DD Dorvillier is fantastic–and this show also features music by Performa artist Zeena Parkins.

DD Dorvillier / human future dance corps at Dance Theater Workshop
Choreography, a Prologue for the Apocalypse of Understanding, Get Ready!
Jan 10 – 11, 14 – 17 at 7:30pm
Post-Show Talk Wed, Jan 14 with Sarah Michelson

Mention DD20 and get a 20% discount on tickets.
Box Office: 212.924.0077

Choreography, a Prologue for the Apocalypse of Understanding, Get Ready! is a suite of related but distinct parts that address notions of communication and implied politics of understanding. CPAU, Get Ready! superimposes objective and experiential modes of cognition and communication and re-orders these perceptual hierarchies in unusual and often humorous ways. CPAU, Get Ready! features music by composer Zeena Parkins, lighting design by Thomas Dunn, and texts and choreography by DD Dorvillier in collaboration with a cast of five performers. For more info, visit dancetheaterworkshop.org.

In case you’re looking for a little hint of what’s waiting for you in November 2009 - this little showreel of the last biennial includes most of our commissions (and all of our love).

This weekend (starting today!) famous 8 Bit Peoples present a four day celebration of almost 40 international artists exploring low-bit video game consoles. If you’re interested in club culture and lo-fi music and performances, this surely the place to be. Make sure to check out their workshops, too.

Blip Festival, Dec 4-7, 2008
The Bell House
149 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY

Joy Bang wearing Les Levine's apparel-work in The Fashion Show Poetry Event, 1969. Photo by Peter Moore (c) Estate of Peter Moore / VAGA, NY

On Tuesday December 9, 2008 art historian Barbara Moore invites us to take part in the second evening of her slide lecture series, showing the work of photographer Peter Moore in context to performance and happenings in the 1960’s. Focusing on intermedial mixture, this should provide fundamental knowledge about influential works causing recent multimedial explorations.

Known & Unknown
Happenings & other events as photographed by Peter Moore
A slide lecture by art historian Barbara Moore

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 @ 7pm - 1960s
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 7pm - 1970s

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC.

YOUNGEST ORGANIZATION EVER TO RECEIVE HIGHLY COMPETITIVE AWARD FROM FOUNDATION’S NYC CULTURAL INNOVATION FUND

Performa is proud to announce that it has been honored with a Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Award for its contributions to the cultural life of New York City. This award is given by the Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund, which celebrates innovation and the creative sector through grants for trailblazing initiatives that strengthen the City’s cultural fabric. Presented in recognition of Performa’s outstanding achievements in the four years since its founding in 2004, and in support of the upcoming Performa 09 biennial (November 1-22, 2009, New York City), this honor makes Performa the youngest organization ever to receive a Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Award.

In selecting recipients of the Innovation Award, the Rockefeller Foundation looks for large-scale programs designed to advance the role of the arts in the future of the City, and this is indeed the centerpiece of Performa’s mission. “The Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund recognizes the bold, visionary creativity of vibrant New York arts organizations. Each award, of up to $250,000, celebrates the diversity, imagination, and energy that make our city a global cultural leader,” said Darren Walker, Vice President for Foundation Initiatives. The unique structure of the Performa biennials—which bring more than 40 of New York’s leading arts and cultural institutions and 25 different curators together to present live work in all disciplines over the course of three weeks—transform the biennial format into something that links minds across the entire city, cross-pollinating diverse audiences among many different venues and turning the biennial into a tool for arts advocacy, since it can only exist as the sum of many parts.

“We use New York City’s incredible history of creativity as our inspiration,” said RoseLee Goldberg, founder and director of Performa. “The future of New York depends on the next generation and the next believing that this city is as edgy as it ever was. Everything we do is designed to make sure it stays that way.” Programming is created to appeal to diverse age groups and demographics across New York City, providing accessibility for the general public and opportunities for active participation in some of some of the most exciting and experimental work being created today, as well as a look back at seminal artists who came before. By at once highlighting the history of New York and propelling it into the future, Performa is a nurturing ground for young artists and a beacon for generations to come.

The Performa 09 biennial, which the Innovation Award will specifically support, will take the 100th anniversary of the publication of F.T. Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto” in 1909, which launched the most provocative and cross-disciplinary artistic movement of the twentieth century, as its point of departure. The biennial will look back to the radical propositions of the Futurists a century ago, and forward to a vision for the twenty-first century as imagined by today’s artists. Using the Futurist template of manifestos-for-the-future in all disciplines, Performa 09 will explore exciting new ideas in visual art, film, noise music, sound poetry, graphic design, dance, architecture and urbanism. The city of New York itself will be featured as an evolving ignition of ideas and of limitless dimensions, its architecture, walls, transportation and airwaves providing a platform for public engagement and inspiration.

The announcement of the Innovation Award turns an exciting new page in Performa’s history, as thus far, Performa has been made possible by a grassroots fundraising effort rather than civic support. Under the visionary leadership of Goldberg, Performa has raised funds for its programming primarily through the support of generous individuals, as well as by forming dynamic partnerships with some of the world’s leading arts institutions—including Sadler’s Wells, Documenta, and La Coleccion Jumex—to co-commission, produce, and tour new work. Out of a pool of 500 organizations that were invited to submit full applications, Performa is 1 of only 17 organizations that received awards from the New York City Cultural Innovation Fund this year.

RoseLee Goldberg on Visual Performance Art
Phyllis Wattis Distinguished Lecture

RoseLee Goldberg, curator and art historian
Peggy Phelan, Ann O’Day Maples Chair in the Arts and Professor of Drama and English, Stanford University

Thursday, November 20th at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Phyllis Wattis Theater at 6:30 p.m.

Founded in 1995 through the generosity of Phyllis Wattis, this lecture series brings innovative thinkers to SFMOMA. Goldberg is the founder and director of PERFORMA, an interdisciplinary arts organization that researches, develops, and presents performance work by visual artists from around the world. Goldberg pioneered the study of performance art with her now seminal text, Performance Art from Futurism to the Present. In this lecture, she discusses the often hidden history of performance work in 20th-century visual art and describes how this history influences new types of culture. Phelan joins her in conversation.

$10 general; $7 SFMOMA members, students, and seniors. Tickets are available at the Museum (with no surcharge) or online.

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA’S PLATFORM ON THE ARTS
In response to the Candidate’s Survey on National Arts Policy issued by the Alliance in February 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama’s campaign indicated that he would support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as promote cultural diplomacy and reinvest in arts education. Below are excerpts from his campaign’s statement.

Obama on NEA Funding
Barack Obama would look at a variety of funding mechanisms to support increased funding for the NEA, the support of which enriches schools and neighborhoods all across the nation and helps to promote the economic development of countless communities.

Obama on Cultural Exchange
American artists, performers and thinkers – representing our values and ideals – can inspire people both at home and all over the world. Through efforts like that of the United States Information Agency, America’s cultural leaders were deployed around the world during the Cold War as artistic ambassadors and helped win the war of ideas by demonstrating to the world the promise of America. Artists can be utilized again to help us win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism. Unfortunately, our resources for cultural diplomacy are at their lowest level in a decade. Barack Obama will work to reverse this trend and improve and expand public-private partnerships to expand cultural and arts exchanges throughout the world.

Obama on Arts Education
To remain competitive in the global economy, America needs to reinvigorate the kind of creativity and innovation that has made this country great. To do so, we must nourish our children’s creative skills. In addition to giving our children the science and math skills they need to compete in the new global context, we should also encourage the ability to think creatively that comes from a meaningful arts education.

To support greater arts education, Barack Obama will expand public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations and increase resources for the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants, which develop public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations. Obama will also engage the foundation and corporate community to increase support for public/private partnerships. Barack Obama supports the creation of an “Artists Corps” of young artists trained to work in low-income schools and their communities… As president, Barack Obama will use the bully pulpit and the example he will set in the White House to promote the importance of arts and arts education in America.

Obama on Foreign Arts
Opening America’s doors to students and professional artists provides the kind of two-way cultural understanding that can break down the barriers that feed hatred and fear. As America tightened visa restrictions after 9/11, the world’s most talented students and artists, who used to come here, went elsewhere. Barack Obama will streamline the visa process to return America to its rightful place as the world’s top destination for artists and art students.

Performa Presents

THE METAL SHOP @ Tribeca Issey Miyake

November 7th-15th, 2008
Opening party: Thursday, November 6th
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Private Shopping for holders of tickets to The Metal Ball
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm BY INVITATION ONLY
Please RSVP to rsvp@performa-arts.org

Regular Shopping Hours: Monday-Saturday 11-7pm and Sunday 12-6pm

Performa makes it easy for you to dress for The Metal Ball!

The Metal Shop is a pop-up store organized by Performa, to outfit guests for The Metal Ball which will take place on November 15th. Metallic apparel, accessories, books and objects d’art by well known and independent designers have been especially selected and are available at special prices.

The Metal Shop will kick-off with a private cocktail viewing on November 6th for ticket holders. Located at Tribeca Issey Miyake, the Shop will be open to the public through November 15th. Ticket holders to The Metal Ball receive 10% off purchases.

Get your tickets to The Metal Ball by calling 212-868-8450 ext. 206, and then join us on November 6th at The Metal Shop to outfit yourself for the party!

A percentage of proceeds from The Metal Shop support the Performa09 biennial. Come and shop for a good cause!

Designers:
Issey Miyake // Pleats Please // Shelly Steffee // Puma // Michael Kors // Tuleste Market // Darcy Miro // NUN // Dernier Cri // Paste // Made by Eugene // Laura Dawson // Love Brigade // Patrik Ervell // Yamak // Prismera // B Boutique // Slow and Steady Wins the Race // Thayer Digby and Iona // Immigrant // Destination // Bario-Neal // Dahl by Alison Kelly // Alicia Alizadeh Deka Ray // H Fredriksson

Curated by Yvette Tang

Tribeca Issey Miyake
119 Hudson Street (at North Moore St.)
Phone 212-226-0100

Click here for more information

Election night art parties:

Celebrate a (potential) new beginning at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, which is also bidding adieu its “Party HQ: Voting Is Just the Beginning” exhibition. Senses-stunning feats include “political postpunk pogo” from DJ Kid Magic, presidential video mash-ups courtesy of VJ Michael Richison, and stand-up with comedian Angry Bob and others only slightly less angry than he. FREE Pratt Manhattan Gallery, 144 W 14th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves (partyheadquarters.org). 7pm.

White Box, 329 Broome St at Bowery, 7pm

Election Night Cable News Marathon at Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare St at Lafayette, 6pm-6am

Election Returns Party at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, 620 Greenwich St at Leroy, 6pm

Exit Art, 475 Tenth Ave between 36th and 37th Sts (212-966-7745, exitart.org). 7pm–midnight, $10.

The Obama-Fabulous Galapagos Art Space Election Night Spectacular
Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main St at Water St, Dumbo, Brooklyn (718-222-8500). 7pm, $10.