Archive for the ‘funding’ Category

OurGoods.org - a bartering network for creative communities, and recipient of a 2011 NYC CIF award.

This year’s Rockefeller NYC Cultural Innovation Fund recipients have just been announced, and I was very excited by the number of awards going to projects that support New York City dance, media and performance artists. The grants of up to $250,000 are some of the largest that non-profit arts organizations can hope to get, and they go a long ways towards getting more progressive and experimental projects off the ground.

One of the most fantastical projects being funded is for the “Dance Films Association to produce, market and distribute high definition and 3D films of NYC dance companies’ performances in partnership with TenduTV.” For companies barely able to afford multiple camera documentations of their work, let alone in HD, this proposal is akin to Kennedy proclaiming we will walk on the moon. Now with this grant audiences in Peoria could experience a performance of DanceBrazil as if they are actually sitting in the Joyce Theater, or better yet, up on stage with the dancers. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the medium that will help artsy dance enter into the mainstream cultural consciousness.

Misnomer Dance Theater has received their second CIF award this year for an intriguing project that will “utilize behavioral science for a stakeholder-engagement program for NYC’s performing arts organizations in partnership with strategy and marketing firm Orcasci.” Seeming to flow from their previously awarded project, the online “Audience Engagement Platform,” Misnomer continues to explore how artists can market their work more effectively and tap into new audiences. Their approach raises the question, can the performing arts be marketed like big media, with their focus groups and huge research budgets? Can small independent artists mine niche markets and come up with huge followings in unexpected places? Misnomer claims they can, and hopefully with this funding they will prove it is possible.

Other projects funded this year are aimed at increasing cultural and political awareness through the arts such as Casita Maria’s partnership with Dancing in the Streets to illuminate the cultural legacy of the South Bronx, and New York University and The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics’ programs to support and train performance-based political artists. The Field in partnership with OurGoods.org has a particularly subversive project so that artists can get around the capitalist system entirely through an online barter network.

With each of these projects the ramifications for culture and the arts could be huge, or like any grand experiment, it may flop. By the time they get off the ground will they already seem passé? Will the media and technology involved be embraced by consumers or tossed aside as novelties? Time will tell, but at least artists will be able to try these pie in the sky ideas out. Whether or not the masses come flocking to see 3D productions of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company in their local iMax theatre, or NYC dance companies find a significant following among NASCAR dads, at least they are in the arena and able to contend, instead of busking for change on the sidewalk outside.

For a complete list of this year’s Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund recipients and their projects, go here.

Dance Films Association members may apply for DFA’s annual post-production grants ranging from $250 to $2,500. This program is open to filmmakers, choreographers or dancers.  Awards will be announced in July 2010.

Proposals should include DVD or VHS of work-in-progress, budget, distribution plans, biographies of key members of the creative team, and a one page description of the project including how funds will be used. There is no form to fill, simply supply the above information.

DFA membership information can be found at http://www.dancefilms.org

Thursday, November 5th, 1:00-2:00pm (EST) Webinar fee: $18

Register here: http://pentacle.org/movement_media_artists_services.asp#workshops

Online fundraising doesn’t have to be hard.  Whether you’re raising money from hundreds of supporters or just friends and family, learning how to design and promote your dance or film project online lets you fundraise quickly and effectively.

Dancer and choreographer, Benjamin Ford Asriel (http://www.basriel.com) presents a Webinar designed to help dancers learn how to creatively utilize the Internet to raise money for their dance and dance film projects.

Benjamin’s ‘Project Paper Trail’ is a choreography project and fundraising blog that has currently raised over $9,000 through online donations.  The one hour Webinar will take place in real time, so that you will have ample time to ask questions and get feedback from Benjamin.

click here to register!

Benjamin will discuss his success with his fundraising project, ‘Project Paper Trail’ .  Hear about the different types of donors his project attracted, and how his funding project became so successful.

Learn how artists can build wider, more engaged audiences and new models to generate support.  Open discussion will be part of the Webinar, so you will have time to ask questions or discuss ideas about online fundraising campaigns for your artistic work!

We look forward to seeing you at the Webinar on November 5th.

Benjamin Ford Asriel posts 'Project Paper Trail' online for viewers

So before we get into the pre-production goodness, there is, in the true fashion of all things dance, an update that affects, well, everything. To start, my soloist dancer Julia has a major neck injury/illness, and won’t be able to move for a while (probably somewhere around three weeks).  So that’s something. Additionally (perhaps for the best) a sudden rain/snow leek at the production co’s office directly on top of my work station and computer put us behind a few days (although, wouldn’t you know it, that little G4 took the water like a pro, and is back up and running!).

So there’s that.  However, while i can’t fascinate you with all the exciting post-production details that we’ve yet to discuss at our yet-to-be meeting, i can take this post to tell you about the general structure for this piece, and the side project that’s developed off of it.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve written quite a few posts on this blog about the United State’s one and only major supporter of videodance, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY.

After two years of construction, on October 3rd EMPAC officially opened the doors of their new magnificent state-of-the-art media and performing arts center, and celebrated with two weekends of non-stop performances, screenings, installations and special events. I was lucky enough to be able spend the day on Saturday Oct 4th, seeing this amazing facility for myself. I traveled with a fellow dance filmmaker, Sabine Klaus (aka CreationEditor on dance-tech.net) who was visiting from Scotland. We took in the sights and Sabine recorded much of what she saw on video to create the 25 min vlog post below. Many thanks to Sabine for letting me share it with you here.

The building is a work of art in itself. Designed by the London-based architecture firm, Grimshaw, it is built into the side of a hill overlooking downtown Troy with views of Albany beyond. With its modern glass and steel exterior, and curvey wood interior it looks like both a starship landing dock, and a giant pickle barrel. It was a bit confusing to find one’s way around the multitude of theaters, studios and galleries, but by the end of the day I’d gotten my bearings.

In 2007, with the support of a $1 million gift from the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts, EMPAC launched the DANCE MOViES Commission which supports the creation of several new experimental dance films by artists from the Americas each year. The premiere screening of the first DANCE MOViES Commission films took place in the huge Concert Hall space on a gigantic screen. I don’t know enough to speak about the great acoustical and technical attributes of this space, but it was awesome to see dance films blown up so big with so much visual and sonic impact!

I thought the pieces that showed off the capabilities of the building the best, however were the interactive installations. The Wooster group made a 360 degree video installation that was supposed to be about life in wartime, but it made a more powerful statement about control and editing, as one viewer in the space, sitting in the “chosen” chair, was able to direct the gaze of the group by swiveling around. Wherever this one person looked, that was the part of the video that was in focus and audible. The piece was masterfully designed to look slipshod and casual, but underneath it was very manipulative, making you feel both in and out of control over the action. I’d love to see more pieces like this, but besides major art museums and institutions like EMPAC, it would be hard to find a place with the technical capabilities to mount it. Another great installation was Billie Cowie’s 3-D “In the Flesh” in which viewers don the red and blue glasses to watch a dancer lift herself off of a zebra print rug. Like a ghost being conjured at a séance, it felt creepy to see her delicate hand reaching up to me, almost touching, and then fading away.

All in all, EMPAC is an amazing place for experimental artists, but after visiting I had a few questions about what its real world impact will be. Here in New York City, spaces to make and show experimental dance and media are more scarce than ever. Perhaps Troy and Albany will become a new destination for artists seeking cheap and plentiful real estate with adequate cultural and community benefits to support them, but even in up-state New York, the great disparity between rich and poor is quite striking. EMPAC is really designed for world class artists who already have the capabilities, funding, and expertise to take advantage of the unsurpassed technological resources this facility can provide. This makes sense given their situation at one of the world’s most prestigious technical/engineering institutions.

Even in the arts, it seems the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I would just like an empty room with lights and heat to rehearse in, and perhaps a new video camera that can record high quality footage. I’d like to be able to pay my dancers and crew adequate compensation for their time and talents, and I’d like to not have to work three jobs in order to practice my art. There is a big gulf between the gutter most of us live in and the glimmering edifice of EMPAC. We need to create a bridge to be able to reach these glorious technological dreamlands of the future. This means radically rethinking how we build support, create community, and raise the value of our work. EMPAC makes experimental art look valuable and appealing to the wider world, but its up to us artists to raise the quality of our work to match those expectations. This takes many carefully measured steps to cultivate  donor networks, major funders, and presenters whose support will be necessary to reach that glittering gem on the top of the hill.