The International Collaboration in the Arts Project/Working Group
The Working Group on International Collaboration in the Arts is a consortium
of organizations dedicated to building transnational, intercultural collaborative
practice in the arts. Through their participation in the project, these
organizations have worked to develop new models for building sustained
collaborative work by artists in the United States, Africa, Latin America,
and Asia.
The Ford Foundation has provided funding to support the programs of
the working group through its multiyear initiative "Internationalizing
New Works in the Performing Arts," which has the goal of strengthening
U.S.-based collaborations that bring leading artists from Africa, Asia
and Latin America together as partners with U.S. artists in the creation
of new multidisciplinary work in the performing arts.
Arts International Arts International
participated in the ICA Working Group though its Inroads initiative.
The Inroads grant program provided funding to U.S. performing arts organizations
to bring artists from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the U.S. to
explore possible collaborative projects with U.S. artists.
Meet The Composer works to increase opportunities for composers by
fostering the creation, performance, dissemination, and appreciation
of their music. Among its other activities, it supports collaborations
between U.S.-based composers and artists of all disciplines living in
and outside of the U.S. Meet The Composer’s International Creative
Collaborations initiative commissioned new works resulting from multidisciplinary
collaborations between U.S.-based composers, choreographers and dramatists,
and creative artists, based in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, including
non-U.S. composers. Commissions supported through the third round of
ICC funding are currently in development.
Africa Exchange, an international program of 651
ARTS, was created
as a formal, sustained approach to facilitating collaborations between
performing artists from Africa and the United States. The program is
designed to preserve, transmit and nurture African cultural forms within
US communities, create links between African and U.S.-based artists,
explore new artistic forms and mutual influences among cultures, and
encourage the creation of new, collaborative work. Africa Exchange supports
African artists to travel to the US and engage with their U.S.-based
counterparts in residency programs, workshops, and concentrated creative
time to explore each other's ideas and inspirations.
The Miami-Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus Cultural Affairs
Department has presented a series of intercultural performances including artists
of the Caribbean and Latin America through its Cultura
del Lobo performance series. It has also commissioned several performance works through the
Center for Cultural Collaborations International in collaboration with
other South Florida cultural organizations, including the Miami/Haiti
project, a collaboration between U.S. choreographer Ralph Lemon, Haitian
musician Zao, and several Miami-based musicians, and Los Balseros, a
full-length operatic work developed in collaboration between U.S. composer
Robert Ashley and Cuban American playwright Marie Irene Fornes.
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) was founded in 1980 as a non-profit,
multi-disciplinary organization whose mission is to preserve, promote
and develop the arts and culture of the Chicano/Latino/Native American
peoples. The GCAC manages and provides artistic development for six component
programs of the Center, including Dance, Literature, Media Arts, Theatre
Arts, Visual Arts and Xicano Music. GCAC is involved in the ICA consortium
through its Gateways
Program, a performing arts commissioning program
intended to bring together artists from the United States and Mexico
to create new, multidisciplinary works in the performing arts that take
their inspiration from the interplay between contemporary Chicano and
Mexican cultures.
UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance is dedicated
to supporting research, creative experimentation, critical inquiry and
aesthetic production of the performing arts. The Center’s Asia
Pacific Performance Exchange (APPEX) program is an international artists
and writers residency program that promotes cross-cultural and interdisciplinary
understanding; develops rigorous strategies for art-making reflecting
the nuances of cultural differences; and fosters new ways to experiment,
collaborate, and interpret artistic expression.
Northwest Asian American
Theatre (NWAAT) Out of a vision to celebrate and explore the multi-cultural
voices of Asians in America, Northwest Asian American Theatre is dedicated
to discovering, creating, developing and promoting exceptional Asian
Pacific Islander (API) American and International works, emphasizing
the original and innovative. NWAAT has participated in the ICA Working
Group through its International
Artists Program a residency based program
which produces cross cultural, multi disciplinary collaborations between
artists from Asia and API American artists from Seattle in an effort
to elicit dialogue and creative expression about the Asian diaspora.
NEFA managed the innovative ethnographic research project undertaken by
the International Collaboration in the Arts Working Group members
to document best practices and build knowledge for the field in this
area.
