Dyeing to Match: Dancewear for Everyone
Dyeing to Match is a national awareness campaign about the lack of new dancewear for darker skin tones. This is an issue of equity and diversity; the dancewear industry produces things that they say are nude but that always are a shade lighter than the skin tones of many of our students and dancers.
Development Dialogue: Watching the Winds
We hear, in whispers and loudly, that political and economic uncertainty, changing corporate priorities and the world’s daily chaos seem to be giving businesses sudden pause and tighter budgets, at least when it comes to the arts. Read more in this month’s Development Dialogue.
Leadership Corner: Dennis Buehler, Executive Director, Oregon Ballet Theatre
Every leader needs a fundamental understanding of how each part intersects and works together in their organization, whether it’s operations, marketing, production, business, they all serve, ultimately, the mission, said Oregon Ballet Theatre Executive Director Dennis Buehler. Read more on leadership here.
Weaving a Future for Inclusive Dance
Judith Smith cofounded AXIS Dance Company in Oakland, Calif., as one of the first contemporary dance companies to create and present dance on dancers with physical disabilities who used wheelchairs, prosthetics and crutches performing alongside nondisabled dancers. In May 2016, AXIS brings together physically integrated dancers and dance companies, presenters, dance service organizations, and funders with expertise in this area for the first time since 1997.
Development Dialogue: Please … And Thank You!
Most arts organizations offer donor benefits to show gratitude and motivate support. Companies typically tie these to the level of giving: the more you give, the more you get. Read on for 11 successful ideas from development colleagues around the country on saying thank you, then feel free to share your own.
Leadership Corner: Melanie Rios Glaser, Artistic Director, The Wooden Floor, Santa Ana, Calif.
Melanie Rios Glaser of The Wooden Floor, which offers dance training and academic and social service support to at-risk youths, discusses collaborative leadership, which is essential in managing her growing Santa Ana-based dance organization as it expands its reach across the country.
Development Dialogue: A Challenge of Legacy:
How to ensure a donor’s legacy continues? What is our responsibility to protect it deep into tomorrow? It’s an interesting challenge for posterity, not to mention for promise making and keeping. Ron Fredman, chief development officer at Kansas City Ballet, has some thoughts.
Leadership Corner: Sixto Wagan, Director, Center for Arts Leadership, University of Houston
“Arts leaders have gone through a period of professionalization in the past decade or more,” said Sixto Wagan, director of the Center for Arts Leadership, University of Houston. Read on for more on leading in the 21st century.
Staying Relevant in a Changing Neighborhood
How can arts organizations more fully reach and engage their communities and audiences? Learn how Philadelphia’s Fleisher Art Memorial revamped its programs in the face of changing neighborhood demographics. Read on for more.
A Cautionary Tale: What Can Happen When Your Personal Video Goes Viral
Who hasn’t shared a fun personal video on social media? Read dancer/choreographer Alexandra Beller’s cautionary tale about what can happen when a personal video goes viral.