First Native American sci-fi film in the works

Navajo Sci-Fi Film 'Legends From the Sky' Is in a Race Against Time
Indian Country Today Media Network.com, January 8, 2015

Legends from the Sky Facebook page

Report details drop in corporate giving for dance

The most telling thing about this article in Crain's New York Business might be that, since being published a few days ago, it has received no comments.

Support for dance companies takes a tumble
Corporate donations that help sustain dance companies in the city have dropped precipitously.
by Theresa Agovino, Crain's New York Business, December 10, 2014

Read Dance/NYC 's complete report,

State of NYC Dance and Corporate Giving,

here.

New York City Opera at the brink

For City Opera, the Talk Turns to a Shutdown

by Michael Cooper, The New York Times, September 26, 2013

DNA update (as of September 12)

SEPTEMBER 12 Update from Dance New Amsterdam

Dear DNA Community, Today we have reached an agreement with our landlord, Fram Realty, that allows DNA to remain at its current location through mid-October, after which DNA has agreed to leave 280 Broadway.  However, Fram Realty has agreed, in good faith, to continue to listen to any viable proposals DNA presents to it. Our agreement is being documented and submitted to the Bankruptcy Court for approval. Classes and rentals will be running through October 13. Know that we continue to work on a solution to support the DNA teachers, students,  artist,  audiences,  etc.; but as of yet,  we have not been able to secure a partner or find another solution that would allow us to meet DNA's business responsibilities and remain at 280 Broadway. The DNA Community is more than a 280 Broadway space; it exists regardless of where we work, dance, teach, create, and perform. For our part, we will help keep the lines of communication open between teachers, students, artists, and community supporters while looking for ways to keep our programs alive.  In the meantime, please come take class and rehearse! With great respect and awe, Catherine A. PeilaExecutive/Artistic Director

For InfiniteBody's earlier post on the DNA situation, click here.

Downtown school and presenter Dance New Amsterdam in crisis [with UPDATE 9/12]

News arrived yesterday of the sudden laying off of Dance New Amsterdam's entire staff as a result of failure to reach an agreement that would keep the 29-year-old educational and presenting organization going through bankruptcy and restructuring. This unanticipated development leaves not only staff, faculty, students and artist residents scrambling for alternatives but numerous dance troupes facing the challenge of securing new venues for upcoming performance seasons in which they had already heavily invested.

InfiniteBody will post links to reports and discussions of this issue and information on resources as these materials become available. Please forward your notes and announcements to infinitebody[at]outlook[dot]com or use the comments section here to share your thoughts, ideas and relevant information.

Thank you!

**********
Dance Center Seeks Help Keeping Doors Open
by Jacqueline Palank, The Wall Street Journal (8/29)

Dance New Amsterdam posts announcement on bankruptcy and closure (8/29)

Curtain Closes on Dance New Amsterdam
by Nadine DeNinno, International Business Times (8/29)

UPDATES

DNA raises $50,000, will remain open for business at least through next week. Click here for more information.

September 4 update from DNA:

First and foremost, we are working with the court and our landlord toward a definitive date on which we present a viable plan for DNA’s future. We hope to have that definitive date on or before Thursday, September 12, our next court date.

In the meantime, DNA will be fully open through the end-of-day on Thursday, September 12th. We’ll be running with a smaller administrative staff, but our faculty and modern guest artists will be here as usual.

Click here for complete text of update.

September 12 Update from DNA

Dear DNA Community, Today we have reached an agreement with our landlord, Fram Realty, that allows DNA to remain at its current location through mid-October, after which DNA has agreed to leave 280 Broadway.  However, Fram Realty has agreed, in good faith, to continue to listen to any viable proposals DNA presents to it. Our agreement is being documented and submitted to the Bankruptcy Court for approval. Classes and rentals will be running through October 13. Know that we continue to work on a solution to support the DNA teachers, students,  artist,  audiences,  etc.; but as of yet,  we have not been able to secure a partner or find another solution that would allow us to meet DNA's business responsibilities and remain at 280 Broadway. The DNA Community is more than a 280 Broadway space; it exists regardless of where we work, dance, teach, create, and perform. For our part, we will help keep the lines of communication open between teachers, students, artists, and community supporters while looking for ways to keep our programs alive.  In the meantime, please come take class and rehearse! With great respect and awe, Catherine A. PeilaExecutive/Artistic Director

New funds enable Bronx Museum to enhance its collection

Bronx Museum Raises $1 Million to Acquire Art
by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, June 26, 2013

Director Margarita Aguilar resigns from El Museo del Barrio

Amid Turmoil at Museo del Barrio, Its Director Steps Down
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, February 15, 2013

A struggling Black theater survives

New Funds Help Revive a Theater in St. Paul
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, January 7, 2013

Study of fiscally sponsored NYC dancemakers announced [AUDIO]

State of NYC Dance: Discovering Fiscally Sponsored NYC Dancemakers

presented by Dance/NYC

September 7, 2012

at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center

We are in discovery mode, and this is a call to action."
--Lane Harwell, Executive Director, Dance/NYC

 Do you know it's Friday, and we're all here talking about research?"
--Anne Coates, VP, Arts and Cultural Development, Municipal Arts Society

As dance journalist Pia Catton noted in her recent article, "More Dance Companies Scrapping the Old Funding Model" (Wall Street Journal), independent artists without nonprofit status are increasingly turning to fiscal sponsors as a sustainable means of managing the legal and technical requirements for fundraising and accounting. The following audio provides data and follow-up discussion around Dance/NYC's study conducted in partnership with five New York City fiscal sponsors serving movement-based art:

Foundation for Independent Artists 
Fractured Atlas
New  York Foundation for the Arts 
New York Live Arts 
The Field

This community forum was presented at the 92nd Street Y's Buttenweiser Hall. The recording includes presentations and remarks by, among others, John-Mario Sevilla (92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center), Lane Harwell (Dance/NYC), Ian David Moss (Fractured Atlas), Anne Coates (Municipal Arts Society), Jennifer Wright Cook (The Field), Alexander Thompson (New York Live Arts), Eleanor Whitney (New York Foundation for the Arts), Mara Greenberg (Pentacle), Dianne Debicella (Fractured Atlas) and Victoria Smith (Dance/USA).

Click here to download audio file [1:32:43]

Jean Davidson: Saving dance in the US

A Chance to Dance in America
by Jean Davidson, The Huffington Post, August 17, 2012

Philadanco troupe in jeopardy

The Philadelphia Dance Company – National Treasure May Close
by Marsha Gilbert, Ballet/Jazz/Tap at Suite101, August 15, 2012

New InfiniteBody policy re: Kickstarter campaigns

Dear InfiniteBody readers,

In recent months, I've received a good number of Kickstarter appeals by email or Facebook message. Often these come with personal requests for me to help out by publicizing Kickstarter campaigns on this blog.

Initially, I was reluctant to post any of these announcements, because there are numerous active campaigns out there. I neither wanted to be expected to post every one I received or heard about, nor did I want to be seen as playing favorites by promoting projects that might personally interest me. I worried about this.

Over time, I did post a few--even quite recently. But today, I'm announcing that I will no longer post Kickstarter announcements on InfiniteBody.

I support your efforts to fund important creative projects. If you share your appeals via social media, I'll be happy to re-post or re-tweet something that personally strikes me as "insanely great." And I wish all of you the very best.

Thanks for understanding and respecting this policy decision.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody

LMCC announces all-Manhattan grant programs

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Grants

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) is pleased to announce its 2013 grant cycle. Each year, LMCC offers three grant programs to support arts and arts education programming in Manhattan: The Fund for Creative Communities (The Fund), Manhattan Community Arts Fund (MCAF) and Creative Curricula (CC). Together, the programs provide over $500,000 annually to support over 200 projects and enliven communities from Inwood to the Battery. These grants support both individual artists and nonprofit organizations to develop and lead arts projects in their Manhattan communities.

The Fund and MCAF grants are funded by New York State and New York City to help Manhattan-based artists and organizations cultivate new community-based projects and programming. Both grants award up to $5,000 to grantees and enable arts projects to reach public audiences. Past projects have included film festivals, mural projects, children's theater, chamber music, capoeira training and performance, art in community gardens, Chinese opera concerts in community centers and site-specific dance performances. The Fund’s support focuses on small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations seeking to develop and sustain arts programming in Manhattan, and MCAF supports individual artists and small nonprofit organizations that often have little access to government funding. In many cases, MCAF is the first grant the recipient has been awarded and acts as leverage for an artist or organization seeking funding in the future.

Creative Curricula is an arts-education grant funded by the New York State Council on the Arts to support new and emerging arts-based programming in Manhattan’s public school classrooms. For the 2013 grant cycle Creative Curricula has increased the amount of funding available for projects and has also expanded the range of projects eligible for funding. Grants are now available for up to $5,000.

“When people think of the arts in Manhattan, museums and large-scale institutions may first come to mind; but there are literally hundreds of incredible arts programs happening in every neighborhood—in parks, plazas, schools, theaters, galleries and community centers,” says Kay Takeda, Director of Grants & Services at LMCC. “LMCC’s grant programs are designed to encourage and sustain these activities and to seed new ideas for arts projects and programs. Access to arts and culture is an essential part of what makes this city so livable, and so vibrant every day.”

Information Sessions

LMCC will offer a schedule of 14 grant information sessions in which prospective applicants can meet with LMCC staff and learn more about the application process and program requirements. Attendance at one of these sessions is a requirement for all new applicants, all Creative Curricula applicants and for any Fund and MCAF applicants who have not attended a session since 2009. Sessions begin in July and continue into early September, and will take place at various locations including El Museo del Barrio, Artists Space, St. Peter’s Church, Joe’s Pub and HERE Arts Center. There will be a session in Mandarin Chinese on July 18 at 4pm at Chatham Branch Library and a Spanish-translated session on August 22 at 6pm at Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.

Complete program information and application forms are available on LMCC’s website, www.LMCC.net/grants.

About LMCC

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has been a leading voice for arts and culture Downtown and throughout New York City for nearly 40 years, producing cultural events and promoting the arts through grants, services, advocacy, and cultural development programs. www.LMCC.net.

LMCC's Manhattan Arts Grant Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; and Wells Fargo.

Gregory Hines Youth Scholarship Fund [video]

Gregory Hines Youth Scholarship Fund (2:56)
A project of the American Tap Dance Foundation


Scholarships are given all year to kids ages 3.5-19 for various youth tap dance training programs. For all information, including application details and deadlines, click here.

DNA goes bananas!

Banana Gakuen Theater Company, which says it hails from "dangerous Japan," will mark the one-year anniversary of the Japanese tsunami with a special free event at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), including a performance, screening and discussion.

Sunday, March 11, 7pm

Free admission. Cash bar proceeds will be donated to disaster relief.

For more information, click here.

And, while you're at it, why not help DNA fix the longstanding problems with its bathrooms? Click here and find out how you can do a good deed for dance!

Walk in beauty--with Alice Walker

Four years in the making, Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth is a feature documentary film about the life and times of American writer, Alice Walker who made history as the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1983 for her ground breaking novel The Color Purple, made into a successful film by Steven Spielberg.

Directed by award-winning filmmker Pratibha Parmar and produced by Shaheen Haq

Learn more about the campaign to complete Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth--the compelling story of a poet and a human rights activist--and lend your support here.