Dec. 8, 2010

Dear PWNW friends,

We have had such a busy, full, and productive 10^th anniversary year that we were too tuckered out to put together the more fancy end-of–the-year newsletter many of you have enjoyed in the past.

Wait—ten years? WOW.  As a sample, just look at the profusion of goings-on since last January!

• 6 productions in the Alembic Series of Guest-Curated Events
• Linda Austin’s Paired Spectacular
• 2 Boris & Natasha Cabarets
• 2 rousing fundraiser performances: last January’s Distillled & the August Richard Foreman Fest
• Space rental program: rehearsal, class, workshops and performance at the best rates in town.

Multiply that level of activity times 10 years to get a fuller picture of the impact our feisty organization has had on the Portland performance scene. Pretty good for an organization with an annual budget of less than $50,000, and one that actually pays the artists! We want to thank all of you supporters, donors, audience members and artists for making 2010 (and the previous decade) possible.

The future:  During the next 10 years, we promise to continue to foster the experimental performing and time arts here at PWNW, but how we do this is undergoing a shift. Expect changes next season!

The sensing of one decade ending and another beginning often brings a turning point. For me it is realizing how often I have ignored the beckoning of my own work while holding down a teaching job and running PWNW, working without salary to present artists in Holy Goats, Alembic and the Cabaret. Lately, reflecting on my age and wondering how many years of active physical abilities I have remaining—I come to a turning. For the time being, it is giving up the presenting role and turning toward a more wholehearted re-dedication to my own process. Please see the the  A Head of Time site for a way to get involved!

What does this mean in terms of how PWNW will fulfill its mission of advancing the performing arts of our area? First, with more time and devotion, the work of Linda Austin Dance will grow and flower, we hope, into a more thoroughly realized and articulated form. Second, we are brainstorming these ideas:

• A local Artist-in-Residence each year—free rehearsal space & a chance to share process!
• A visiting Artist-in-Residence each year—but we have to come up with a place for her or him to live! Anyone have a trailer to donate? Or do you live nearby and have a spare room?
• A curated series of performance, the PWNW space offered at subsidized rates, i.e. almost free!

The goal is to support artists while easing the deadline-driven presenting work I have been intent on these past years. What makes these new programs possible is our space. But we need YOU to make the space available for these non-income-generating actions by making a tax-deductible donation. Click HERE to donate online. Or send a check to PWNW, 4625 SE 67th Ave. Portland, OR  97206.

In the meantime, we still have these performances to look forward to in 2011:

The Alembic Series:
Danielle Ross curates Bay Area artists March 18-20. Portland ex-pat Drew Pizarra invites us to drink white wine and enjoy Gertrude Stein April 29 & 30 (Alice B. Toklas’s birthday). A piece by NYC-based Karen Bernard is matched with new work by Lisa Radon & Tim DuRoche May 20-22. Seth Nehil gathers artists working in different genres to deal with the “grotesque” June 10-12.  And don’t forget Distilled: our January 8 Alembic fundraiser!

Also mark your calendars for a show dedicated to the traces of the choreographic process at the Art Gym: Called Before, After, During, it features work by Linda K. Johnson,  Susan Banyas and others. It opens April 3 with a performance and installation by Linda Austin Dance, the first in-progress public outing of our new work, A Head of Time, which premieres fall 2011.

We thank you again, wish you a happy 2011 and hope to hear from you and see you at an event soon.

Linda Austin
PWNW Executive and Artistic Director