UD Receives $3800 Grant from Arts Midwest Touring Fund
Jan 25, 2016 | Kristi Lynch
The University of Dubuque has been selected to receive funding from Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from the Crane Group and General Mills Foundation.
Arts Midwest Touring Fund engages people in meaningful experiences with the fine arts of dance, music, theater, and other performing arts forms. Inter-state touring and the engagement of professional artists is central to the work of Arts Midwest.
Arts Midwest Executive Director David J. Fraher says, “Arts Midwest is proud to support the University of Dubuque in their upcoming engagement of Jump Rhythm Jazz Project. Arts events like this not only provide uplifting experiences for audiences, they also create meaningful jobs for those employed in the arts industry – thus amplifying the effectiveness of our funding.”
A performance by Jump Rhythm Jazz Project is a part of the 2015-2016 Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series. The multiple-Emmy®-Award-winning performance company based in Chicago will perform on Saturday, February 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Heritage Center’s John and Alice Butler Hall. Jump Rhythm Jazz Project celebrates the communal core of jazz performance — dancing, singing, and storytelling — in rhythmically syncopated conversations to the beat-driven sounds of the blues, swinging jazz, funk, hip hop, and world music. Founded by Billy Siegenfeld in New York City in 1990, JRJP has grown into an ensemble embodying a life-affirming mix of percussive musicality and emotion-driven, vocal-rhythmic dance. According to the New York Times, JRJP “captures the exuberant physicality of good dancers when moments of extreme control and abandon are seamlessly combined.”
According to Heritage Center Executive Director, Thomas Robbins, “Arts Midwest and its affiliate supporters have once again come through with the funding to enable us to offer several artist-in-residence activities in addition to a mainstage performance by one of the Midwest’s pre-eminent dance companies. Jump Rhythm Jazz Project will take an educational workshop “on the road” to Southwestern School in Hazel Green for the benefit of middle and high school colorguard and show choir students. In addition, UD dance students and area high school students participating in the Adrian Theater and Dance Festival will have the opportunity to interact with the professional dance company in a masterclass and open rehearsal. This year’s Arts Midwest support comes on the heels of two prior years of funding assistance with engagements of Ensemble Galilei and Ensemble Espanol.”
About Arts Midwest: Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest is one of six nonprofit regional arts organizations in the United States. Its mission is to promote creativity, nurture cultural leadership, and engage people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, Arts Midwest has been serving audiences, arts organizations, and artists throughout the nine states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and beyond.
About the National Endowment for the Arts: The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.
