"Virtual Pillow"

Jacob's Pillow Dance has just announced a new technology initiative, funded by the Nonprofit Finance Fund and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which will benefit ten arts organizations:

Jacob’s Pillow Dance has been chosen to take part in Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence, a groundbreaking $15.125 million arts initiative created by the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Jacob’s Pillow, America’s longest running dance festival, and a National Historic Landmark lauded as “the dance center of the nation and possibly the world” by The New York Times, is one of ten arts organizations from across the nation invited to participate in this initiative. Funds will be used to embark on a major initiative that will translate the on-site Pillow experience to new electronic media. Through this support, the Pillow is positioned to become a major provider of online dance content to the public, artists, dance students, and scholars.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious recognition from our field, and I'm thrilled to invoke two favorite words to describe the impact of this grant: ‘transformative investment,’ ” comments Ella Baff, Executive Director of Jacob’s Pillow. “This initiative will help us employ state of the art electronic media to extend every mission area of Jacob's Pillow - creation, presentation, education, preservation and audience engagement - to benefit the arts community and the public. This funding will remove the constraints of conventional time and physical location, allowing us to share our institutional resources such as the vast Archives, annual Festival, and Audience Engagement Program, with a broader, worldwide audience.”

“Leading for the Future will help trailblazing arts organizations continue to thrive in a society that is changing at lightning speed,” said Ben Cameron, director for the arts for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “Together with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, we hope to learn valuable lessons about how arts organizations can innovate, even when faced with the challenges of a slumping economy, shifting generational interests, and emerging technologies.”

“Leading for the Future participants have already proven themselves adept at artistic innovation; now, they will lead the way for arts organizations to reinvent their business platforms so the artistic side will be reliably supported,” said Clara Miller, president and CEO of NFF. “At a time when restricted gifts and carefully predicted outcomes are the status quo, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is offering these organizations the latitude and support that is required for true experimentation and change.”

Jacob’s Pillow’s initiative, with the working title “Virtual Pillow,” will aim to deepen engagement with existing dance patrons; build audiences for dance; and increase the visibility of past, present and future artists presented by Jacob’s Pillow. Through new electronic media, the Pillow will extend beyond its traditional Festival season and physical location in Becket, Mass., and reach larger audiences world-wide. For example, the Pillow’s vast Archives hold a great deal of dance history over the past century – an expansive resource that can be shared more broadly. The Pillow’s Archives contain more than 350,000 photographs, films, books, and historic documents and dwarf most library collections—including those of colleges and universities—for dance. These resources can be digitized and the material organized into online programs that add context and deepen understanding about individual artists and dance traditions, and help audiences understand evolving forms. Other areas of Virtual Pillow that will be researched and potentially implemented include live-streamed or delayed broadcast performances, participatory activities with online audiences, other resources for scholarly research, and more.

“In the cultural field, Jacob’s Pillow is seen as the ‘mother ship’ of dance,” comments Baff. “This initiative will share our resources and commitment to dance in new ways with existing audience members, educators, scholars, artists and, importantly, to build new audiences for dance. The Internet is a limitless venue, and a different kind of venue. Nothing can replace the unique experience of live dance or being on site in the beautiful and welcoming atmosphere of Jacob’s Pillow, but a Virtual Pillow will extend all that we have to offer in new, different and unique ways.”

Leading for the Future will provide Jacob’s Pillow with significant capital resources and advisory services. The goal of this national initiative is to enable a group of artistically outstanding organizations to strengthen their business in a changing environment, while providing instructive examples and models for other arts organizations to learn from and possibly replicate. Twenty finalists were asked to engage in a rigorous application process and take part in live interviews. Ten of these organizations were selected to receive the award: Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Center Theatre Group, Cunningham Dance Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Misnomer Dance Theater, National Black Arts Festival, Ping Chong & Company, SITI Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and The Wooster Group. Jacob’s Pillow is the only organization from Massachusetts to receive the award.

Initially, the Pillow will receive $75,000 for a first year of planning, research and development, during which the organization will convene a think-tank, further develop and test project ideas and content formats, assess staffing needs, explore sustainability, and determine hardware, software and bandwidth needs. After determining its plan for the following four years, the Pillow is eligible to receive up to or more than one million dollars of support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nonprofit Finance Fund.

About Jacob’s Pillow

Founded by dance legend Ted Shawn in 1933, Jacob’s Pillow celebrated its 75th Anniversary Season in 2007. The Pillow is home to a world-renowned international dance Festival that presents dance annually on three performance stages for nearly three months. The Pillow also supports artists to create new work through commissions and Creative Development Residencies. The School at Jacob’s Pillow encompasses a professional training program in the disciplines of Ballet, Cultural Traditions, Contemporary Traditions, Jazz/Musical Theatre Dance, and a Choreographers Lab, as well as an Intern Program that trains young professionals in all areas of production and arts administration. Alumni of The School have gone on to perform with prestigious dance companies such as Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, in film, television and on Broadway, and former interns have been employed at arts organizations including Mark Morris Dance Group, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and The British Council. The Pillow’s rare and extensive Archives, open year-round to the public free of charge, chronicles the art form of dance in film, video, photographs, oral histories, correspondence, books, costumes, posters, audiotapes, and scrapbooks.

Jacob’s Pillow’s year-round Community Programs enrich the lives of children and adults, and are yet another part of the Pillow’s cultural legacy. Jacob's Pillow is the first and only dance entity in the United States to be declared a National Historic Landmark for the significance of its contribution to America’s culture—past and present.

The Pillow’s current 163-acre site was originally a family farm in the late 1700s. In the 1800s, the Pillow was known as a station on the Underground Railroad. In 2007, it was formally dedicated as a site on the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail. For additional in-depth information regarding the history of Jacob’s Pillow, consult www.jacobspillow.org. Members of the press are encouraged to contact Mariclare Hulbert at 413.243.9919 ext. 29 or via email at mhulbert@jacobspillow.org.

About Nonprofit Finance Fund

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) is a national leader in nonprofit, philanthropic and social enterprise finance. Founded in 1980, NFF (http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org ) provides loan financing, access to capital and direct advisory services that build the capacity and the financial health of nonprofits. A leading community development financial institution with over $80 million in assets, NFF has provided over $175 million in loans and access to additional financing via grants, tax credits and capital in support of over $1 billion in projects for thousands of nonprofit clients nationwide. NFF has a staff of more than 75 serving nonprofits nationally from offices in Philadelphia, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org) is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties.