NPN received more applications than we could fund.   Many of the applications were very strong- if you did not get funded in this round, we strongly encourage you to apply again in the summer.  Summer application deadlines will take place in July of 2010.

Follow the links below for a description of the projects: 

• Winter 2010 Creation Fund Awards

• Winter 2010 Community Fund Awards

• Winter 2010 Mentorship and Leadership Awards

The group included active PAP curators Vallejo Gantner, Janella Sellars, George Lugg, Jennifer Mefford, and Erin Boberg Doughton, plus NPN staff, and we joined members of La RED from El Salvador, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador and Peru, among others, for their annual convening that occurred this same week.

Parallel to the dance festival, there was a city-wide month-long theater festival taking place, as well as the annual Choreographer’s Prize showcase, and our already extended 10 day stay wasn’t long enough to see the range of offerings in contemporary performance available.   

Mexico City is one of the world’s most densely populated and largest urban areas, and we traversed miles and miles of highways to see work in many diverse spaces, from the city’s turn of the 20th Century Teatro de la Ciudad all the way to the modern spaces of the National Institute of Fine Arts’ Centro Cultural del Bosque, a sprawling seven-theater cultural complex.   

Barreling through the endless transit of the city, it feels like Mexico City—also known as D.F. (the abbreviation for the Spanish ‘Distrito Federal’)—is on is on the verge of breaking off from earth and becoming its own planet.

Our host, Cuauhtémoc Nájera Ruiz, is the Director of the Division of Dance at the UNAM in D.F., and has a long history himself in the Mexican dance scene, having formerly directed Mexico’s national company, El Ballet Nacional de México.  Interestingly, there is not a Department of Dance at UNAM, but the Division of Dance exists as a producing and presenting entity that commissions work and produces artists’ work within the extensive cultural complex of the university, which includes a symphony hall, and two other 500-1500 seat theaters and a cinema, plus several smaller black box performances spaces.

George Lugg and MK Wegmann entering the MUAC for meeting with La RED  photo:  E. Doud

The newest addition to the Centro Cultural of the university is the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC), which is the work of the renowned Mexican architect Teodoro González de León.  The museum’s interplay with nature, the use of light in wide spaces is breathtaking, and despite its clearly modern feel, it resonates with the energy of a temple built in reverence of the art it houses.  We had most of our daytime meetings in this building.

While UNAM has a visual arts and music program, it remains a mystery as to why they don’t have an equally established dance and theater departments.  The good news is that their Centro Cultural actively supports local artists and opens up rehearsal and theater space for their work, commissioning new contemporary dance by established and emerging choreographers.  UNAM has pledged support in partnership with PAP for UNAM commissioned artists who travel to NPN Partners sites as part of our Creative Exchange project.  If you would like to know more about hosting an UNAM artist in residence through the Creative Exchange, please contact Elizabeth Doud at edoud@npnweb.org.

Our visit also coincided with the annual convening of México’s National Network of Dance Festivals (Red Nacional de Festivales de Danza), which is a network of 39 different festivals across México.  We were able to attend a presentation about their extensive network and diverse dance communities, and the sheer number of annual events offered by their members was surprising.  According to the presenters, they are interested in knowing more about U.S. based dance artists and companies.

We saw dance and theater mostly by artists from Mexico City, including choreographer Alicia Sanchez and her site specific work Migrantes, which took place on a bus parked off of a plaza in one of the city’s neighborhoods. Twenty five audience members got loaded onto the bus as would-be passengers in an illegal border crossing from Mexico to the U.S.  Some of company is staked out among the passengers playing fellow ‘migrants’ in transit who get pushed around and yelled at by the ‘coyotes’ organizing the suffocating and dangerous crossing, as many of the dancer/passengers tell their individual stories.  The work was excellent and well measured, touching on many subtle and not so subtle contradictions, injustices and unanswered dilemmas around the ever relevant topic of immigration to the U.S. by Mexicans.

We also saw the latest work of Mexico’s Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes, El Gallo. (photo courtesy of the company)

This piece is described as an ‘opera for actors’ that is performed, sung, howled and gyrated in a completely invented language.  The company’s director, Claudio Vales Kuri, was one of the artists hosted at REDCAT in PAP’s 2009 round of Creative Exchange projects, which was also supported through NPN’s partnership with the City of Los Angeles.

CalArts School of Theater/PAP Creative Exchange workshop with Mexico’s Claudio Valdes Kuri and collaborator Claudia Mader in Los Angeles, November 2009.  Photos by: Scott Groller

Their remarkable ensemble has toured some in the U.S. with NPN Partners, and because of these ties with NPN, specifically MCA Chicago and REDCAT, they invited the NPN and La RED delegations to lunch at a donor’s home in La Condessa, which is a beautiful area of the city.  It’s hard to be in Mexico and not get treated to amazing food, and we were served an elegant traditional lunch of potzole and tostadas, and free flowing tequila.  

One of the interesting things about Teatro Ciertos Habitantes, besides their outrageous and quality performance work, is their plan to construct a creative arts center on land they purchased outside of Mexico City.  As they tell it, this land was purchased with prize money they won to support the company’s production for the year.  With this tidy sum, they collectively decided not to receive salaries, but instead to apply the monies to the purchase of the land that is the location of the future center.  According to them, the Ecocentro “is a model cultural project of artistic inspiration, low-impact technologies, and the preservation of natural resources through the theatrical arts.”  To learn more about the company and their projects, visit their website: http://www.ciertoshabitantes.com

Our trip to Mexico City was intense, informative, and served to deepen our knowledge of contemporary performance in Mexico and our relationships within our partner network, La RED. We welcome all NPN Partners to join any of the PAP trips to Latin America and the Caribbean.  Please contact staff to find out how you can participate.  Coming soon:  reports from PAP travel to Chile and Trinidad-Tobago.  

News Flash:  Deadline for PAP Creative Exchange applications is fast approaching.  Follow this link for more details on how to apply.

It might seem strange that I compare, measure and am reminded of the significance of the National Performance Network in relationship to my greatest production, my son Daniel Perlo Bloom. I took my son, Daniel to the first NPN meeting in 1985, and I nursed him as ten presenters sat around a small table and shared ideas about how to move the field forward. My son is now a full-grown man with a solid career in the radio industry as a producer and head engineer of the Bob Edwards show on XM/Sirus radio, and the NPN has grown to be the most consistent funding source and important network for presenters and artists in the United States. The NPN has offered us guaranteed support without judgment, an opportunity to meet and network with colleagues, a mechanism for investing in new work, a vehicle for sharing information and a streamlined approach to contracting and negotiating artists’ fees.

It has changed the way we all do business. Even for non-NPN engagements, Presenters and artists utilize the NPN fee structure as a guideline for contract negotiations. Often you hear presenters asking artists, “Can you tour with NPN fees? If so, how many total people will be touring?” The answer to those two questions replaces hours of negotiations. The time between the presenters, managers and artists can now be spent on the more important aspects of touring, which is how to engage the community in the work, plans for presenting the work in an artistically rewarding fashion, rather than hours negotiating compensation.

The NPN’s approach to funding is unique. It assures each partner annual support to be used as direct subsidy for artists’ touring residencies without an application process. It does not challenge a presenters’ selection process or dictate who is eligible for these funds. As far as I know, this is the only support of this nature in our country. It also has provided a unique, affordable mechanism of matching funding sources so that partnering presenters can combine resources to support the creation of new work. Through this collaborative approach, presenters can afford to take a leadership role in the creation of new work.

The NPN has supported me as a presenter and Dance Place in risk taking, community engagement, collaborative partnerships, issues of social justice and diversity of programming. The NPN has assisted me in becoming a presenter. The influence of David White, the creator of NPN, encouraged me during some of my darkest hours to be a leader in the field of presenting. Today the support of my colleagues and relationships with performing artists across the US through the NPN continues to be the strength and inspiration I need as Dance Place enters its 30th Anniversary — presenting every weekend, training dancers six days a week, providing a rigorous program for youth and training the next generation of performers and arts administrators. Visit us at www.danceplace.org to learn more about our work.

About Carla
Carla Perlo founded DC Wheel Productions, Inc. (Dance Place) and co-directs the organization with Deborah Riley.  She has been praised for her unique ability to operate simultaneously as artist and administrator. Carla has taught and performed in the US, UK, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Israel. In 1991, Carla formed Carla & Company, a professional dance company dedicated to building new audiences for dance through community performances targeting a wide variety of groups and ages. Carla has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts and Maryland State Arts Council. She received the Pola Nirenska Memorial Award for her service and dedication to the field of dance in 1996 and was named a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1997 by Washingtonian Magazine. In 1999, Carla received the George Mason University Cultural Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named WETA’s Hometown Hero in 2001. In 2003, she was honored with the Founder’s Award from the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington and in 2006 received the Alan M. Kreigsman award from Metro DC Dance Awards. From 1994 to 1997, Carla and Dance Place served as the National Coordinator for DanceAfrica America. She served on the Board of Directors of the National Performance Network and is currently on the advisory board of Dance Metro, DC.

"What a great bunch of people to be around. It was JUST AMAZING!!!"
These days, with the insane number of communication choices we have, how often do we actually connect with each other, face-to-face and in real time? The NPN Annual Meeting is one of those rare moments, and the success of the meeting in Knoxville raised the bar for future gatherings. Of special note was the buzz around NPN’s 25th Anniversary. With special events and feature articles scheduled for the coming year, NPN kicked off the celebration with a fashion statement: a rainbow set of bracelets featuring the seven disciplines supported by NPN, augmented by a special silver 25th Anniversary bracelet. (Sets of 8 are available for $5 + shipping from the NPN office.)

"I had such an amazing time and felt so totally nurtured as an artist."
The Knoxville AM played host to a total of 300 artists (visual and performing), presenters, co-commissioners, funders and and field-related friends from national, local and international arenas. Nearly 95 artists attended, a record number, in equal complement to the number of NPN and VAN Partners, encouraging deeper conversations among peers. This year’s meeting featured the Visual Artists Network’s first full integration into the content of the Meeting. To celebrate, VAN commissioned provocative hotel room installations, commandeering the hotel’s 3rd floor. The five juried artists were given (nearly) free reign in transforming the rooms, which were available for viewing throughout the weekend. <IMAGES> [The rooms were safely returned to their previous condition at the end of the Meeting.]

"The meeting has empowered me to exceed expectations at my organization."
Forums for dialogue and shared learning experiences abounded, including nine Idea Forums that addressed topics culled from NPN’s constituencies over the months prior to the Meeting:
o    Artists Pioneering Hybrid Careers
o    Giving Voice to Community: 2 NPN Community Fund Case Studies
o    Everything You Wanted to Know About International Tax
o    Women of Calypso and the New Performing Americas Program Creation Fund
o    Sharing Process with Audiences
o    Creative Ways to Commission During Tough Times
o    Measuring Transformation: Evaluating Arts and Social Impact Projects
o    The Enterprising Artist:  Rethinking Professional Arts Education for a New Global Cultural Workforce
o    Fundraising Challenges, Opportunities and Strategies During a Recession

"I loved the energy! I think the fact that we had more sessions as an overall group made the atmosphere more congenial or something."
Opportunities for sharing work (past, present and future) took place during “In the Works” sessions, the “Media Showcase,” the Visual Artists Salon, and in ArtBursts—short performances throughout the plenary sessions which kept audiences on their toes and artists’ work in the forefront. Artists were invited to a half-day professional development workshop, focusing on entering, building and exiting community, facilitated by Urban Bush Women.

"The time together away from workspace is essential whether in seminars or in bars."
"It inspires me and holds me together for the whole year."
Both scheduled and informal invitations to explore Knoxville, meet local residents and see artwork in the community kept attendees awake and alert well into the night. “Live & On Stage” showcases were presented for two nights at the historic Bijou Theatre, just around the corner from the hotel. AC Entertainment, manager of the Bijou and the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, lent a promotions team to NPN for the showcases, ensuring that Knoxville audiences came in force. The 3-1/2 day conference reached its crescendo on Sunday evening at the Knoxville Museum of Art, when Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women’s Founder and Artistic Director, presented an inspirational keynote that brought NPN and UBW full circle over the course of both organizations’ first 25 years in the field. Knoxville’s Streamliners rocked the house with their 17-piece swing band and wild dancing ensued, as colleagues bade farewell until the Annual Meeting in Dallas in early December 2010.

NPN received more applications than we could fund.   Many of the applications were very strong; and if you did not get funded in this round, we strongly encourage you to apply again.  Winter FY10 application deadlines will be in February 2010. Stay tuned!

Follow the links below for a description of the projects: 

Summer FY10 Community Fund Awards
Summer FY10 Creation Fund Awards
Summer FY10 Mentorship and Leadership Initiatives Awards 

In November 2009, up to five winning projects will receive MetLife Innovative Space Awards (ISA) ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Made possible through a funding collaborative of the Ford Foundation and the Metlife Foundation, the awards will recognize and promote successful artist spaces that exhibit innovation, affordability, sustainability and positive community impact.  Winning projects will demonstrate the role that affordable artist spaces play in community revitalization, as well as replicable and sustainable models for artist space development.

Please visit http://www.lincnet.net/artist-space to learn more about LINC’s new Space for Change: Building Community Through Innovative Art Spaces program. There you can read the ISA guidelines and submit an application. All entries are due by August 24, 2009, no later than 5 PM (EDT). Contact LINC at info@lincnet.net or (646) 731-3275 for more information.

To download a PDF version of the guidelines and application, click here.