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• By Withdrawing Awarded Arts Funding, City of San Antonio Violated Esperanza Center's First Amendment Rights Federal Judge Rules

• What Will it Take to Save the Los Angeles Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture? Suggestions from Arts Advocates

• Conferences:
  NEA Artists in American Life Colloquia: ARTISTS FINDING AN AUDIENCE - Washington, DC
  CROSSING PATHS: A PERFORMING ARTS EDUCATORS FORUM - Indianapolis
• Arts Events:
  SIXTH ANNUAL VISION FESTIVAL 2001: A VISION AGAINST VIOLENCE - THE AVANTJAZZ FESTIVAL - NYC
  CUSUCO - Tujanga, CA

• Funding/Opportunities for Organizations:
  Dance Theater Workshop Announces Outer/Space Recipients
• Opportunities for Artists:
  Nine American Composers Selected for Residencies with Orchestras in Second Round of Music Alive
• Job Opportunities:
  

• Arts Wire Web Reports:
  OPEN HOME: 18TH Street Arts Complex

• Elsewhere on the Net:
  NEA and HUD Award $2.7 Million to Provide Arts Instruction For Youth Living in Public Housing

Judge Orlando Garcia ruled that Esperanza, a 14 year old community arts center, was penalized for expressing its viewpoint, namely the promotion of social and economic justice, through its arts program. The City's decision to remove the group's designated funding from the 1998 budget therefore violated the Constitution's guarantees of freedom of speech and equal protection.

"The specter of government as 'Big Brother' doling out subsidies based on the viewpoints of the recipients should be odious to all Americans, for the point of view officially favored today may be the one censured tomorrow. When dissenting voices are silenced, the public is deprived of their distinctive viewpoint, and thereby inhibited from arriving at its own conclusions uninfluenced by the government's selection of acceptable points of view," Judge Garcia wrote in his decision.

"The decision will open a space in which people of color and lesbian and gay and working class people can come together and find strength and power in their experiences and stories," said Vicky Grise, at the Esperanza Center.

"This is a tremendous victory for the Esperanza Center and for all arts organizations nationwide," emphasized First Amendment Project Executive Director David Greene. "Esperanza has established that cultural funding cannot be used to endorse a single culture or punish unpopular political views."

The lawsuit against the City of San Antonio, filed by the Esperanza Center and two organizations for which Esperanza has acted as fiscal agent -- The San Antonio Lesbian & Gay Media Project, which has presented OUT AT THE MOVIES," a lesbian and gay film festival, and VaN, which was formed for the purpose of bringing visiting artists to San Antonio -- was closely watched by arts and free expression organizations around the country. More than 25 organizations, representing visual artists, musicians, writers, publishers, booksellers, dancers, filmmakers, and theater owners, issued a statement of support for Esperanza when the lawsuit was filed in August 1998. The list has grown to almost 60 in the ensuing two and a half years.

Judge Garcia also found that in its decision making process the city violated the Texas open meetings law which requires that executive and legislative decisions of governmental officials, as well as the underlying reasoning, be discussed openly before the public rather than secretly behind closed doors.

However, because the case was separated into two parts with the Federal case separated from the damages, the Esperanza Center's funding has not yet been restored. According to the Esperanza, the City of San Antonio could either decide to settle or to appeal, but the City has not responded as to what its course of action will be. A response is expected this week.

"It is not true, as the city has stated, that Esperanza has not been hurt by the funding withdrawal," Vicky Grise told Arts Wire. "We have been very hurt, particularly since state funding was decentralized the same year."

The ruling is the first to follow up on the US Supreme Court's decision in National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) v. Finley which analyzed the extent to which government in awarding arts funding could consider the content and viewpoint expressed in an arts organization's presentations.

In NEA v. Finley, the Supreme Court approved a law that required the NEA to consider "general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public". However, that law did not compel the NEA to actually deny any grant application, and the Supreme Court cautioned that if a government were in fact "to leverage its power to award subsidies on the basis of subjective criteria into a penalty on disfavored viewpoints," such an act would violate the First Amendment.

"Small, but vocal groups across the country continue to insist that taxpayers should not support art that offends them. Perhaps, the most egregious example is in New York where Mayor Giuliani has convened a decency commission' to review the work presented by every single arts organization that receives funding from the city," said Svetlana Mintcheva, coordinator of the National Coalition Against Censorship's Arts Advocacy Project. "As a result, this decision which acknowledges that forcing diverse voices into political silence through selectively denying them funding is constitutionally impermissible, resonates strongly on the national level."

In a city which, according to Esperanza, is 70% people of color, (60% Latino/Chicano and 10% African American) the Center integrates art and politics, working to help San Antonians find their voice. ("esperanza" is Spanish for "hope")

Among the Esperanza's many programs are MUJERARTES, a Westside community-arts economic-empowerment project in which low-income women develop artistic skills and produce pottery for sale, and ARTESCUELA: A Youth Community Cultural Arts School where weekly classes for youth ages 12-22 teach multiple media and ways of expressing and exploring -- including storytelling, photography, poetry, drawing, videomaking, writing, music, performance, painting, drumming, oral history, papel picado, digital imaging, and more.

Exhibitions in the Center's gallery provide encouragement to local artists, while exposing San Antonio to otherwise-invisible national and international artists. In 1988, for example, Esperanza presented THE AIDS SERIES, "the first visual art show in San Antonio about a subject no one else wanted to talk about."

This Saturday, in the Plaza, the Esperanza center will celebrate the 85th birthday of Mexican American musician Lidia Mendoza, also known as "La Cancionera de los Pobres" (The Songstress of the Poor) and "La Alondra de la Frontera". (The Meadowlark of the Border)

"We take the work that happens here, within the walls out to the streets, have dialogues around culture and art and politics and how they effect how lives," says Vicky Grise.

The Center's mission states that "The people of Esperanza dream of a world where everyone has civil rights and economic justice, where the environment is cared for, where cultures are honored and communities are safe. The Esperanza Center advocates for those wounded by domination and inequality -- women, people of color, lesbians and gay men, the working class and poor. We believe in creating bridges between people by exchanging ideas and educating and empowering each other. We believe it is vital to share our visions of hope. we are esperanza."

Sources/resources:

Orlando L. Garcia
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO DIVISION ESPERANZA PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER, a Non-Profit Corporation, THE SAN ANTONIO LESBIAN & GAY MEDIA PROJECT, an Unincorporated Association, and VaN, an Unincorporated Association, Plaintiffs, vs CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, and HOWARD PEAK, in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of San Antonio
OPINION ONLINE - http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb
Choose "Please select a district"; in the drop-down menu, select "Western District of Texas"; click on the "Proceed to CourtWeb" button; scroll down to the date box and change the dates to 05/15/01 and 05/15/01; (leave other data fields blank) click on the "Run Report" button.

THE ESPERANZA PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER -- http://www.esperanzacenter.org

THE FIRST AMENDMENT PROJECT -- http://www.thefirstamendment.org

NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP -- http://www.ncac.org

"Esperanza Files Injunction Against City of San Antonio"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- -- http://www.artswire.org/current/1998/cur091598.html
September 15, 1998

Although many in the Mexican American community have been critical both of the museum's operations and of its failure to integrate its exhibitions with the community, arts advocates in this community continue to believe that not only is there still a vital role for the museum but also that the opportunity to recreate the museum still exists.

"The museum is important to the community because it would serve to house the culture and history of the community helping to establish and provide, especially for our youth a connection and link to their history. Giving ownership and pride necessary for cultivating and building a sense of civic pride and sense of belonging. Fostering a positive connection to the Arts that would also help provide a community make-over. Utilizing our own culture to seed programs that would also attract tourism, " say consultant Jimmy deChirico and artist Margaret Garcia.

Margaret Garcia recently installed a tile collage at the Universal City Metro Station. The mural depicts the history of California, from it's indigenous past, through it's founding Mexican forefathers up to the end of the Mexican American War in California -- including a written text of the history as well as visual portraits of the people involved.

Jimmy deChirico is a non-profit organizational development consultant who has been serving the Los Angeles region for over 20 years. He is presently working on sustainable economic plans for Baja California Mexico Indian Tribes and training their Councils on how to manage change and their newly structured NGO's.

They would like to see the museum begin by providing exhibitions in Precolonial art, traditional arts, (including Spanish colonial) contemporary art, as well as art made in the United States by Latino/Mexicano Artists such as Jose Antonio Aguirre.

Their vision encompasses a museum which seldom closes it's doors, and they suggest a minimum of two exhibitions running simultaneously so that when a new show is being hung the other one will still be in place -- "So that there will always be an exhibition in place."

They also envision a museum anchored with a permanent collection which could include, they suggest, work by Los Four; (Frank Romero, Gilbert Lujan, Carlos Almaraz and Beto De La Rocha) Asco; (Gronk, Harry Gamboa, Patssi Valdez, Diane Gamboa and Willie Heron) as well as Luis Jimenez; Yreina Cervantez; Carmen Lomas Garza; Elsa Flores; Cesar Martinez; Margaret Garcia; Salomon Huerta; John Valadez; Alfredo De Batuc; and many more local Chicano Artists.

"There is a need to exhibit local artists born in Mexico but raised here and who now call this place home as new citizens," they state. They also think that the many Latino Artists who have become part of the Chicano community could be included.

"Tourists want to see our multi-cultured communities and museums and hang out there," Jimmy deChirico and Margaret Garcia note in a joint statement for Arts Wire CURRENT. "They are tired of Disneylands, Sea Worlds, Universal Studios."

As documented extensively in the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the museum was deeply in debt when it shut down. Many employees have still not been paid and money is owed to many creditors. A number of law suits are pending. A bill to reallocate $1.6 million of funding (which was originally earmarked as is customary for education operating expenses) was vetoed by Governor Gray Davis on the grounds that it would set a bad precedent. (by allowing dollars specifically allocated for one purpose to be used for museum operations)

According to the LA Times, museum officials were counting on the money to pay off several hundred thousand dollars owed to employees and creditors.

"People still haven't been paid, Jimmy deChirico, who was a consultant on the project, told Arts Wire. "There is lack of leadership, lack of planning, no evaluation, no credibility, poor practices." He believes that part of the problem is that the board receives no training. Among other things, he recommends that they utilize the American Association of Museums' (AAM) consultation program; that they develop strategic plans and measure them on a quarterly basis.

On November 17, 2000 in a letter to the California Governor, Attorney General and Legislative Leaders, Margaret Garcia asked for an investigation of improper activities and she called attention to "a need to conduct a Joint Legislative Audit to the allegations that plague The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture."

She wrote: "They failed to live to their promise of serving the Mexican-American community with a Museum showcasing or preserving our Mexican heritage and community art or providing educational opportunities. What happened to the creation of the Latino Heritage Resource Center? Funds were allocated for this purpose. What art have they bought from the Mexican -American artists to preserve our Latino culture here in Los Angeles?"

The State Board of Education, (under whose jurisdiction the matter is, according to the State) did investigate the matter, Garcia told Arts Wire. They told her that they found nothing wrong, but they wouldn't provide her with any of the details of the audit.

"I feel like we've hit a brick wall," she says.

Pointing to a lack of understanding of how to secure arts funding and to the lack of connection to the Chicano arts community, in particular a focus on mainly exhibiting out of town artists, Armando Duran, who has been collecting Los Angeles Chicano art for twenty years, wrote last year on LATINOLA.COM (in an article first published on AZTLANNET's Mental Menudo) that even though other institutions such as Self-Help graphics and the newly reopened Plaza's Boathouse Gallery have begun to take up the slack, he believes that "the Chicano community would again respond [to TLM] if approached by people they know to be honest and forthright about the goal of establishing a true museum that they can be proud of."

This museum is important to the entire Los Angeles region not only because of the high population and contributions of Mexican-Americans and Latinos to the making of Los Angeles but because of the commitment made over 15 years ago in the development of this museum, say deChirico and Garcia. "This community waited a long time for this to be built and only to be let down hard."

Last winter, the board of trustees accepted the resignation of board president and museum founding father Charles Calderon, according to the LA Times which reports that new board members are Yvaniza Abaunza, an independent film producer; David Maciel, professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Dominguez Hills; Carlos Haro, assistant dean of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) international programs; and Teresa McKenna, professor of English at the University of Southern California. (USC) Remaining from the previous board are Juan Gomez-Quinones, a professor of history at UCLA; Anna Maria Araujo, former community relations officer for KNBC-TV; and Estanislao Sosa, president of digital content company Trifecta Content Group Inc.

According to the NEW YORK TIMES, the board has been meeting about once a week since the museum closed. They told the NY Times that they are talking with potential donors and negotiating to renew a lease of the building's parking lot to raise money. If that money comes through, they will be able to use a state grant of $300,000 to open the museum for educational programs.

"The city always deserved to have a museum dedicated to the Latino people," the NY Times quotes Independent film producer Yvaniza Abaunza, who was elected to the board in December, as saying. "I believe that this museum will not only open its doors, but will survive."

She is spearheading the museum's fund-raising and looking toward hiring a director of development and building an endowment.

However, because the new board is primarily academics and business people, many in the artist community are still looking for a voice in the museum's rebirth.

"Everyone wants to save the Museum. Artists communicating on Atzlan.net have come up with plans, but they were not taken seriously," says Jimmy deChirico.

Both deChirico and Margaret Garcia support the idea of changing the name and focus from TLM to Mexican Museum, "so long as the definition allowed for the widest interpretation possible. This way work that showed it's connection and influence to Mexico could be included without putting borders on the work. People like Tony Gleaton whose work the Smithsonian has toured could be included, as it has documented La Tercera Raize in Mexico. As well as Chicano Artists born in the United States."

Jimmy deChirico and Margaret Garcia strongly believe that:

• "A museum does more than provide exhibition space. It helps nurture the Arts by also nurturing the Artists and community, not only in the visual Arts but in the performing Arts as well.

• Museums should be a place where artists and students are invited to come to and feel at home and work on projects without fear. This should be a place where people could hang out and create their works (as they do in other museums in other countries).

• A Museum should have a support system for the local educators as well as the historian and researcher.

• A Museum must provide an educational program that helps connect the community to the work being exhibited. Teacher/Student lessons plans should be made prior to the field trip to the Museum. So the students can enjoy a full impact of the study of the arts and not just get out of the class room. They will have a real experience and report back to the Museum on what they learned. This follow-up should be posted and showcased.

• A Museum should have connections with local art businesses -- a partnership program with artists, suppliers, etc., that shares in driving the arts economics for use in the community. (merchants as well as artists).

• As a people it important to be self aware and consider what it is we are leaving to our people -- sort of like a time capsule kept in the local museum.

• The museum affirms that we must give and financially support it, and provide positively for the community and for the generations to come. It really helps to understand what was here before in our communities -- we must preserve the contributions of local history, art and culture of our communities. When people understand what was here they feel a sense of pride of what others left and living here."

Sources/resources:

LATINO MUSEUM OF HISTORY, ART AND CULTURE
Among shows the museum hosted before it closed were the work of Paul Sierra (a Cuban-American artist from Chicago) AN AMERICAN LEADER--CESAR E. CHAVEZ; ARGENTINE PATHWAYS; DAY OF THE DEAD; and 100 YEARS OF MEXICAN CHROMO ART CALENDARS

Non Profit Organizational Development Consultant JIMMY DECHIRICO can be contacted at Email: Itsjimid@aol.com tel: 626-287-4580

MARGARET GARCIA, Public Memorandum
is available on AZTLANNET at http://www.aztlannet.com
About her work, which has focused on the portrait, she writes: "I say I have been documenting my community one at a time. To be able to reveal the individual with in the community. To see us one at a time without cliches or stereotypes. To know there are filmmakers, and authors and artists and not just sleeping Mexicans, gang bangers, and all the other negative stereotypes the media has provided."

Lorenza Munoz
"Latino Museum Struggles to Pay Debt"
LOS ANGELES TIMES -- http://www.latimes.com
August 26, 2000

Lorenza Munoz
"Long Road Lies Ahead for Latino Museum"
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES -- http://www.latimes.com
February 7, 2001

Armando Duran
"How We Got Here The exclusion of local artists is faulted as the Latino Museum's problems, according to art collector"
LATINOLA.COM -- http://www.latinola.com/latinomuseum.html
Originally published on AztlanNet's "Mental Menudo" -- http://www.aztlannet.com
Subscribe at http://www.egroups.com/group/AztlanNet

Marina Dundjerski
"Culture-Rich but Cash-Poor, a Latino Museum Closes"
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/02/arts/02DUND.html
May 2, 2001

"Are Chicanos the same as Mexicans?" -- http://www.azteca.net/aztec/chicano.html
a discussion of the identity vocabulary

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS (AAM) -- http://www.aam-us.org

SELF-HELP GRAPHICS -- http://www.selfhelpgraphics.com

Arts Wire welcomes other viewpoints on the TLM - Send them to jmalloy@artswire.org

NEA ARTISTS IN AMERICAN LIFE COLLOQUIA:
ARTISTS FINDING AN AUDIENCE

Begun last fall, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ARTISTS IN AMERICAN LIFE COLLOQUIA explore the creative process and professional needs of and opportunities for individual artists.

On May 22, a colloquium on ARTISTS FINDING AN AUDIENCE will explore who the audience is; the effect of commercialism on the artist's work; differences between distributed art and performed art; and the role of technology in finding an audience.

Panelists are:

Kate Horsfield, Executive Director, Video Data Bank, Chicago, IL
Maurine Knight, Executive Director, Kings Majestic Corporation, Brooklyn, NY
John O'Brien, Founder/Publisher, Dalkey Archive Press, Normal, IL
Bill Rauch, Artistic Director/Co-Founder, Cornerstone Theater Company, Los Angeles, CA
Sekou Sundiata, poet and performer, Bronx, NY

For more information, visit: http://www.arts.gov/endownews/news01/colloquia.html

CROSSING PATHS: A PERFORMING ARTS EDUCATORS FORUM

Convening in Indiana, a state whose motto is "The Crossroads of America," CROSSING PATHS '01 will focus on the benefits of collaboration among performing arts educators and within local communities. Opera, music, dance, theatre,and multi-disciplinary education professionals will gather from around the country to exchange ideas and discuss common educational issues.-- concentrating on the issues of creative participation, collaboration; leadership; and the artist.

Presentations will include:

JULY 26, 2001 - 4:00 PM

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: LIZ LERMAN
"Art is big, dance is big, beauty is big, and nothing is too small to notice." Combining dance with realistic imagery, Liz Lerman's works are defined by the questions: who gets to dance; what are they dancing about; where is the dance happening; and why does it matter? These same questions face each of our disciplines each time we prepare to engage communities in our education programs. In her presentation, she will draw on personal experience, philosophy, political, and social commentary, and her experiences of working with communities.
Since 1976, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has "astounded, delighted,and challenged audiences nationally and internationally with pioneering approaches to dancemaking,public participation, and audience encouragement.

FRIDAY, JULY 27

CREATIVE PARTICIPATION WORKSHOP AND BREAKOUT SESSIONS
"Among the many interactions that arts organizations have with their audiences, the ability to inspire them to dance, compose, and perform has unique benefits for whole communities." Building on existing expertise in addressing participation by K-12 audiences, this session will address ways in which strategic collaborations may increase opportunities for audiences of all ages to actively participate in the creative process.
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will guide participants in a series of highly interactive small group workshops.

WHAT IS COLLABORATION AND WHY DO IT ANYWAY? AN INTERACTIVE EXPLORATION INTO THE POSSIBILITIES AND PITFALLS OF PARTNERSHIP
"Seeking out common cause with like-minded organizations in the community seems essential to effective,ethical,and intelligent arts administration. Why,then dl of the person. The intersection of personal beliefs and organizational missions will be clarified. You will learn tools and strategies for diagnosing an organization and its environment, and for helpful actions.
David O 'Fallon is the Executive Director of the Perpich Center for Arts Education,a state agency whose mission is innovative, public education,centered in the arts. He was the Director for the Arts in Education Program for the National Endowment for the Arts from 1989-1992.

PRIMING AN INFINITE RESOURCE: TRAINING ARTISTS FOR WORK IN COMMUNITIES, SCHOOLS AND THE BUSINESS SECTOR
Participants will examine how to most effectively use and develop the teaching skills of artists.
Singer/composer John Cimino will offer his perspective on three contemporary arts arenas -- outreach sites, schools, and corporate conferences -- and help us envision the skill sets and personal qualities artists need to be effective in these settings.
John J.Cimino, Jr. is director of Creative Leaps International and founding president and CEO of its parent company Associated Solo Artists, Inc.

Plus sessions on WHAT IS A PERFORMING ARTS EDUCATOR? with David O 'Fallon; TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS with Travis DiNicola; a Closing Session on WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? and a student performance of PYRAMID OF DREAMS, an original composition created by young artists in collaboration with arts professionals which includes dance, theatre, music,and the visual arts.

The National Co-Hosts for Crossing Paths '01 are: American Symphony Orchestra League; Association of Performing Arts Presenters; Chamber Music America; Chorus America; Dance/USA; OPERA America; and Theatre Communications Group.

For more information, visit the DANCE/USA WEB SITE at http://www.danceusa.org/

SIXTH ANNUAL VISION FESTIVAL 2001
A VISION AGAINST VIOLENCE - THE AVANTJAZZ FESTIVAL

"....a town meeting where all kinds of artists and audiences and performers come together"

300 leading avantjazz creators from around the world -- representing three generations of jazz history and contemporary innovation -- will gather at the Sixth Annual Vision Festival to present 13 days of performances.

The festival will feature many current leaders in avantjazz, including tenor saxophonist David S. Ware; the Matthew Shipp Quartet with Leo Wadada Smith; William Parker with his new Quartet; (and special guest Clyde Kerr from New Orleans) Billy Bang's new VisionStrings; Other Dimensions in Music; The Rob Brown Trio; Joe McPhee's Trio X; and the Joe Morris Trio.

A special Memorial Day tribute to the late, great saxophonist Frank Wright will features his band, and other associates such as New Orleans saxophone legend Kidd Jordan and South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, who has not been heard in New York since the 1960s.

Utilizing the Knitting Factory Main space and Old Office for concerts and the KnitActive space for special dance/music improvisations, poetry slams and programs on social justice, the Vision Festival will be presenting more performances than ever before. Spoken word performances will be a part of each evening. Dance is concentrated in the Knitactive space but will be featured on the other stages throughout the festival. Visual artists will transform the spaces and collaborate with musicians and dancers. In all senses, the spaces will be activated with work both tangential and specific to the theme "A Vision Against Violence."

The festival's three-day finale at the Angel Orensanz Art Center will welcome musical performers from outside the jazz world. These artists include indie rock favorites Yo La Tengo; (in tandem with the Downtown Horns) underground icon Chan Marshall aka Cat Power and; turntablist crew the X-ecutioners.

On June 2 and 3, in collaboration with Anthology Film Archives, an accompanying VISION FILM SERIES is inaugurated. "In the wake of - shall we say - rather valid criticism of Ken Burns' Jazz, a few gaps in the living story of Jazz are here filled, and some of the better questions answered," the Vision Festival states.

The program will include:

Moira Tierney
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN, (2000, 1 minute, 16mm) an eye-level audience account of the Cecil Taylor and Max Roach concert held on the lawn at Columbia University last summer.

Ebba Jahn
RISING TONES CROSS (1984, 120 minutes) rare screening of a film that offers vital insight into a relatively undocumented period of avant-garde jazz in NYC: a culmination of the loft jazz era; before the Knitting Factory came into being. Partly filmed during the Sound Unity Festival of 1984, (which was the predecessor of the Vision Fest) the film features performance footage of groups led by Don Cherry, Charles Tyler, William Parker, Peter Kowald, Billy Bang, Peter Brotzmann, Alan Silva, Marshall Allen, and Archie Shepp as well as an intimate documentary of "pre-discovery" Charles Gayle and interviews with Parker and Kowald.

Arts for Art, the presenting organization behind the annual Vision Festival, fosters an ongoing dialogue between all kinds of artists and art forms, seeking in the multidisciplinary mesh of music, dance, visual art, poetry and social activism a creative sum that is greater than its individual parts.

Advance tickets for May 24 through June 2 are available at the Knitting Factory tel: 212-219-3006 Tickets for the Vision Film Series Saturday & Sunday, June 2 & 3 available at Anthology Film Archives tel: 212-505-5181

For a complete schedule, visit http://www.visionfestival.org or send email to info@visionfestival.org or visit citysearch.com at http://newyork.citysearch.com/roundup/37430

CUSUCO

"As a band, Cusuco delights its audience with infectious high energy music that get the most unlikely people toe-tapping. As an educational tool, it presents listeners with an aural cornucopia of musical styles from various cultural traditions, which are brought forth with compelling bits of history and fascinating anecdotes. From early California contradanzas, played at the local haciendas in the last century, to the rally songs well known to soccer game crowds in little towns in El Salvador today, Cusuco takes its audience on an interactive musical journey through the Americas of past and present."

Cusuco was born in 1995 at the California Institute of the Arts, where founding members Alex and Julissa Bozman were students in the music department. The Bozmans had long been interested in the folk music Latin America, researching and collecting the stringed instruments and flutes used in the folk music of Julissa's native El Salvador. Cusuco grew out of a request for Mariachi music at an Institute function. Together with guitarist Marco Alvirez, the Bozmans quickly recruited a large and enthusiastic band. Some other founding members, particularly guitarist Marco Alvirez, were familiar with many styles of Mexican folk music and were able to guide the group in those directions. Joao Junqueira brought music of his native Brasil to the group.

The program is presented by the Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library present -- part of a monthly series during which the Friends will bring live music to the library on fourth Tuesdays. The program is free and all are welcome.

Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) has announced the first recipients of its newly created Outer/Space initiative - a program to subsidize artist rehearsal space in the outer boroughs.

The 2001 Outer/Space grant recipients are:

THE BRONX ACADEMY OF ARTS AND DANCE (BAAD!) a joint project of dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles, his company Typical Theater and the Point Community Development Corporation, in 1998, the project converted 3,500 square feet of raw warehouse space in the legendary American Banknote Building into a workshop/rehearsal and performance space.

SPOKE THE HUB, based in Park Slope Brooklyn, serves as a multi-dimensional "home" for working artists of all disciplines. The space offers a 1,500 square foot studio for rehearsals and performances and is host to a variety of classes, workshops and festivals.

TOPAZ ARTS INC., a nonprofit, multi-faceted arts center located in Woodside, Queens, occupies 2,500 sq. feet of warehouse space and aims to provide artists with an ecological, affordable oasis for dance/audio/media and visual arts.

TRISKELION ARTS, managed by the five members of the KICK/STAND Co., is located in the hub of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The facility offers 1,300 square feet of studio space at affordable rates to local artists. In the coming months, Triskelion is slated to undergo further renovations to accommodate low-tech performances.

UNION STREET DANCE, (USD) based in Park Slope, is home of the Eva Dean Dance Company, and provides rehearsal space for other performing artists. USD offers its' 1,000 square foot studio at reasonable rates and also administrates a space grant program which awards free rehearsal time to selected artists for the creation of new work.

WILLIAMSBURG ART NEXUS (WAX), is a multidisciplinary arts facility with a fully equipped, professional theater available for rehearsals, visual art exhibits and performances. The space is co-managed by Marisa Beatty, Brian Brooks, Melissa Rodnon and David Tirosh and has already served hundreds of artists since its inception just one year ago.

For more information about Outer/Space, visit The Dance Theater Workshop WEB SITE at http://www.dtw.org

Opportunities for Artists

Heather A. Hitchens, president of Meet The Composer, and Jesse Rosen, chief program officer of the American Symphony Orchestra League, have announced the selection of nine American composers and orchestras to participate in the second season of the innovative national residency program, Music Alive -- Composers and Orchestras Together.

The program was created to generate ongoing, long-term support by symphony orchestras for today's composers and their music.

The nine participating orchestras represent a variety of geographic areas and budget sizes. The residencies (of two to five weeks in duration) begin in the fall of 2001 and extend through spring of 2002.

The participants are: