CounterPulse
For General Support Of The Performing Diaspora Program
-
Amount$70,000
-
Program
-
Date Awarded11/17/2008
-
Term24.0 Months
-
Type of SupportGeneral Support/Program
Overview
CounterPULSE (San Francisco, CA) produces and presents dance, theater, music, and multimedia performances at its ninety-seat venue in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Founded as 848 Community Space in 1992, the organization develops new work and provides fiscal sponsorship, subsidized rehearsal and performance space, and comprehensive production support to hundreds of emerging local artists. Reaching an annual audience of 11,000, CounterPULSE occupies a particularly important niche in San Francisco’s dance community by cultivating young and raw talent making its way to more established venues, and by presenting experimental work that would not be seen anywhere else.
The Performing Diaspora project will leverage the tremendous cultural diversity of the Bay Area to create new work in traditional art forms. While there are many organizations and events that exist to preserve the artistic traditions of the region’s immigrant groups (Hewlett grantees like the Ethnic Dance Festival, Ballet Afsaneh and Chinese Cultural Productions, for example), there are not many outlets for artists to experiment and even challenge the precepts of such cultural work. Thus, the Performing Diaspora will, over the course of two years select artists from various traditions – including kathak, taiko, kulintang and Cambodian or Guinean dance forms - to develop work throught Counterpulse’s residency program, to present it in a symposium forum for academics and cultural critics, to present in-progress versions to the public and then to develop full-length pieces for a three-week festival in 2010.
(New, $70,000/2; 25% of organizational budget)
About the Grantee
Grantee Website
www.counterpulse.org
Address
80 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
Grants to this Grantee
for an equity, inclusion, and diversity capacity-building project
CounterPulse supports emerging artists and cultural innovators engaged in the creation of cutting-edge and contemporary performance artists. This organizational effectiveness grant supports internal capacity building to deepen the organization’s awareness, knowledge, skill, policies and practices around equity, inclusion, and diversity. Strengthening an organizations’ equity-focused competencies supports its practices and outcomes and contributes to a Bay Area arts ecosystem that has examined and reflects an understanding of equity in the arts. Support for CounterPulse advances the Performing Arts Program’s Communities Strategy.
for general operating support
CounterPulse supports emerging artists and cultural innovators engaged in the creation of cutting-edge and contemporary performance artists. The organization commissions and produces new work, provides fiscal sponsorship services, and subsidizes rehearsal and performance space for a community of 1,000 artists that largely identify as part of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or disabled communities. In a typical year, CounterPulse performances and classes engage more than 15,000 audience and community members at its 10,000-square-foot facility in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. This grant advances the Performing Arts Program’s Communities strategy.
for executive transition
CounterPulse had been a long time grantee of the Performing Arts Program, with strong programs and leadership, and diverse audiences and participants. After 14 years, Executive & Artistic Director, Jessica Robinson-Love, announced her resignation, with a thoughtful six-month transition plan. Because the organization is in the midst of a major capital fundraising plan for its new facility, this transition is a critical opportunity to build its capacity. The board convened a transition committee and has appointed an experienced Interim Executive Director, Julie Phelps, who will become Artistic Director once the new ED is hired in early 2015. In addition, CounterPulse hired Kegan Marling (formerly of Dances Group) to serve an Interim Managing Director. Finally, the board is hiring a executive search consulting firm with experience in the arts to recruit a new qualified leader. Hewlett support is requested for this entire transition plan and staffing.
