December 31, 2002
Volume #11 No. #50
Judy Malloy, Editor
jmalloy@nyfa.org

2002 -- THE ARTS YEAR IN REVIEW

INDEX TO ARTS WIRE CURRENT - 2002

2002 Art News in Review - Introduction
An index allows access to information -- such as descriptions of artists websites or access to information about employment in the arts sector -- which might not be considered high priority in a summary of the year's news highlights, but which nevertheless is of core importance to the community. An index also offers equal access to stories which range from a $100 million bequest to POETRY Magazine; to the establishment of a scholarship honoring a North Carolina poet.

Thus the few words of news summary, which begin this Index to NYFA Current's (formerly Arts Wire Current) coverage of the 2002 art news, are only a beginning. They are an introduction to inclusive documentation which presents the 2002 Arts Year in Review in the form of an extensive index of the year's issues, artists, art works, arts organizations, arts funders, and arts events.
AS THE YEAR DRAWS TO A CLOSE, WE REMEMBER THAT....

In January, in Utah, at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's HERE.NOW took its inspiration from the life of runner Florence Griffith Joyner. HERE.NOW was choreographed by Artistic Director Judith Jamison who noted:

"I want to capture her spirit, her beauty. FloJo was a gifted athlete and her talents led to great achievements. But she was also a beautiful, glamorous individual and an inspiration to young athletes; that's want I want to portray in the ballet."

From March - May, 2002, almost 4,000 people participated in IMAGINE NEW YORK: GIVING VOICE TO THE PEOPLE'S VISIONS, a project of the Municipal Art Society and a coalition of organizations and citizens who seek imaginative ideas for Ground Zero, the place where the World Trade Center Towers once stood. In 230 public workshops, on an interactive web site, by mail and by email, nearly 19,000 ideas were collected. These ideas -- from two 110-foot high statues, one of a policeman and the other of a fireman; to a place of peace and community gathering where workshops, music, lectures, art exhibits, poetry readings, and gardening create a sense of renewal and life -- were collected by Imagine New York and presented to the public.

Fostering both diversity and the expansion of the art form -- through support of works that are experimental and which push the boundaries of theatrical expression -- in the summer of 2002 in San Francisco, the ANNUAL BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL featured staged readings of seven new plays by local and national playwrights, including DOG ACT by Liz Duffy Adams; EYES OF THE HEART by Catherine Filloux; and RIDING THE BULL by August Schulenburg.

In the Fall of 2002, in Seattle, PULL FOCUS, PUSHING FORWARD, the 2002 National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) Conference addressed now and future media environments, with guests including Arlene Goldbard and Don Adams; poet/filmmaker Sherman Alexie; and DeeDee Halleck, Founder of Paper Tiger and Deep Dish TV.

In November, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) launched a new website, NYFA INTERACTIVE, including the all-new NYFA SOURCE, an extensive databank of grants, residencies, publications, and sources of information and assistance for artists of all disciplines.

Also this year:

In New York City, sonic pioneers of the Kitchen's early days joined a new generation of composers in ELECTRONIC X-TRAVAGANZA.

The Kronos Quartet -- to celebrate its upcoming 30th anniversary -- initiated a commissioning and composer-in-residence program for composers under 30 Years of age.

At airports in Nashville, Chicago, and Austin, the music of area musicians helped ease the tension caused by the long lines and security measures engendered by September 11.

To celebrate the publication of SHORT FUSE: A GLOBAL ANTHOLOGY OF NEW FUSION POETRY, (Rattapallax Press) poets from the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, India, France, Budapest, Wales, and the United States, among many other nations, gathered in New York City to participate in FUSE WEEK.

In Philadelphia at the College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference, Hans Haacke, Dale Kinney, Miriam Schapiro, and Roger Shimomura Received CAA Distinguished Artist/Teacher Awards.

On the Boston Common, TEMPORAL MEMORIAL, a series of lighted lanterns -- created by artist and architect Sandra Vieira, working with the homeless community -- commemorated homeless individuals of Boston who have passed away during the year.

Architecture for Humanity invited architects and designers around the world to develop plans for a fully equipped, mobile medical unit and HIV/AIDS treatment center for use in Africa. The finalists were announced in December.

In New York City in December 2002 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in THE REMEMBER PROJECT 2002, performers from the entire dance community -- ballet, modern, Broadway, and young dance artists -- united to celebrate life through dance, to remember those lost to AIDS, and to honor those living with HIV/AIDS.

"When AIDS is stopped we will dance for joy... until then we will dance for life," they stated.
THE YEAR BEGAN WITH THE CONFIRMATION OF NEA CHAIR MICHAEL HAMMOND

The year 2002 began with the confirmation of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chair Michael Hammond. On January 22, musician, composer, and educator Michael Hammond assumed office as the eighth chairman of the NEA. One week later, on January 29, Hammond died, apparently of natural causes. Eileen Mason served as Acting Chairman throughout the rest of the year.

President Bush has announced his intention to nominate poet/critic Dana Gioia as the next NEA Chair.

The Arts Endowment announced this month that it will award nearly $26 million through 908 grants in the first round of grantmaking in Fiscal Year 2003. (to be covered in detail in next week's Current) However, the final FY03 budget for the arts -- including a $10 million increase for the NEA recommended by the House, which would bring the total 2003 NEA funding to $126 million -- was put on hold until 2003 as Congress adjourned without passing the Interior Appropriations bill.
THE ARTS ARE A "CORE ACADEMIC SUBJECT"

In January 2002, the arts were included as a "Core Academic Subject" in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.

"This means that whenever national education programs (such as teacher training, school reform, and technology programs) are targeted to 'core academic subjects,' the arts may be eligible to receive federal funds," The American Symphony Orchestra League noted. "Such a broad recognition of the arts has never before been included in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act."

The inclusion resulted in greater attention to the arts in education with, for instance, Los Angeles County forming a County Task Force on Arts Education to make the arts an intrinsic part of the core curriculum.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2002

In the wake of the devastating impact of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, artists and arts organizations were still struggling despite the many foundations who generously stepped in to help. Based at NYFA, the New York Arts Recovery Fund was created to help the arts community recover from the aftermath of September 11 by providing grants, information, advocacy and outreach.

In September 2002, a year after September 11, across the country artists and arts organizations made and exhibited works which remembered the attacks, commemorated the losses and looked to the future.

"Artists from sixteen countries draw on abstract and narrative approaches to confront the violence of war, genocide, and the broader social and political systems that have decimated cultures around the world. This cross-cultural study of art in the aftermath of trauma commemorates the terrorist attacks of September 11th and provides a more universal context for understanding these tragic events," wrote the Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College to describe the exhibition IN MEMORY: THE ART OF AFTERWARD.

ARTISTS ONE YEAR LATER: A Survey of 9/11's Economic Impact on Individual Artists in NYC is now online on the new NYFA Interactive website at http://www.nyfa.org
ARTS COMMUNITY ASKS THAT CONGRESS RESTORE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST'S FELLOWSHIPS

In an interactive May 2002 issue of Current, respondents advocated that Congress restore individual Artists Fellowships. It was clear from the responses that Individual Artists Fellowships are important not only to the arts community but also to the country's image as a whole.

b "The U.S. government operates with practically no awareness at all about the relevance and importance of individual examples of high achievement in the arts. After more than 40 years of government programs to support the arts we still do not have a national program that even comes close to matching the creative strength, forward-looking vision or leadership that is practiced by our individual artists," New York City-based artist, writer and producer of cultural events Paul Skiff emphasized.

When the NEA granted individual fellowships "it was a vote for personal creative freedom. At least there was hope of national honor, recognition and a tiny windfall, said Linda Frye Burnham, (North Carolina) who founded HIGH PERFORMANCE magazine and co-founded Art in the Public Interest. "....Without a national policy that honors individuals in the arts, we are left without a coherent standard, a demonstrated belief as a people that individual creativity is vital to our nation."
THE YEAR 2002 ENDED WITH THE PROMISE OF FUTURE ARTS PROGRAMMING -- including the New Museum of Contemporary Art's intention to build a new home in the Bowery; the announcement of the program for SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2003; and the Cincinnati Opera's announcement that it will commission a new work for the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The year also ended with concerns about the FCC's Proposal to Relax Rules on Media Ownership.

"I want to hear more from industry, from labor, from consumers, from academe, from artists and entertainers, from anybody who has a stake in how this is resolved. And I think just about everyone, if he or she stops to think about it, has an interest and a stake," said Commissioner Michael J. Copps

Table of Contents to Index

National Arts Policy

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