Attachment_2._Milestone_Videos_Suggestions.pdf

Attachment 2: Milestone Videos Suggestions

May 18, 2015

Milestone Videos Suggestions (Task II)

50th Anniversary Art Stories

1. Steppenwolf (Theater)

Steppenwolf started in a borrowed church basement in 1974, focusing on premiering new plays as well as performing challenging work from the theater canon. By 1981 they had proven themselves enough to earn their first NEA grant. In 1982, they had their first play make it to

Broadway, and were on their way to becoming one of the most renowned theater companies in the country, receiving regular NEA support along the way.

Interview possibilities include Gary Sinise, Tracy Letts, and a current young ensemble member.

2. Appalshop (Multi)

Appalshop is a multidisciplinary arts and education center in the heart of Applalachia (located in

Whitesburg, Kentucky), matching local rural cultures with resources and new technologies to tell and share their stories. The nonprofit has received numerous NEA grants over the years in a variety of different disciplines, as well as receiving an Our Town grant for a community arts project in Jenkins, Kentucky (population: 2,401).

Interview possibilities include any number of rural communities in which Appalshop has worked, focusing on how the arts have enhanced the community and allowed them to share their culture and arts with others. Hit on Appalshop’s arts education programming.

3. Edward Villella (Dance)

Edward Villella is one of America’s most celebrated dancers/choreographers, starting with the

New York Ballet in 1957, performing for Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, and founding the Miami City Ballet in 1985, serving as its director until 2012. Villella was on the

NCA from 1968-74, and his Miami City Ballet has received numerous grants.

4. AFI (Media Arts)

The American Film Institute’s origins are due to the NEA. The agency began plotting the creating of a national film organization to preserve America’s film heritage from the beginning in 1965. In

1967, with additional funds from the Ford Foundation and members of the MPAA, the NEA set up the infrastructure to launch the AFI. From 1971 to 1995, the NEA awarded more than $12.7 million to the AFI that helped save films like John Ford’s Stagecoach (1949), Charlie Chaplin’s

The Kid (1921), and D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916). In 1969, the AFI established the AFI

Conservatory to provide training in the filmmaking discipline.

Interview possibilities include George Stevens, Jr., the founding director of AFI, Bob

Gazzale, current director, and an alumni graduate of the conservatory, like Andrea

Arnold.

5. Walker Art Center (Presenting)

One of the major arts presenters in the Midwest, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, programs shows in the visual, performing, and media arts. Starting first as an art gallery in the 1920s, it became a purveyor of cutting-edge art starting in the 1940s. The Walker has been receiving NEA support since 1968 as both a museum and a presenter.

Interview possibilities include Kathy Halbreich, director from 1991-2007, Martin

Friedman, director from 1961-90, an artist working at the Walker now.

6. Maya Lin—Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Design/Visual Arts)

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is one of the most visited memorials in Washington, DC, but when it was originally designed, it was controversial. In 1980, the NEA oversaw the design competition for the memorial that was won by a then-undergraduate student at Yale University, Maya Lin. The design—a long slash of polished black granite set below ground level with the names of all those soldiers who died during the Vietnam War, was at first criticized as too somber or morbid, but eventually was seen as a place of healing for those affected by the war. Maya Lin has gone on to become an internationally recognized sculptor and landscape artist.

The NEA has continued to work on projects related to the military, especially in recent years with Operation Homecoming, Great American Voices, Blue Star Museums, and the

NEA/Walter Reed Healing Partnership.

7. Continental Harmony (Music/Creative Placemaking)

Originating as one of the NEA’s National Millennium Projects in 2000, Continental Harmony was the first-ever nationwide commissioning effort. Created by the American Composers Forum and the NEA, the project brought composers to 58 locations across the country, working with local communities to create a musical composition (in various styles, from jazz to classical to choir) that reflected each community’s distinctive heritage and culture. A PBS documentary was made about the project. Continental Harmony was one of the first instances of the NEA taking on community-based arts projects, which it continues to address through the Our Town initiative.

Interview possibilities include American Composers Forum president John Nuechterlein, participating composer Deborah Fisher Teason, and members of the communities where the project took place.

8. Alice Walker (Literature)

Alice Walker received an NEA Discover Award in 1970, the first year they were offered to new writers just starting out. The financial support helped her finish her first novel, The Third Life of

Grange Copeland. About a decade later, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her third novel, The Color Purple. Early investment in talented writers by the NEA has paid out handsomely for American culture: Since 1990, 66 of the 109 recipients of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize in

Poetry and Fiction were previous NEA Literature Fellows.

9. Sundance Institute (Media Arts)

When Robert Redford decided to find a new way to enhance the artistic vitality of American film, he created the Sundance Institute in 1981. The NEA supported its initial four-week workshop and seminar, and has been supporting it since, including its development programs in documentary and feature film, and training sessions for emerging screenwriters and directors, as well as new initiatives such as Film Forward.

Interview possibilities include Robert Redford, executive director Keri Putnam, alumni of feature film program like PT Anderson or Kimberly Peirce, new director/screenwriter in program.

10. Philip Glass (Music/Opera)

He received his first NEA composer grant in 1974 and another in 1975, the year before his legendary presentation of Einstein on the Beach at the Metropolitan Opera. Many of his subsequent projects have been supported by the NEA. He has collaborated in numerous genres with artists from pop artist Linda Ronstadt to poet Allen Ginsburg. In 2010, he received the NEA

Opera Honors award.

11. Artrain (Museum)

Founded in 1971 by the Michigan Council for the Arts with NEA support, Artrain is a museum on wheels, bringing art to isolated pockets of the country. It doesn’t own a permanent collection but borrows artworks from museums and other institutions, changing shows every two or three years. Since its start, Artrain has reached more than 3.2 million people in more than 850 communities across the nation. Although the train retired in 2007, they still have touring exhibits and work on innovative ways to bring the arts to people, such as producing the CriticCar Detroit.

Interview possibilities include CEO Debra Polich, a member of one the communities the

Artrain has visited, CriticCar creatator Jennifer Conlin.

12. National Council for the Traditional Arts (Folk and Traditional Arts)

The NCTA is dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the

United States. Founded in 1933, it is the nation’s oldest folk arts organization, and has been supported by the NEA steadily over the years. NCTA’s work includes planning cultural programs in National Parks, the presentation of the National Folk Festival, and the presentation of the NEA

National Heritage Fellowships concert.

Interview possibilities include Joe Wilson, former executive director and NEA National

Heritage Fellow; current executive director Julia Olin; someone from Greensboro, North

Carolina, the current host of the National Folk Festival (celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2015).

Tentative/Suggested Delivery Schedule

END OF DOCUMENT

April – June 2016

Continental Harmony Alice Walker Sundance Institute

July – September

Philip Glass Artrain National Council for the Traditional Arts

Jan – March 2016

Walker Art Center Maya Lin (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

AFI

October – Dec

Steppenwolf Appalshop Edward Villella