Rockefeller Foundation Announces First Award Recipients of NYC Cultural Innovation...

Rockefeller Foundation Announces First Award Recipients of NYC Cultural
Innovation Fund

NEW YORK, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockefeller Foundation president Judith
Rodin announced today the first award recipients of the Foundation's $2.6
millionNew York City Cultural Innovation Fund.
The Fund celebrates innovation and the creative sector through grants for
trailblazing initiatives that strengthen the City's cultural fabric.
"The sixteen organizations selected to receive grants from our New York
City Cultural Innovation Fund embody the excitement, diversity and dynamism of
the City's creative wellspring," said Dr. Rodin. "We're delighted that these
creative pioneers -- through their performances, festivals, community events
and other visionary projects -- will energize the cultural vitality of the
city that has been the Rockefeller Foundation's home for nearly 100 years."
Individual grants -- between $50,000 and $250,000 -- over a two-year
period are being awarded. New recipients of the Fund will be awarded annually.
A major impetus behind the Rockefeller Foundation's creation of the New
York City Cultural Innovation Fund was a 2005 report, prepared by the Center
for an Urban Future, entitled "Creative New York," which presented troubling
evidence that new economic pressures may result in New York City losing its
traditional creative and competitive edge as a global cultural leader.
Funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation, the report documented the
crucial economic contributions made by people working in the City's many
creative industries -- including performing and visual arts, publishing, film
and video, music, broadcasting, architecture, design, and advertising -- and
how the vitality of these sectors, which has been a defining part of the
City's historic appeal, is at risk.
"New York is recognized throughout the world as a major center of cultural
activity and creative ingenuity," said Darren Walker, vice president for
Foundation Initiatives at the Rockefeller Foundation. "The New York City
Cultural Innovation Fund will help ensure the future robustness and diversity
of the City's cultural sector by providing crucial support for bold and
innovative ventures that enrich the City's cultural life."
Three prominent leaders from the fields of innovation and the arts served
as advisors to the Cultural Innovation Fund, which strove to choose projects
that demonstrated a high potential for innovation, creative engagement and
cultural vitality.
-- Lowery Stokes Sims, Visiting Professor at Queens College and Hunter
College and former President of the Studio Museum in Harlem

-- David Thorpe, Senior Partner and Global Director of Innovation, Ogilvy
Worldwide

-- Andrew Zolli, Founder, Z + Partners, a consulting firm specializing in
analyzing cultural, technological and global trends, and curator of the
annual Pop!Tech Conference

The inaugural recipients of the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund for 2007 are:

-- The Architectural League of New York ... to launch Urban Omnibus: a
Broadband Channel for Architecture, Infrastructure and Environment in
New York City, to bring together the most innovative ideas about the
future of the urban landscape in New York City

-- Bang on a Can ... for the Bang on a Can Marching Project, to take
contemporary music out of the concert hall and into the streets through
the creation of mobile marching music ensembles

-- The Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company (Foundation for Dance
Promotion) ... for Breaking Ground with Bill T. Jones -- A Community
Dialogue Series with Bill T. Jones, a cultural and civic forum to
discuss contemporary issues with the Harlem community

-- The Bronx Museum of the Arts ... for Phase II Capital Master Plan and
Design, for an expansion of the museum including the development of a
moderate income residential tower using principles of green building
design

-- Brooklyn Academy of Music with The Asia Society ... for Illuminating
Islam, a ten-day arts festival highlighting the range and scope of
global Muslim culture

-- Carnegie Hall ... for a festival that will showcase African-American
music, to be curated by Jessye Norman, and a festival about the human
voice, to be curated by Bobby McFerrin

-- The Civilians ... for Development and Brooklyn Neighborhoods, a two-
year theater lab exploring the Atlantic Yards Project

-- Cunningham Dance Foundation ... for Mondays with Merce, a new program
of live studio internet webcasts to provide public access to Merce
Cunningham's creative process

-- The Field (Performance Zone) ... for Economic Revitalization for
Performing Artists, a two-year entrepreneurial development lab for
artists

-- Friends of the High Line with Creative Time and the New York City
Department of Parks and Recreation ... to create a new, large-scale
public art commissioning program for the High Line's Chelsea Market
Tunnel

-- Harlem Stage (Aaron Davis Hall) ... for Waterworks, to expand creative
residencies and commissions for artists of color at The Gatehouse, a
new performing arts space in Harlem

-- Museum of Chinese in America ... for The Chinese American Experience, a
comprehensive historical interactive exhibition to mark the debut of
its new museum in Chinatown

-- Museum of the Moving Image ... for Massively Multiplayer: the Art of
Online Virtual Worlds, to bring virtual space into the physical realm
in a new technologically-advanced exhibition gallery

-- New York City Center ... for the presentation of its new resident
ballet company, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, led by choreographer
Christopher Wheeldon

-- Rhizome Communications at the New Museum ... for Rhizome Events, to
give voice to artists working at the leading edge of technology

-- World Science Festival (Science Festival Foundation) ... for Science
and the Arts -- New Works Series, to produce and present original works
that reflect the role of science in modern life

The sixteen recipients were selected from a pool of more than 600
organizations that submitted proposals earlier this year through the
Rockefeller Foundation's website.
Projects selected by the New York City Cultural Innovation Fund fall into
one or more of the following categories:
-- Programming and premieres of new artistic work that demonstrate
innovation and can activate new directions in the artistic breadth and
depth of institutions in the visual, performing and media arts

-- Creative engagement with the issues shaping New York City's future
cultural and civic agenda

-- Partnerships that bring cultural and community-based institutions
together with universities and the private sector

-- Interventions designed to confront longstanding bottlenecks and
limitations on the expansion of cultural vitality with fresh approaches
and solutions.

To qualify, organizations must be based in one of the five boroughs of New
York City.
The New York City Cultural Innovation Fund builds upon the Rockefeller
Foundation's tradition of support for the arts. Currently, the Foundation
supports artists in a variety of fields through its investments in a number of
national arts organizations, including Renew Media, United States Artists and
Creative Capital. Historically, the Foundation provided major support for the
establishment of several of New York City's landmark cultural institutions,
including Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art and the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater.
The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller,
Sr., to "promote the well-being" of humanity by addressing the root causes of
serious problems. The Foundation supports work around the world to expand
opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that
globalization's benefits are more widely shared. With assets of more than $3.7
billion, it is one of the few institutions to conduct such work both within
the United States and internationally.
For more information about the Rockefeller Foundation, or to learn more
about applying for the upcoming 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund,
please visit www.rockfound.org.
Media Inquiries Only:
Michael Cowan
The Rockefeller Foundation
Office: (212) 852-8412
Cell: (347) 302-3348
mcowan@rockfound.org
www.rockfound.org

SOURCE Rockefeller Foundation

Michael Cowan of The Rockefeller Foundation, +1-212-852-8412, Cell,
+1-347-302-3348, mcowan@rockfound.org