Good evening EALS, I’m here to spill the beans on our Coffee hour…
On Saturday October 20th 2012 EALS will be hosting a relaxed networking coffee hour event at Tynan Coffee and Tea see the flyer below for details. Click here to visit the Facebook event page.
THEME!!!! Do you have a favorite coffee mug? Send us your mug shot! Post your favorite coffee mug and/or story behind it to our Facebook event page. It’s a great way to get the conversation roasting.
See you there!
Day 4:
Today’s post will be pretty short, I imagine, since the only main conference activity was the awards luncheon and the rest of the day was filled with showcases.
Each year, APAP awards those whose service to the performing arts has had a significant impact on the industry and on communities worldwide. The recipients are chosen by a national panel of arts leaders. Here are those recipients:
in Programming was awarded to Paul King and Walter Jaffe. The two founded White Bird Dance in 1997 to highlight excellence in dance in Portland, Oregon. The organization has since become one of the leading dance presenters on the west coast bringing regional, national and international dance groups to the communities of Portland. White Bird supports emerging dance companies and choreographers, commissions new works, conducts outreach programs in local schools and collaborates extensively with other Portland area organizations to broaden dance audiences.
assumed his current position as program director of arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York, NY. He supervises a $17 million grants program focusing on organizations and artists in the theatre, contemporary dance, jazz and presenting fields. Previously, Cameron served for more than eight years as the executive director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), significantly expanding its programs, membership base and grant-making activities. He worked as senior program officer at the Dayton Hudson Foundation, manager of community relations for Target and spent four years at the National Endowment for the Arts, including two as director of the theater program.
and folk icon Pete Seeger founded the Newport Folk Festival where the two music giants celebrated 50 years of folk with 15,000 fans in August 2009. In 2011, Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., was created to help maintain these festivals into the future. At 86, Wein has as much creative fuel as he did when he started the Newport festivals and advanced the concept of live music. He also pioneered the idea of sponsorships for music events, beginning with the Schlitz Salute to Jazz and the Kool Jazz Festival.
Showcases throughout the day:
I wrapped up my evening with an amazing combo showcase featuring some of NYK-Rapp’s artists. We witnessed:
The entire night was emceed by the hilarious Stewie Stone at the legendary Friar’s Club at 55th and Park Avenue. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and would recommend these acts.
Ok, so I guess the post wasn’t as short as I thought it would be. Stay tuned for the final post tomorrow.
– Steven Dawson
“The world needs art, not so they can escape, but so they can embrace.”
Day 3:
I started this morning with a session with our fellow arts management students at the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin. The students involved, Joanna Simpson, Brian Hinrichs, Marcella Dover, Laura Blegen, Andrew Maxfield, and Danielle Boyke, presented this year’s edition of the Dawson Research Internship: Power Influence, and Performing Arts. Bolz Center director Andrew Taylor moderated. The research and presentation was designed to connect the dots between power and influence in policy-making and the arts. Here is a brief summary of the two hour session:
Ideas picked up from session participants and personal thoughts:
At 11:00, I attended the next plenary session, The Village Beat – Taking Action. It was hosted by John Hearn, principal at SYPartners.
The towering consultant led the group in a discussion on connecting the organization to the community and its needs. This doesn’t mean simply residing in a community and trying to lure its members in. It means having a direct connection. His four pillars of what constitutes a community’s situation are the individual, the community (group), change that is happening, and money. The major questions to ask yourselves as an organization are:
Thoughts taken from this session:
There was a lot of grand, eloquent thoughts and statements during this Village Beat session. I can only hope that the arts leaders who made these statements will actually put these thoughts into action and not keep them on the shelf.
After a dinner at the famous Carnegie Deli, I headed over to the Broadway Comedy Club on 8th avenue to check out what Chicago City Limits had to offer. It is a 6 member
improvisation group that has 5 actors and 1 amazing improvisational accompanist. I was not disappointed. I know I said yesterday that 7 Fingers was my favorite….well, Chicago City Limits has now taken that position with a coup de force. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. You know when you get to laughing so hard that they get high pitched and you start snorting……yep, that was me. The troupe started with a song about a phrase that the audience came up with, which happened to be “Anything Goes.” The lyrics were masterfully composed, and the actors really played off each other rhymes well. Then they performed a sketch about another crowd creation in multiple styles, which were also drawn from the crowd. Another highlight was the “story time” sketch based off of a title that an audience member gave. The actors passed the baton, so to speak, picking up the story and continuing to create it as the “director” pointed to each actor. They also performed a long-form improv musical, and ended with a hilarious game in which one actor had to guess a regionalism phrase based on extremely vague clues given by the other actors. I cannot even begin to do justice to the comical genius of the group in this blog. I can only recommend that you look them up and plan to attend one of their shows.
After that, I meandered down to 44th and 8th to the famous Birdland jazz club to listen to a set from the world renown and Grammy winning Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. Each musician on the stage was a true master of his craft. It was a delight to listen to such wonderful Latin jazz. Once again, I recommend hunting them down and listening when you get the chance.
– Steven Dawson
“The world needs art, not so they can escape, but so they can embrace.”
Day 2:
The first thing I attended today was the Pecha Kucha (a fast paced session in which presenters show 20 slides for 20 seconds each to tell their unique
stories) session: What Great Acts Have Happened in Our Communities? It was enlightening to see the many ways that great people have used the arts and culture to change and , in the case of Braddock, PA, literally save their communities. The session was moderated by the incomparable Ben Cameron and included such names as:
After the Pecha Kucha ended, I took a stroll through the expo halls to see the many organizations that were present, all of them looking to book another venue or tour, of course. While walking, I was accosted by someone from the Upright Citizens Brigade. He asked what I was doing tonight and proceeded to try to convince me to come see their long form improvisational comedy show…and of course, sign them to a contract. Indeed, I would have attended their performance had I not already made plans to attend Rockapella’s show tonight.
The rest of the day was spent attending showcase performances:
of Circassian Circle, a dance group from the mountains of Eurasia. The earthy, gliding masculine force of the male dancers along with the ethereal, floating grace of the female dancers provided quite the stunning dance dichotomy. Though I had to leave early to get to my next appointment, Sarah Wedgewood (who had quite the day, more on that later) stayed and said that it got “interesting” later on.
humor along with what I can only describe as “acrobatic pantomime with props.” The performer also played up the “nervous performer” character perfectly, allowing us to connect as well as laugh at the character. The highlight was when Patinoire (the performer) stacked four large speakers on top of each other (loosely, mind you) at an angle on top of a chair, which was on top of a folding table (that had just fallen seconds earlier). Then he proceeded to climb up the speakers and balance at the top before falling backwards in a comical “slip-and-fall” prat fall. I would definitely recommend seeing him if you ever have the chance.
The highlight was when fellow AU grad student Sarah Wedgewood was pulled onto the stage and serenaded by the band, and then asked to sing to them, and then serenaded again. She hammed it up, though, by dancing with the band members and forcing one of them to kiss her cheek before she would leave the stage. The audience was in stitches and she became an instant celebrity on the block of 59th and Park.
Overall, the showcases are proving to be quite enjoyable, as each artist or group is putting their best foot forward in hopes of landing another contract. I look forward to more tomorrow.
– Steven Dawson
“The world needs art, not so they can escape, but so they can embrace.”
amyjoforeman
csmccloskey
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hgenetos
Haley
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Dave Travis
Sarah Robinson Hewitt
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Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium 