Dear friend of PWNW & Linda Austin Dance,
As we close out a complex and rich 15th Anniversary Year, we are filled with gratitude at having been able to spend time with you. You helped us celebrate! You attended performances, fundraisers and parties. You offered resources of enthusiasm, time, money–and wine! All of this makes us tingle with excitement and confidence as we embark into another 15 years of avid experimentation in the live arts. ¡Gracias!
That was a collective thank you from PWNW and all the artists––regional, national and international––whose research and making during the last decade and a half has been nurtured by affordable rehearsal and performance space, workshops for personal and professional growth, residencies offering the gift of time and space, and opportunities to share work both informally and in full presentations by PWNW. Also a chorus of thanks comes from the kids who have been dancing/playing/moving in the class taught by keyon gaskin and Jen Hackworth!
Now I speak as an individual artist whose courage has been fortified by your generosity:
I thank you deeply for making possible the growth of my solo and ensemble work since 1998, when I moved back to Oregon after more than two decades in New York. Setting my creative stake in the place I came from has meant the world to me, and it couldn’t have happened without your support!
I also offer a heartfelt shout-out to the Regional Arts & Culture Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship, awarded a year ago. This honor lifted my spirits immensely and enabled a more fluid planning process around projects such as my current three-year, three-phase dance (Un)Made, plus a collaborative exchange with an artist from Mexico, both of which will continue to flourish during 2016 and 2017. Thanks also to the Oregon Arts Commission Career Opportunity Grant, which assisted my travels to Mexico last summer to perform in a festival of contemporary dance.
Most of you know that small organizations like ours don’t have development staff––in fact, many of you know our sole “staff” is me!––so we count on individual donors like you to keep the work going, and you have not let us down. Your support will be more important than ever in the coming year, as our glorious three-year SEED grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has come to an end. Luckily our low overhead makes it possible to stretch our resources, subsidize space rentals and offer recompense to the artists who work directly with us––all with an annual budget that equals about one tenth of what a major ballet company spends on toe shoes! You can check out just what kind of bang you get for your buck by supporting PWNW in the look back at 2015 just below
At this solstice turning, we trust in your help to buoy us up in 2015 and beyond.
To make a year-end tax-deductible, send a check by Dec. 31 to PWNW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., Portland OR, 97206, or visit us online at pwnw-pdx.org/support. PLUS, receive a direct tax credit against your Oregon tax bill by making a matching contribution to the Oregon Cultural Trust by Dec. 31! www.culturaltrust.org/donate
Happy Holidays!
What Happened in 2015Residencies, performances and workshops by Meg Wolfe (LA), La Barbacoa (Mexico), ilvs strauss (Seattle), Claire Whistler (U.K., collaborating with local Jen Mitas), Rebecca Davis (NYC), and Alembic Artists Nancy Ellis, Dora Gaskill and Stephanie Trotter (Portland). Linda Austin’s (Un)Made Solo Relay, performed monthly March through August featuring a constellation of local stars too numerous to list! Music by out-of town experimentalists Henry Kaiser (co-presented by CMG) and Probosci, plus a record release party by locals CATFISH. PWNW as host these productions: Rich Rubin/Damaris Webb’s Cottonwood in the Flood, Push Leg’s AVOIDANCE, a collaborative touring project Dear Armen, and LACUNA visiting artists Antibody Corporation. Two Alembic Co-Productions funded by the Fred Fields fund of the Oregon Community Foundation: Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater’s ICONS and Alice Gosti’s Protecting the herd. A solo version by Linda Austin of her 2012 A head of time, premiering in Mexico and then paired up with a wonderful set of balloon music by Judy Dunaway here at PWNW. Fun/Fuck, two duets based on the same score, by Lucy Yim and Taka Yamamoto joined by Linda Austin and Karen Nelson. Two 15th Anniversary Party/Fundraisers—one with pinball and one with pie! Thank you Karl Lind, Linda Hutchins/John Montague and all performers and volunteers Dance/Play/Move Classes for kids |
What’s Happening in 2016Jan. 19-March 8 (WINTER SESSION) Feb. 1: Applications Due for 2016 Alembic Resident Artists –MORE INFO SOON. Feb 20 & 21 Feb. 26-27 September November 11-20 at Shaking the Tree |
Performance Works NW || Linda Austin Dance 