NYC Performing Arts Spaces Blog

Performing Artists and Aging, Issues and Challenges

Posted by David Johnston, on October 1, 2009 - 0 comments

Tags: musicians, jazz, lower manhattan, music

The problems of aging performing artists are gaining more attention these days.  The New York Times posted a story about members of the musicians' union, protesting the dearth of pension benefits for those who play in New York City's jazz clubs.  Members of Justice for Jazz Artists!  held a protest rally and march, starting at historic Judson Memorial Church on Tuesday to draw attention to these issues for older jazz musicians. 

Some arts organizations are looking closer at these issues, trying to see what can be done.  The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is hosting a Town Hall Meeting for The Research Center for Arts and Culture (RCAC) at Teachers College, Columbia University. RCAC, a partner on our recent study "Where Can We Work?", is conducting a new study that documents the lives of aging performing artists in New York City and Los Angeles.  The study will address issues from artists’ health care and retirement plans to creative goals and legacy planning. All actors, dancers, choreographers, musicians and singers age 62 and up are encouraged to attend.   Don't forget to RSVP at this link.

Bloom Festival

Posted by David Johnston, on June 2, 2009 - 0 comments

Tags: musicians' residency, performance opportunities, performance space, music facilities, jazz

We don't usually promote too many performances and festivals on this blog -there are tons of great resources and performance calendars out there already - but we make the occasional exception.  Lara Pellegrinelli, who was a panelist for our Con Ed Musicians Residency, is co-curating a jazz festival at the Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which runs through the month of June.  Lara and her co-curator, violist Tanya Kalmanovitch, have already gotten great press for the festival; the New York Times jazz listings, Time Out New York, and the jazz blog for National Public Radio, A Blog Supreme.  Drummer Allison Miller, who has worked with Ani DiFranco and Natalie Merchant, kicks off the Bloom Festival in Park Slope on Thursday.

Jazz + Technology = Jazz.NEXT Grants

Posted by Emily Bowles, on June 1, 2009 - 0 comments

Tags: jazz, grants, technology

NYC Performing Arts Spaces is all for  -- and all about -- the intersection of the arts and technology.  No wonder this caught my eye:

 

"Jazz.NEXT is a national jazz initiative designed to:

 

* encourage the application of technology in substantive and innovative approaches,

 

* broaden and deepen relationships with new and existing audiences,

 

* promote enhanced communications with the public,

 

*more effectively market and distribute the work of jazz artists,

 

*and build links that create a more informed and cohesive jazz community better equipped to meet the challenges of a fast-changing marketplace.

 

Jazz.NEXT is intended to foster creative thinking that can result in the development of new models to help shape future operating practice for jazz artists, organizations, and presenters across the United States.  In recent years the cultural landscape, especially in music, has begun to be transformed by technology. ...Technology holds the potential to have a dramatic, long-term impact for a more sustainable and healthy jazz environment. 

Jazz.NEXT will support project planning and the implementation of fully developed plans that incorporate innovative uses of new technologies towards audience development, communications, distribution, marketing, and network building.  Grants may support plans and projects that are new to the grantees or clearly represent taking their current technology efforts to the next levels of development.  The program will also convene annual meetings among grant recipients to foster dialogue and share information on planning and project development.  Findings that emerge from the program will be disseminated through selected case studies to a broad array of jazz stakeholders, including artists, presenters, service organizations, and funders."

 

Click here for application guidelines.  Round I applications are due July 6, 2009.