DDP Talks To
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
February 14th: NoHo Afterschool Performing Arts Classes Spring Session, February 15th: Princess Grace Awards Program, February 15th: Aimed Dance Emerging Choreographer Fellowship, February 19th: Bethany Arts Community Residency Emerging Artist Fellowship, February 19th: Dancers' Group, February 21st: Making It Public for Massachusetts Artists, February 28th: National Dance Project Travel Fund, March 1st: New England States Touring (NEST 1 and 2), March 1st: Aimed Dance Summer Fest: Internship & Workstudy Scholarships, March 1st: Brabson Family Foundation, March 3rd: Culver City Artist Laureate Program, March 10th: CALT Folk and Traditional Arts Experiences, March 17th: Residency at Sitka, March 19th: Walking Together, March 31st: SIA Foundation Grants, April 1st: Harkness Foundation for Dance Grant Proposal, April 1st: The Democracy Cycle, April 10th: Amplifi Napa Valley - Emerging Artists Grant, April 30th: South Arts: Professional Development & Artistic Planning Grants, April 30th: Oconee Performing Arts Society, May 1st: Small Plates Choreography Festival, July 31st: Community Engagement Artists and Creatives Grant, September 16th: The Awesome Foundation Micro Grants, September 30th: New England Presenter Travel Fund, September 30th: Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Scholarship, September 30th: 24 Seven Dance Convention, September 30th: National Theater Project Presenter Travel Grant
×"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
Examining other art forms with historic issues in hiring women: theater, symphonic/classical music, opera. Also including more contemporary fields: lack of women in country music, hip hop, contemporary pop music, and other genres.
By Julia Jacobs
19 September 2019
Over the past decade, there has been a sense in the art world that gender equity was on the horizon: Emerging female artists were landing high-profile solo shows, museums were staging women-themed exhibitions, grants were being awarded to boost female artists, and long-neglected artists were being given overdue recognition.
This assumption of progress is being sharply challenged by new data showing that between 2008 and 2018, only 11 percent of art acquired by the country’s top museums for their permanent collections was by women. And contrary to any hope that acquisitions of artworks by women are inching upward, the percentage remained relatively stagnant, according to the data, released on Thursday.
The new analysis was by Artnet, an art market information company, and “In Other Words,” a weekly podcast and newsletter produced by Art Agency, Partners, an art advisory firm that was acquired by Sotheby’s.
“The perception of change was more than the reality,” said Julia Halperin, the executive editor of Artnet News and one of two lead authors on the report. “The shows for women were getting more attention, but the numbers actually weren’t changing.”
Read the entire article here.
1 February 2021
Year beginnings beg for our attention. How do we account? Given the threat of COVID-19, these routine re-evaluations take on a darker pall. If I died, how would I be remembered, and by whom? I consider this from the perspective of one who has worked the feminist homage.
For the last 30 or so years, I have interviewed or conversed with members of my own art and art activist communities. Three years ago, I published an interview with Carolee Schneemann concerning her major career retrospectives. We talked about gender, ecology, and militarism, about her coming into attention at that (late) moment of her life: “I’ve had wonderful assistance and amazing teams at the museums. The confidence, the devotion of the institution — it is just amazing. But part of me isn’t there. Part of me is like, ‘What happened? I can do anything and they like it now? This matters?’ I’m very divided.”
At that time, I also spoke with Agnès Varda and Barbara Hammer. These three great artists were all around 80 when we spoke; I was in my mid-50s. Each died shortly thereafter. They were enjoying the recognition of their careers, but each was “divided” in her own way given how late-in-coming this attention was. In previous conversations in the 1990s, Schneemann and Hammer, then about the age I am now, had focused upon a related preoccupation: a definitive lack of support, how they were not seen (enough), and how this had stalled and affected their careers.
Read the full story here.
DDP ally and choreographer Nicole Haskins shares her thoughts on what is holding women in ballet back from gaining access to the infamously male-dominated leadership positions.
By Eva Recinos
14 December 2020
There are two major aspects of being any type of creative person, in my experience: the challenge of creating the thing and the challenge of getting it seen. If you’re ready to dedicate more time to your craft and put yourself out there, let’s get started.
To keep this brief, I am focusing on four key areas that can help you get your work seen, supported, and funded: grants and fellowships, residencies, competitions, and social media. By no means an end-all be-all guide, these tips focus on resources for emerging to mid-career creative people.
Here are some basic things you’ll want to gather:
Read the full guide here.
By Mike Scutari
19 November 2020
Over the summer, Inside Philanthropy surveyed performing arts professionals about COVID-19’s impact on the sector’s fundraising fortunes. Their pessimistic outlook reminded me of an old quote by Stephen King: “There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.”
I realize it’s pretty macabre to cite the “master of horror” when talking about the state of performing arts fundraising, but these aren’t normal times, and if recent research from TRG Arts and arts data specialists at Purple Seven is any indication, respondents’ worst fears are now coming to pass.
The report found that in the first nine months of 2020, the number of gifts received by performing arts organizations in North America increased by 15%, but the average value of those gifts fell by 24% from the previous year. And while gifts from “super-active patrons”—defined as those who had donated to the organization and/or attended performances at least 10 times—were up 47%, total revenue and average gift size were down 38% and 8% for the nine-month period.
The report is all the more unsettling given the broader economic context. TRG Arts/Purple Seven found that aggregate gift revenue from June to September was down 29% compared to 2019. Yet that tried-and-true barometer of philanthropic giving, the S&P 500 Index, was up 8.4% from June to September 2020, and up 12.9% from September 2019 to September 2020.
“If donors don’t support arts organizations now, when stocks are doing well, they may not be around in the future when the market is uncertain,” said Suzanne Appel, managing director of New York’s Vineyard Theater.
With performing arts nonprofits facing what Julie Wake, executive director of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, calls a “long and dark winter,” the TRG Arts/Purple Seven report highlights two questions that will make fundraisers feel as if they just read “The Shining” in a darkened room: Why are donors dialing back giving when the market is enjoying a historic run, and what can they do to ensure their organizations can hang on for another 12 to 18 months?
Read the entire article here.
By Christina Dugan
11 November 2020
Throughout the years, Debbie Allen has found a way to turn rejection into strength.
In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, the Grey’s Anatomy actress and producer opens up about the years of tears, laughter and sweat that led her to where she is now.
“I grew up with a lot of ideas about myself,” says Allen, 70. “I always wanted to dance. I don’t remember ever not dancing. I used to sit as a little girl, contemplating the stars and the universe. And feeling myself. I used to do performances in the backyard to the birds in the trees. I had a sense that I was in a big world and that there was a place for me. I couldn’t articulate it as a child; I just knew the joy and the spirit of dance. It was inside of me. It was alive in me.”
Growing up in Houston, Texas, Allen — who found success on the movie and subsequent TV show Fame in the ’80s — experienced racism and hate, but remained determined to overcome the many challenges she faced.
Later, when she “went to the North Carolina School of the Arts to audition to go there for college,” Allen recalls, her dreams came to a sudden halt.
“I had been so well trained by that time by the Houston Ballet Foundation. I got there early, and I watched the auditions, I watched class. I was like, ‘Oh, I know all of this. I’ll be good.’ I got to my audition [group] and they used me to demonstrate,” says Allen.
Unfortunately, Allen says she was not accepted into the school because of her “body type.”
Read the full article here.
By James V. Marrone, Susan A. Resetar, Daniel Schwam
4 August 2020
As COVID-19 cases grow nationwide and permanent layoffs continue to rise, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine the United States returning to “normalcy” anytime soon. Students may return to school in the fall. Restaurants and gyms may resume normal hours and dining services. But the arts, as we know them, are likely to be shut down for the foreseeable future.
The structure of the arts and cultural industry leaves working artists and performers particularly vulnerable during catastrophes. As of May 4, an ongoing survey conducted by Americans for the Arts showed that two thirds of artists are having trouble sourcing materials. It also appears virtually certain that arts venues will reopen later than other businesses because social distancing is difficult both for audiences and for performers. As one benchmark, Broadway theaters do not plan to reopen until at least January 2021, and music venues that have tried to reopen have run into pushback.
The upshot is that the vast majority of artists have likely lost some or all of their income, not to mention losing the institutions on which they depend to earn their living. And there is no clear path back to pre-pandemic levels of employment. To understand how artists are likely to fare during the pandemic, we looked at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. (For more details about how we analyzed the CPS, our Stata code can be found at GitHub.)
We compared employment levels for artists and non-artists. We adopted the NEA’s definition of who counts as an artist (PDF). We also included librarians and archivists because libraries are included in the federal framework (PDF) for arts disaster relief. The various types of artists were grouped into three broader categories: performing artists (dancers, choreographers, actors, directors, musicians, singers, DJs, and other performers), non-performing artists (visual artists, photographers, designers, and writers), and others (architects, librarians, and archivists). We also analyzed food services and retail/wholesale, which are two of the most common alternative sources of income for artists.[1]
Read the full article here.
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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery