigueras and the Unidad de Vinculación Artística (UVA), an Academy of Arts located in Tlatelolco, Mexico City. The first step in this project was my already existing connection with Fernando, and our commitment to finding a way to work together in performance, recording, teaching and curation. The second step was connecting with UVA, the host/sponsor of this project and the site of an experimental music class taught by Vigueras. The third step was the work Fernando and I did together to capitalize on the dynamic cultural situation currently taking place in Mexico City. I first came in contact with Fernando Vigueras at the Cha’ak’ab Paaxil Festival de Improvisación Libre, Free Jazz y Noise in Mérida, Yucatán, México in 2008. Exposure to each other’s work and the discovery of sympathetic interests in improvisation lead to a quick friendship and, in 2009, while in residence at Casa Vecina in Mexico City, Fernando and I had the chance to perform together for the first time, albeit briefly. Our meeting came at a time when I was first traveling and working in Mexico and was situated in the context of a greater process of cultural movement and the beginnings of exchange between a new generation of sound artists and organizers in the U.S. and Mexico. At the time, Mexico fascinated my U.S. colleagues and me. It was an unfamiliar and mysterious neighbor whose contemporary cultural output was fairly unknown and limited to the stories of Mexican ex-pat musicians living in Texas or friends’ travels to the country several years prior. My brief trips to perform in Monterrey, Mérida, and Mexico City between 2006-2010 offered me the opportunity to begin to understand the complexities of cultural production in Mexico and the unique work of those artists engaged in experimental music practice. While my preceding trips to Mexico yielded great music and strong friendships, I couldn’t help but feel like there was something more to be experienced than my regular “touring” would allow. I wanted to know the culture, where this music was coming from. Music has always been a social practice for me — a way to connect and affirm relationships, work, difference and joy. Working, forming deep relationships, acknowledging and celebrating difference and experiencing joy takes time. The Performing Americas Program provides resources for these processes to happen and allows deep, collective artistic practice to take root and move forward. My intention going to Mexico City for the Performing Americas Program was to participate and contribute to the ongoing culture. Doing this in a generative and lasting way means first listening to the processes already taking place. Vigueras’ improvised and experimental music class at UVA was an unbelievable place to land. Housed in the sprawling Tlatelolco complex in central Mexico City, Vigueras’ students ranged in age from 17 to 50+ and came from all corners of the city. It was a dynamic crew to say the least. The class was welcoming and engaging and their openness and creativity was a challenge to keep up with. Throughout my stay in Mexico City, this class (and Fernando’s genius, and kind and engaged teaching methods) acted as my home — offering me some resemblance of consistency in the tumultuousness that is El D.F. (Distrito Federal). My first six weeks in Mexico City was spent working with Fernando’s class two days a week while taking Spanish language classes at UNAM in the mornings five days a week. Early on, I worked with the class on several Pauline Oliveros pieces that led to an inspired performance of Oliveros’ Sound Piece on the UVA campus. My previous creative connections activated quickly once I was in the city and I found myself performing one to three times a week with a host of artists including Rogelio Sosa, Juan José Rivas, Juan Pablo Villa, Carlos Maldonado, Fernando Lomeli, Rolando Hernández, Barbara Lazara, Misha Marks, Juan Garcia, and Fernando Vigueras. Each of these artists is moving through the cultural landscape of Mexico City in their own unique way — setting up their own concert series, forming their own ensembles, applying for funding, exploiting trends in popular culture, establishing themselves in the academy, and taking advantage of the great cultural houses, institutions and galleries in Mexico City. The time allotted through PAP allowed me to collaborate with these artists several times and begin to understand their own way of existing in the city. The life path of each artist reflects a socio-economic reality that speaks to the art they make. Life is different for each and having time to contemplate the complexity of this, while simultaneously seeing how artists come together as a community to make work together, was inspiring. It was this movement, the way in which things happen, the way in which people do things in Mexico City that I was looking for when I applied for the PAP funding. Having the time and resources to think and act tactically is the gift the Performing Americas Program offers. Several weeks before landing in Mexico City, Fernando Vigueras and I were busy brainstorming projects. The initial event we planned for was my participation in UVA’s Cerro de Arena festival of contemporary art. UVA had invited me to curate a special mini-festival inside of Cerro de Arena, and I invited several colleagues join the event, named Desde El Silencio Festival: Exploraciones Abstractas de La Forma. With my allies in Mexico City and the collective desire for international collaboration, I was able to line-up several other events in the city for my colleagues and me to engage in. Participating artists included musicians Andrea Neumann (Berlin), Burkhard Beins (Berlin), Liz Allbee (Berlin), Bonnie Jones (Baltimore) and dancer Nicole Bindler (Philadelphia). Performances, lectures, master classes and workshops were given at UVA over the course of the 7-day festival. This was a highlight of my time in Mexico City, as it was the first full-scale inter-media festival that I have curated and organized outside of the U.S. It was also the first time I have presented my own compositions outside of the U.S. UVA was generous with their resources and our partnership was successful in several seemingly enduring ways; not the least of which was the enthusiasm of UVA’s students and the attention garnered towards UVA as a site for contemporary artistic practice. Directly preceding Desde El Silencio, Mexico City sound artist Juanjosé Rivas invited myself, Andrea Neumann, Burkhard Beins, Liz Allbee and Fernando Vigueras to do a mini-tour of Mexico City’s neighboring cities Tlaxcala and Puebla. This was in conjunction with his excellent experimental concert series Volta in Mexico City, which we all performed in prior to this three-day mini-tour. Traveling with Juanjosé and witnessing the inner-workings of how a tour of this nature takes place was a valuable experience and gave me some insight into the movement of culture outside of Mexico City. Photo courtesy of Chris Cogburn In our initial stages of planning, Fernando and I left space for things to happen organically. Our largest, most satisfying work together outside of Vigueras’ class at UVA occurred in this space. Together, we co-organized and curated a four-week series of improvised music concerts to accompany Derek Bailey’s seminal documentary On The Edge: Improvisation In Music. The series took place at the beautiful art cinema Cine Tonalá, in Mexico City’s bustling La Roma neighborhood. In the weeks leading up to the series, Fernando and I transcribed, translated and subtitled the four-hour documentary. (This was the first-ever Spanish translation showing of the film.) In a fashion similar to the Desde El Silencio Festival, Fernando and I invited several international artists who were passing through Mexico City at the time to participate in the series. Participating artists included myself, Dafne Vicente-Sandoval (Paris, France), Xavier Lopez (Paris, France), Angélica Castelló (Vienna), Andrea Neumann (Berlin), Sandy Ewen (Houston), Damon Smith (Houston), Bonnie Jones (Baltimore), Vic Rawlings (Boston), Milo Tamez (Chiapas, Mexico) and Mexico City musicians Remi Álvarez, Juan Garcia, Fernando Vigueras, Juanjosé Rivas, Rogelio Sosa and Carmina Escobar. An intention behind this series, dubbed Desbordamientos: Aproximación a la Música Improvisada, was to create a container to ground and actualize a diverse confluence of artists and processes underway in tandem to my time in residence. Thinking back, I see the series contextualizing my time in Mexico City in relation to others’ time in the city. PAP funding allowed me to embrace a broader spectrum of cultural production and artistic process than my normal touring affords. I was able to fully actualize and transport my skill set to a new place. My work as an improvising musician, concert organizer, curator, composer and teacher were all foregrounded while in residence in Mexico City. I was able to do what I do — all that I do. The Desbordamientos series, its success and failures, exemplified this. Lastly, The idea of place and its relation to the “way in which one does” is valuable to consider when thinking of international cultural exchange. On one hand, there is the physical place one is acting from (in this case, Mexico City), and on the other, there is the “place” one is imagining while acting. There is a rift between the two no matter where one is working from, and perhaps this rift is amplified when cultures are crossed. My time in Mexico City was a long contemplation on this rift and all its gradations. Being surrounded by creativity — all the artists, students, teachers and the people in one of the greatest sites of daily improvised living, Mexico City — allowed this rift to express its flexibility and allowed me a greater understanding of the way in which Mexico City moves. Advice for others who would like to do this kind of exchange: Working towards a residency of this magnitude can happen anywhere at anytime. Your active pursuit of creative exchange with others abroad, coupled with creating opportunities for similar exchanges in your home city, can happen right now. Magnitude is less important than direction — become sensitive to the aspects in your work that facilitate exchange. The size and articulation of projects fluctuate, but the direction of working with others can remain the same. While in residence, be patient and think in the long term. If this is your first time working abroad, or in a specific country, keep a broad view towards the things supporting your creative work. I took my PAP Residency as a time to both contemplate the relationships and resources that sustain my artistic practice at home, while recognizing similar manifestations and articulations in the city I was visiting. A special aspect of the PAP residency is the time allotted to forge strong relationships to artists, students and institutions that can yield future work and creative projects in the region. This is a process that can be built upon. What’s happening now: I am writing this 10 days from the 10th annual No Idea Festival — a festival of improvised music I organize in Austin, Texas. This year’s festival is focusing on collaborations between U.S. and Mexican sound artists. Mexican artists involved in this year’s festival include: Misha Marks, Remi Álvarez, Rolando Hernández (Mexico City) and Milo Tamez (Chiapas, Mexico). This work is a direct result of my time in Mexico City last year via NPN’s Performing America’s Program.

USA Projects — Money for Artists NPN/VAN has partnered with United States Artists to help artists raise money through the high profile USA Projects fundraising platform. United States Artists mission is to invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society. As a strategy to invest in more artists and increase awareness of artists in America beyond the USA Fellows program, United States Artists created USA Projects. USA Projects is the first online fundraising platform and social network designed exclusively to connect accomplished artists with those who love the arts. Now any artist supported by NPN or VAN can raise money for projects both from within their network and through USA Projects’ ever-expanding community of arts lovers. What sets USA Projects apart from other for-profit crowd-funding websites is that it is 100% free for artists. Artists receive all of the money they raise, no credit card or service fees are deducted. Donors are invited to make an additional tax-deductible donation — ranging from 0-19% — to support the servicing of the creative work and USA’s mission. Why USA Projects? USA Projects has a 75% success rate (which exceeds other platforms by 30%). USA Projects experts help artists succeed with fundraising goals through project development, fundraising and outreach training and personal support. Every project receives matching funds, which encourages donations from high profile donors, artists, art lovers and friends. NPN/VAN has set up a matching fund for NPN/VAN artists who fundraise through USA Projects. To date, eleven NPN artists have successfully made their project goals including: Nejla Yatkin, Denise Uyehara, Zoe|Juniper, Kristina Wong, Andrea Assaf, Bridgman/Packer, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Teo Castellanos, Helanius Wilkins, and Gesel Mason. Learn more by visiting USA Projects. If you are a NPN or VAN supported artist who would like to participate, contact Stanlyn Brevé, stanlyn@npnweb.org.

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Newsletter / October 2012

“the most complex we have ever created…” When So Percussion began to develop Where (we) Live, they created one of their most dense and textured productions ever. Their Creation Fund award also included support from the Forth Fund, a ‘lagniappe’ with each Creation Fund to prepare work for touring. So Percussion took the production to The Walker Art Center (one of the three original co-commissioners), where state-of-the-art video production, with close-ups, live performance footage and multi-track recordings, yielded a quality promotion video. Read So Percussion’s account of their process The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. The Creation Fund is supported in part by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Juvenile Justice, Healthy Eating, Democratic Process…and more Ever needed just a little more money to extend the impact of an artist’s visit in your community? That’s what the Community Fund does for NPN Partners. The Community Fund allows NPN Partners to take risks, implement new programs, forge new relationships and/or diversify their connections. NPN recently announced $23,300 to support six such projects: in New Orleans Hannibal Lokumbe’s Music Liberation Orchestra will work with the Contemporary Arts Center, and musicians Luther Gray and Hamid Drake will work with youth under the guidance of Ashé Cultural Arts Center; Robert Karimi will work with The Center for Community Arts Partnerships/Columbia College in Chicago to develop healthy eating programs; Aaron Landsman will continue to develop City Council Meeting before its premiere at DiverseWorks; Pangea World Theater invited earlier Performance Residency artists (Outside the Circle) to return for a city-wide queer arts festival; and South Dallas Cultural Center engaged folk musicians Sparky and Rhonda Rucker to work with classroom teachers to extend the impact of their school visits. Read the details The Community Fund is supported, in part, by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, MetLife, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Korean Company Visits U.S. through NPN International Program During a 2010 visit to Seoul, U.S. presenters such as F. John Herbert, executive director at Legion Arts, first learned about the Tacit Group. Herbert described the work as a “unique, cross-cultural experience that combines pleasure, humor and thought-provoking analysis of the most basic structures of music, communication and meaning.” See the Tacit Group in their first American tour: November 18–26, 2012 Legion Arts, Cedar Rapids, IA November 26 – December 2, 2012 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL December 2–8, 2012 The Atrium at Lincoln Center, New York, NY The tour of Tacit Group is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Korean Arts Management Service.

New Performance in Your Living Room Choreographer Dayna Hanson received a Creation Fund award and the first of the Forth Fund awards in 2010 for Gloria’s Cause. Iconic and not-so-iconic moments from the Revolutionary War come together in a dance-driven, rock musical created with Dave Proscia and Peggy Piacenza. This new work takes a layered, colorful and gritty look at the roots of America’s inequities. Visit www.ontheboards.tv and see this striking performance for only $5. Photo (left): Gloria’s Cause, Dayna Hanson. Pictured: Dave Proscia and Peggy Piacenza. Photo by Steve Gunther. Courtesy California Institute of the Arts, 2012.

How to Be in Two Places at Once When NPN holds its 27th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia this December, performances will be closed to the public due to space limitations. But you can be there — for free — just by tuning into #NewPlayTV which will feature live-stream video featuring Creation Fund artists Teo Castellanos (Fat Boy), The Living Word Project (Tree City Legends), Lucky Plush Productions (The Better Half) and inkBoat (Crazy Cloud Collection). Performances are on Friday and Saturday, December 14–15, times to be announced. Look for additional local performers in the November issue of this newsletter. NPN has just received word that the Pew Charitable Trust will support the Philadelphia Annual Meeting with a $15,000 grant. We are grateful!

So Percussion: Where (we) Live by Eric Beach with Adam Sliwinski & Ain Gordon For eight years, So Percussion has made our home in Brooklyn amid two million five hundred thousand others. In our city, each of the group’s four members has constructed a personal ecosystem we call home. These homes are bound by space, time, sound and image. Equally, these spaces house rewarding, frustrating, supporting, damaging, tangible and never understood relationships. When we leave those homes, our four members unite to create another artistic home, with its own unspoken rules and expectations; its own rhythm of interaction, its own banalities and mystery. Where (we) Live questions all these homes by purposefully inviting the unknown to “come on over.” We’ve asked video artists, songwriters, painters, choreographers, directors and others to substantively alter our process. The resulting performance contains a society of possibilities: composed pieces, chance elements, visual associations, and theatrical interactions. For the project, we assembled a diverse group of collaborators. Songwriter/guitarist Grey McMurray performs together with us and has written a series of songs about our homes. Combined with compositions from So Percussion, these songs are featured on the album of Where (we) Live. Video artist Martin Schmidt heightens our focus on ordinary elements, bringing us into different homes and framing the un-noticed. Choreographer Emily Johnson performs with us live, dictating secret instructions throughout the show by passing notes to the performers. Director Ain Gordon functions as a fifth voice in the decision-making process, threading the project’s purposefully diverse elements and desired resulting chaos into a portrait of something that cannot actually be “seen” — home. A guest artist in each town also collaborates with us in a short residency. We seek out people who are good at what they do – be it a craftsperson, writer, visual artist, or some other kind of performer – discovered with the help of the presenter in each location. We welcome the unusual dialogue of the unexpected in these more immediate interactions, giving ourselves only one day in person to rehearse with and get to know this individual. Our hope is to harness the power of new friendships and impending performance to spawn a different type of creativity. And as a consequence, each performance is substantially different, while still clearly building from the same material. The awarding of an NPN Creation Fund grant has proven vital to the creation of Where (we) Live, both through funding and through the extraordinary help of the three presenters who supported our application: The Walker Art Center, the Myrna Loy Center, and Vermont Performance Lab. We have substantial history with each of these presenters, spanning multiple performances and, in the case of the Myrna Loy Center, our last Creation Fund project Imaginary City. It is this history that allowed these presenters to trust our vision throughout what became the longest gestation process of any project we have ever created. Each presenter that took part in our Where (we) Live Creation Fund contributed something above and beyond funding. Ed Noonan at the Myrna Loy took on the role of lead presenter, helped us to connect the group that came to support the project, and headed up communication with NPN and among the presenters. At Vermont Performance Lab, Sara Coffey provided us with an absolutely vital residency that included a recording of the music (in collaboration with Guilford Sound recording studio) and three work-in-progress performances, where we explored for the first time the role of the “guest artist” in the show. And Philip Bither at the Walker Art Center provided us three extra days in their hall before the premiere as a final production residency to finalize ideas about lights, sound, and video. Together with a weeklong technical residency at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA, these three presenters contributed the majority of the support for the launching of this project. Our choice to collaborate with the Walker for the Forth Fund was made with an eye towards the future touring of the project. The Walker provided us with the expertise of their in-house videographer to document a performance of the live performance. They funded a three-camera video shoot for one of our performances as well as video of our community outreach, still photography, and multi-channel recordings of both performances in Minneapolis. The material from the three-camera shoot was supplemented with on-stage shooting during our dress rehearsal that allowed for extreme close-up shots. Mixed together with the live performance footage and multi-track recording, we will produce a high quality live performance film as well as promotional materials that describe the project. This project has proven to be one of the most complex we have ever created, and as such it can be incredibly difficult to explain to people (especially potential presenters). These materials will make it much easier to share what the performance is about. Our initial run of the show included dates at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Myrna Loy Center in Helena, and The Alberta Bair Theater in Billings. The next performances will take place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater from December 19th to the 22nd 2012. Further touring dates are in the works and will be confirmed soon. Additional information about the project can be found at: www.sopercussion.com/WwL The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. The Creation Fund is supported in part by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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