Total Dollar Amount: $950,000
Americans for the Arts, Inc.
$50,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Local Arts Agencies
To support the publication of "Community Vision," a policy guide for local arts agency (LAA) development. First published in 1990, the proposed edition of "Community Vision" will provide a blueprint for local arts development in the 21st century. The publication will acknowledge the full spectrum of the current community cultural ecosystem, document leading-edge practices, and highlight values that underpin effective local arts leadership. Project activities will include fieldwide dialogue among former, current, and emerging LAA leaders and the commission of white papers on the history of the field and core topics shaping the future. Americans for the Arts also will host forums to discuss the current state of the field and offer thoughts about what future LAA leaders will need to succeed.
Beasley, Sandra
$25,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry
Choral Arts Society of Washington
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the presentation of a choral tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In collaboration with Washington Performing Arts (WPA), the concert will include the WPA Gospel Choirs and will take place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. A concert for public and charter school students at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium is also planned. Complimentary tickets will be provided to community organizations.
Chorus America Association
$90,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support services and technical assistance to the choral field. Activities will include an annual conference, web-based services including the Chorus Management Institute, publications, and leadership development forums for chorus managers and leaders in the field. A new research initiative, the Intrinsic Impact Audience Project with the consulting firm WolfBrown, will gather data on the impact choral music concerts have on audiences.
Dance/USA
$80,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support Dance/USA core programs in 2015. Activities will include the annual conference in Miami, Florida, and the Institute in Leadership Training, offering one-on-one mentorships between emerging and established dance professionals. Programming at the conference will address topics ranging from best business practices to audience engagement strategies. Project activities also will involve research initiatives and a Dance Forum held at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP). The Dance Forum is a pre-conference event at APAP that convenes the dance field around a timely and relevant issue. The project will align with year three of Dance/USA's strategic plan to provide valuable programs to the membership and field, increase collaborations and partnerships to strengthen services, and increase visibility for the organization and membership. Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval.Page 48 of 234
Dance/USA (on behalf of Dance/USA Philadelphia)
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support the Philadelphia Dance Showcase. Visiting presenters will have the opportunity to see excerpts of repertory from approximately 24 professional dance companies so that the companies may secure regional, national, and international touring engagements. The showcase will include as many as four days of technical rehearsal which will ensure a showcase of the highest quality. Additional core activities include a presenters-only networking reception, complimentary tickets to full-scale productions by local companies, and a show and tell presentation of works-in-progress from artists currently engaged by local residencies. The showcase will take place at the Jeanne Ruddy Performance Garage, one of Philadelphia's only dance-dedicated facilities.
DC Jazz Festival
$30,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the D.C. Jazz Festival. The festival will present more than 150 District-based jazz artists as well as international musicians during the multi-day festival at a diverse selection of venues including Yards Park, the Howard Theatre, and The Hamilton. The festival will include The East River JazzFest, CapitalBop, Inc.'s D.C. Jazz Loft series, and more than 80 Jazz 'n the Hoods performances. Artists under consideration include NEA Jazz Masters Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, and Paquito D'Rivera. Artists such as Monty Alexander, Grace Kelly, Danilo Perez, Marlena Shaw, Esperanza Spalding, and Vijay Iyer also are under consideration. Accompanying activities will include master classes and student concerts at THEARC, the Sitar Arts Center and the Atlas Performing Arts Center.
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital
$15,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Media Arts
To support the 2015 D.C. Environmental Film Festival. Held in the spring with events programmed around the D.C. metropolitan area, the festival presents films including documentary, narrative, and short films about environmental issues. The majority of screenings are free and held in museums, libraries, universities, and embassies.
Ford's Theatre Society
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the premiere of "The Widow Lincoln" by James Still. In honor of the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Ford's Theatre commissioned James Still to write about Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. The play follows Mrs. Lincoln as she mourns the death of our nation's 16th president and the post-war life they will never share. Director Stephen Rayne will direct the world premiere.
Future of Music Coalition
$15,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the Future of Music Summit. The conference will engage speakers and panelists to discuss, examine, and raise awareness of key issues in the music field that have an effect on artists, arts organizations, audiences, policymakers, and the media. Topics to be addressed may include emerging technologies, artist compensation, legal and policy structures, digital business models, and creative community building. Live webcasts and internet radio streaming will be offered to accommodate those unable to attend in person in addition to a post-summit online archive of all programming. Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Page 49 of 234
International Arts & Artists, Inc.
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support the presentation of a traveling exhibition and related public programming featuring origami. The exhibition will include large-scale sculptural and conceptual installations by international origami artists such as Vincent Floderer (France), Miri Golan (Israel), Paul Jackson (United Kingdom and Israel), Dr. Robert J. Lang (United States), Sipho Mabona (Switzerland/South Africa), Yuko Nishimura (Japan), Richard Sweeney (United Kingdom), and Erik Demaine and Martin Demaine (Canada and United States). The exhibition is expected to travel to several museums across the United States.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
$100,0000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support expansion of Any Given Child (AGC), a collective impact project that maintains and develops access to arts education opportunities for elementary and middle schools around the country, to six new sites. AGC brings access, balance, and equity in arts education opportunities by combining community, school, and local cultural resources with those of the Kennedy Center. Prior to participation, each community designates a Coordinator to work full-time at a lead organization. The lead organization supports the Coordinator's efforts by providing the space, materials, equipment, and supplies for Community Arts Teams (CAT) meetings. The Coordinator also is responsible for assembling the CAT and gathering necessary materials for the project, and implementing a strategic plan. AGC's multi-year plan for sites has three phases: strategic planning process that includes asset-mapping, goal-setting, and survey development to audit their current resources. Implementation Committee, another smaller cadre of CAT members, is established to put the strategic plan into action, including staffing, funding, and marketing. During the grant period, existing AGC sites will continue to develop strategic plans, and additional sites will begin the evaluation phase.
Selma Levine School of Music, Inc.
$100,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support the Early Childhood and Elementary Music program. The program will provide music instruction free-of-charge to children in underserved neighborhoods of Washington, D.C. Music classes for children (in pre-school and Kindergarten) will take place at Northwest Settlement House, Drew Elementary School, Kids Are Us Learning Center, and THEARC in Southeast Washington. During class, children will explore music through singing, movement, finger plays, bounces, children's literature, listening, and rhythm instruments that drive the development of cognitive, social, and motor skills. Instructors will focus on sensory learning and encourage the children to develop skills in many areas, including rhythm, pitch, and expressive qualities in this 36-week program.
National Symphony Orchestra Association of Washington, DC
$30,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support symphonic concerts during the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts' international festival celebrating the performing arts of Portugal and Spain. The orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Jose Lopez-Cobos, will perform works by composers that were from or influenced by Spain and Portugal, including from countries of Spanish and Portuguese heritage. Programming will include works such as "La vida breve" by Manuel de Falla, "Espana" by Emmanuel Chabrier, "Images - Iberia" by Claude Debussy, and Isaac Albeniz's "Suite Espagnola." The performances will be presented at the Kennedy Center and broadcast locally on WETA 90.9 FM Public Radio, as well as WETA's website at WETA.org.
Opera Lafayette$25,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Opera
To support performances and professional recording of "L'Epreuve Villageoise" ("The Village Trial") by composer Andre Gretry. The work is an example of the opera buffa genre, and its simple, direct musical expression of the virtues of constancy and country life appealed to a broad public in late 18th-century and early 19th-century France and America. The creative team may comprise soprano Talise Trevigne (Madame Hubert), tenor Francisco Fernandez Rueda (Andre), and director Nick Olcott. Performances are scheduled to occur in New York City and Washington, D.C., in May 2015. Additional performances may occur at Mount Vernon, Monticello, as well as on the reproduction French frigate Hermione which carried the young Marquis de Lafayette from France to America in 1780.
Pan American Symphony Orchestra
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support an orchestral performances of music by Latin American composers, with related costs. Works will feature folkloric music, bolero, tango, zamba, and other categories of music with Latin American origins. The project is intended to serve the Hispanic community residing in Montgomery County, MD. Proposed guest performers include vocalist Guillermo Anderson from Honduras and vocalist Sofia Rei from Argentina.
Phillips Collection
$35,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support the exhibition "Man Ray - Human Equations: A Journey from Mathematics to Shakespeare." Co-organized with The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the exhibition will present new insight into the artistic process of the renowned Surrealist artist Man Ray (1890-1976). The exhibition will follow Man Ray's artistic journey, beginning in Paris in the 1930s and culminating in Hollywood in the late 1940s, when he produced a significant body of work inspired by the intersections of art and science. The exhibition will include 150 works on loan from international public and private collections.
Step Afrika! USA Incorporated
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support a tour of the company. The project will support performances of stepping, a traditional African-American polyrhythmic, percussive dance form that combines footsteps, claps, body percussion, and spoken-word. Following the performances, the artists will hold workshops and a question-and-answer session. Study guides for teachers and suggestions for follow up activities in class will also be developed.
Studio Theatre, Inc.
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support a production of "Choir Boy" by Tarrell McCraney. Produced in partnership with the D.C. Boys Choir, the Levine School of Music, and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, the play tells the story of the challenges faced by a rising high-school senior preparing to take his place as leader of his school's legendary gospel choir. The production will cast local African-American teens as the play's choir members, and will feature post-show discussions, panel conversations, and PostScript, a free conversation series that takes place after the production's final performances.
Textile Museum of D.C.
$35,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support the exhibition "China: Through the Lens of John Thomson (1868-1872)." The exhibition will integrate Qing-Dynasty textile art from museum's renowned collection with late-19th-century photographs taken by John Thomson, the Scottish pioneering photographer, geographer, and traveler. Thomson's photographs will be shown alongside more than 35 contemporaneous Chinese textiles and accessories, bringing the black-and-white photographs to life by opening visitors' eyes to the colors, patterns, and textures of these textiles, which surrounded people in their daily lives, denoting ethnicity, status, and taste.
Washington Ballet
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support the creation and presentation of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a new ballet by Artistic Director Septime Webre. Based on Washington Irving's short story of the same name, the ballet will be the third installment in Webre's American Heritage series featuring original ballets inspired by American literary classics. William Liley, a former professor of history at Yale University, will serve as literary consultant. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" will examine the influence of Romanticism in post-Revolutionary War America and will premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Washington Chorus, Inc.
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the Ginastera Project. Under the direction of Music Director Julian Wachner, the performance project will feature Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera's "Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam." The chorus will be joined by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Washington National Cathedral Choir - Boys and Girls Choristers, and the NOVUS NY orchestra in the performances of this large concert-length work. The concert will be presented in New York City at Carnegie Hall.
Washington Concert Opera
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Opera
To support a concert presentation of "Guntram" by composer Richard Strauss. First produced in 1894, this is the first of Strauss' fifteen operas, a three-act work that shows composer Richard Wagner's influence on his fellow composer at the time. Strauss edited the opera in 1939 in an effort to tighten the drama and improve the orchestration; it is the latter version that will be performed. Artistic Director Antony Walker will conduct a cast that may include heldentenor Robert Dean Smith in the title role, soprano Marjorie Owens (Freihild), and baritone Tom Fox (Duke). One performance will take place at George Washington's Lisner Auditorium in March 2015.
Washington District of Columbia Jewish Community Center (on behalf of Theatre J)
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Media Arts
To support the 2015 Washington Jewish Film Festival, related activities and the required festival catalogue product. The event will screen films highlighting Jewish culture and history, and will feature special events and favorites from past festivals in celebration of its 25th anniversary. In recent years, programming has expanded to include an online festival, storytelling performances, and panel discussions about the Jewish experience in the U.S. and other countries.
Washington District of Columbia Jewish Community Center
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support Theatre J's Locally Grown: Community Supported Art Festival. Theatre J's new play development program supports the creation, development, and production of new plays by D.C.-area playwrights. The project will be anchored by a full-scale premiere by a local playwright. The 2015 festival will produce Renee Calarco's "The Greater Good," a dramatic comedy about a community of well-meaning congregants who are bilked by a religious huckster.
Washington Drama Society, Inc.
$45,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the development and production of "The Blood Quilt" by Katori Hall. The play follows a family of Southern African-American sisters whose mother's recent death brings them together, bonding over their mother's craft of quilt-making while debating the best course of action to settle the family's debt. Audience engagement programming will include post-show talk-backs with the artistic team, panel discussions, and an Internet blog featuring behind-the-scenes production information.
Washington Master Chorale
$10,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support a commissioning and performance project. Directed by Artistic Director Thomas Colohan, the project will focus on American choral repertoire and will include the commissioning of a new choral work by composer, conductor, and keyboard artist Julian Wachner (music director of the Washington Chorus), as well as performances of choral works by composers Norman Dello Joio and Morten Lauridsen. Titled Romantics in the Modern Age: Lauridsen, Wachner, Rilke and Rodin, the concert program will be performed in Washington, D.C., and in Philadelphia. A pre-concert panel will explore the influence of Auguste Rodin's sculpture on the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as Rilke's connection with the English sibling poets Christina and Dante Gabriel Rosetti.
Washington National Opera
$55,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Opera
To support performances of "Dialogues of the Carmelites" by composer Francis Poulenc. Based on the play by Georges Bernanos, the opera was inspired by actual events and portrays faith put to the ultimate test when an order of Carmelite nuns refuse to renounce their beliefs during the French Revolution. The work will be performed in English, using the composer's approved translation and following the composer's preference that his operas be sung in the vernacular language of the performance setting. The artistic team may comprise set designer Hildegard Bechtler, conductor Patrick Summers, mezzo-sopranos Dolora Zajick (Madame de Croissy) and Elizabeth Bishop (Mother Marie), bass-baritone Alan Held (Marquis de la Force), and soprano Leah Crocetto (Madame Lidoine). Performances will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in February and March 2015.
Washington Performing Arts Society
$40,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the WPA Commissioning and New Works Project. The project is a series of commissions and premieres of new works for and by artists with connections to Washington Performing Arts and the city of Washington, D.C. Performances will represent a broad cross-section of musical expressions such as jazz, Celtic, Indian, choral music, and chamber music, among others. Professional musicians as well as student ensembles will perform.
Washington Project for the Arts
$20,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support a series of contemporary art projects highlighting work by regional emerging artists. Project activities will include a series of contemporary video exhibitions presented in the lobby of the Capitol Skyline Hotel and a survey of work by emerging artists who do not yet have gallery representation. WPA also will offer a professional development program. Visiting curators will give public talks and conduct one-on-one portfolio reviews with local artists.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
$60,000 Washington, DC
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the world premiere production of "Zombie: The American," a new play by Playwright-in-Residence Robert O'Hara. The play is a futuristic, dystopian fantasy set in 2063 Washington, D.C., where the President of the United States is faced with an imminent civil war, the threat of an African invasion, and zombies in the basement of the White House. The theater's Connectivity department will implement a comprehensive audience engagement campaign in association with the play, targeting a wide range of D.C. audiences, including politicians and political workers, historians, futurists, civil rights organizations, college students, and young fans of the current zombie craze.
