PERFORMING AMERICAS REPORT
February-June 2008
2007-08 ACTIVITIES
1. NPN Curators for the 2008-09 season: Greg Jackson (Miami Dade College, Miami, FL); CarrMel Ford White (King Arts Complex, Columbus, OH); and George Lugg (REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA); Michaela Garcia (El Centro Su Teatro, Denver, CO); Idris Ackamoor (Cultural Odyssey, San Francisco, CA); Yolanda Cursach (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL). La Red curators: Pilar Ramos (Diva Productions, Lima, Peru) and Roberto Enrique King (Asociación Cultural AlterArte, Ciudad de Panamá)
2. Annual Meetings and Curatorial Trips:
• From April 11-15, 2008, the U.S. curators attended the Costa Rica Festival which was held in conjunction with the meeting of La Red Central Committee. It was a good opportunity to establish new contacts with a Caribbean country with whom PAP has not yet collaborated and reinforce the relationship with our La Red partners. In addition, this trip was particularly valuable as the NPN and LA Red presidents met with the representatives of the HIVOS Foundation to investigate the possibility of raising matching funds for La Red’s PAP component. HIVOS is a Dutch Foundation with a base in Costa Rica that actively supports social and cultural efforts in Latin America. The HIVOS representatives were very impressed with Performing Americas but do not have the structure to fund such large scale projects. They suggested that La Red members apply individually for either regional tours or meetings costs. Pilar Ramos will investigate further how they can best capitalize from this relationship.
3. Curatorial conference call:
To keep the momentum and avoid letting too much time lapse between the Montevideo and Costa Rica trips and the next curators’ meeting at NPAC in June, PAP organized a conference call on May 13, 2008 to discuss the work seen to date. The discussion centered on a few specific groups that the curators wanted to continue to research and practical next steps for artist selection. The curators were concerned they had not seen enough work live to make informed decisions about future tours. George Lugg of REDCAT created a Youtube group on which the curators can post video of work they think is of interest for PAP. This is a tool to help curators share information and create conversations about work outside of the curator trips.
4. 2007-08 Artists’ Residency Tours:
Cristina Moura – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – May 23-31, 2008
Presented by: Cultural Odyssey, San Francisco, CA
After a difficult start due to health issues, the residency proceeded successfully to sold out houses.
5. 2008-09 ACTIVITIES
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has renewed their support to NPN for the next 4 years with some allocations for Performing Americas. In FY08-09 PAP will continue the creative residencies program and the curatorial trips: two to Latin America and two to the United States. During the upcoming summer, NPN and LA Red will select the new set of curators who will travel in FY 09 and will present the touring residencies in FY 09-10.
6. GOALS
• PAP’S short term goal for June/July 08 is to redesign the curatorial selection process to make the artistic selection and consequently the touring component more efficient. This will be done before issuing the call for new curators,
• PAP’s goals for FY 09 is to raise additional funds to re-integrate the touring component during FY09-10 and look at possibilities to address resources inequities between the U.S and Latin America and improving communication and curatorial strategies