A project of HERE
MADE HERE is a documentary series and website focusing on performing artists based in New York City. A collage of intimate interviews, performances and behind-the-scenes footage, MADE HERE mirrors the rich diversity of the artists and communities they serve. The website has far exceeded initial projections by producing double the number of seasons (4 instead of 2) and by reaching more than triple our expected viewership (35,000 unique viewers instead of 10,000).”
The first season was launched in May 2010, and by the end of September, had released 15 short episodes featuring 40 artists and covering five major issues: Creative Real Estate, Day & Night Jobs, Family Balance, Activism and Technology. Season Two rolled out from March through July 2011 with 28 additional artists and three episodes each month on: Identity, Creative Practice, Money, Lifework, and Home. Season Three (May through July 2013) and Four (September through November 2013) added 25 additional artists and three episodes each month on: Art & Commerce, Criticism, Health, Gender & Sexuality, Influences, and Staying or Going. The website provides a platform for audiences to offer feedback on the episodes, artists to share and discover resources, and communities to engage on the issues. In addition, each issue is accompanied by a monthly live screening and panel event. MADE HERE is supported by a 2009 Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund award with renewed funding for Seasons Three and Four. Additional support was provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the New Generations Program administered by Theatre Communications Group.
HERE has been a premier arts organization in NYC and a leader in the field of new, hybrid performance work since 1993. Under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting and Producing Director Kim Whitener, HERE has served over 12,000 emerging to mid-career artists developing work that does not fit a conventional programming agenda. Work presented at HERE has garnered 14 OBIE awards, including the 2009 Ross Wetzsteon Award, an OBIE grant for artistic achievement, five Drama Desk nominations, four NY Innovative Theatre Awards, an Edwin Booth Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. HERE proudly supports artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. Work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision. HERE’s Artist Residency Program (HARP) provides development, commissions and full production for 15-18 artists over one-to-three years. HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue, one block below Spring Street. For more info, http://visit www.here.org.
Kristin Marting is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of HERE and a director of hybrid work based in NYC. At HERE, she cultivates artists and programs all events for two performance spaces for an annual audience of 30,000. Under her leadership, HERE has garnered 16 OBIE awards, 2 OBIE grants for artistic achievement, an Edwin Booth Award, five Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, four NY Innovative Theatre Awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She was recently named a nytheatre.com Person of the Year and honored with a BAX10 Award. She lectures at various universities and serves on grant panels for various agencies. She graduated from NYU with honors in 1988.
Kim Whitener joined HERE as Producing Director in February 2007. She works in partnership with Artistic Director Kristin Marting to co-curate and co-produce HERE’s performance programs and activities. HERE supports the work of mid-career artists working in hybrid forms through commissions, developmental activities, and fully produced works as part of the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), and presents Visiting Artist works through its presenting programs. Ms. Whitener has also been an independent producer working with a diverse range of artists in the contemporary theater, dance-theater, and multi-media worlds, including The Builders Association, Big Dance Theater, Martha Clarke, among others. Previously, Ms. Whitener was Managing Director of The Wooster Group.
Tanya Selvaratnam is a producer, writer, theater artist, and activist. Since 2008, she has also been the Communications and Special Projects Officer for the Rubell Family Collection. Recent film productions include Mickalene Thomas’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, Catherine Gund’s WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE?, Chiara Clemente’s OUR CITY DREAMS and the Webby Award-winning BEGINNINGS. As a theater artist, Tanya has performed around the world in shows by The Wooster Group, The Builders Association, Jay Scheib and many others; appeared in films and video installations by Carrie Mae Weems, John Malpede, Sharon Hayes, Andrea Geyer, David Michalek, and Jennifer Reeves; been a fellow at Yaddo and Blue Mountain Center; and a guest actor at New Dramatists, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Voice & Vision Theater, and the Institute on Arts and Civic Dialogue. As an activist, she has worked with the World Health Organization, Ms. Foundation, NGO Forum on Women, Third Wave Foundation, and Groundswell Community Mural Project. Her book, THE BIG LIE, is forthcoming from Prometheus Books in Winter 2014. about.me/tselvar
contact: tanya@here.org
Chiara Clemente is a film director who explores identity, cultural contrast, and the creative process. In 2000 she directed her first art documentary for RAI in Italy. Chiara continued to film and collaborate with artists, and in 2005, she started making her first feature documentary, Our City Dreams, following five women artists (Nancy Spero, Marina Abramovic, Kiki Smith, Ghada Amer and Swoon) who live and work in New York City. Critically-acclaimed, Our City Dreams premiered at New York City’s Film Forum in February 2009, screened in more than 30 cities worldwide, and was broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Since making her feature Chiara has directed for Saatchi and Saatchi, T Magazine of The New York Times, Levi’s, Apple, Wieden + Kennedy and Persol. Most recently she has created and directed two seasons of Beginnings, an original short film series for the Sundance Channel, which won a Webby Award in 2012. www.chiaraclemente.com
Russell Greene is a New York film editor of seven feature films as well as numerous commercials, short films and promotional videos. His most recent films include Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (Venice Film Festival and SXSW) and Ordinary Miracles: New York’s Photo League. In addition to editing, he also wrote and directed the short film Easy Street, winner of six awards for Best Short Film on the 2012 festival circuit. He served as First Assistant Editor on several additional films including the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning The Betrayal and the Sundance Award-winning Patti Smith: Dream of Life. He is currently editing a feature doc on the legendary Coney Island restaurant Nathan’s Famous. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.
Heather Greene is a New York-based producer that works in Feature and Documentary Film, Television, and Live Events. She has been a part of numerous and varied projects such as the live shows and film projects of Fischerspooner and Vanessa Beecroft, Vice’s “Guide To Travel”, the television series "How's Your News?”, the Sundance web series "Beginnings", and documentary features “Of All The Things” and “What’s On Your Plate?” to name just a few. Heather lives with her husband and two sons in Brooklyn, NY.
Karina is a New York-based producer and filmmaker, whose projects include an original web series, an interactive online documentary series, promos, how-to videos, and event videography. She has produced, shot, and edited videos for Howcast.com, Downtown Community Television, 13 Playwrights Inc., EmcArts, art.party.theater.company, and is the Associate Producer of "Flag Football," a feature documentary about the journey of four teams in the National Gay Flag Football League to Gay Bowl X. Currently, Karina is the Online Cultural Producer at EmcArts, Inc. Prior to joining EmcArts, she was a producer for Season One of the documentary series "MADE HERE: Performing Artists on Work and Life" for HERE, where she also served as General Manager/Associate Producer from 2008 to 2011. Prior to HERE, Karina served as General Manager for 13 Playwrights, Inc., Management Associate for Liz McCann/Tony Awards Productions, and Producing Assistant for Carole Shorenstein Hays Productions. Karina has an MFA in Theater Management and Producing from Columbia University, where she wrote her thesis on the strategic use of online tools and technologies for arts organizations. She holds a BA from Harvard College.
SEASONS THREE AND FOUR ONLY
Camera: Omar Mullick
Assistant Camera: Jorge Arzac
Sound Mixer: Richard Levengood, Joshua Tucker, Coleman Wenner
Assistant Editor: Erin Taylor Kennedy
Trailer and Graphics: Alex Meillier and Tanya Ager Meillier
Website Manager: Trevor Martin
Research & Outreach Associate: Kelsey Ryan
Theme Song: Sxip Shirey
SEASON TWO ONLY
Assistant Producer: Erin Taylor Kennedy
Camera: Frank Stanley
Sound Mixer: David Pruger, Jarett Livingston
Assistant Editor: Erin Taylor Kennedy
Website Manager: Matthew de Leon
Research & Outreach Associate: Cassie Wagler
Theme Song: Reggie Watts
Additional Music: Moby
SEASON ONE ONLY
Camera: Miklos Buk, Theo Stanley
Sound Mixer: David Pruger, Michael Reilly, Christopher Reifeiss
Assistant Editor: Cat Tyc, Kelly Bray
Production Interns: Debby Brand, Brian Bauman
Theme Song: Reggie Watts
Additional Music: Moby
Art Direction & Design
Open
New York, NY
Design & Production
Rich Watts
Brooklyn, NY
SEASON FOUR: Joey Arias, Arthur Aviles, Eisa Davis, Mohammed Fairouz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill T Jones, Cherry Jones, Mia Katigbak, Lisa Kron, Ethan Lipton, Carolina Penafiel, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Sxip Shirey, Elizabeth Streb, Clyde Vanletin, Reggie Watts
SEASON THREE: Joey Arias, Arthur Aviles, Eisa Davis, Mohammed Fairouz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill T Jones, Cherry Jones, Mia Katigbak, Lisa Kron, Ethan Lipton, Carolina Penafiel, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Sxip Shirey, Elizabeth Streb, Clyde Vanletin, Reggie Watts
SEASON TWO: Jen Abrams, Kahlil Almustafa, Thomas Bradshaw, John Collins, Brendan Coyle, Amanda Curtis, Dana Edell, Oskar Eustis, Miguel Gutierrez, Joan Jonas, Aaron Landsman, Elizabeth LeCompte, Young Jean Lee, Kate D. Levin, Sheila Lewandowski, Abby Marcus, Qui Nguyen, Brian Rogers, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, Steven Sapp, Betty Shamieh, Black-Eyed Susan, Chandra Thomas, Basil Twist, Kate Valk, Reggie Watts, Natasha Williams, Caroline Woolard
SEASON ONE: Moe Angelos, Arthur Aviles, Jess Barbagallo, Anne Bogart, Wally Cardona, Hai-Ting Chinn, Ping Chong, Gabri Christa, Chinese Theatre Works, Toni Dove, Yehuda Duenyas, James Tigger! Ferguson, Kuang-Yu Fong, Ximena Garnica, Roselee Goldberg, Ain Gordon, David Gordon, Miranda Hardy, Mikéah Ernest Jennings, Melanie Joseph, Ben Kerrick, Mari Kimura, Peter Ksander, Taylor Mac, Kristin Marting, Jennifer Miller, Paul D. Miller, Shige Moriya, Julie Atlas Muz, Erin Orr, Vernon Reid, Laine Rettmer, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Rokafella, Elizabeth Streb, Valda Setterfield, Xiaojun Song, Charlie Todd, Kate Valk, Marianne Weems, Jennifer Wright Cook, Ying Zhang
A.R.T./New York
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
Bronx Council on the Arts
Brooklyn Arts Council
Brooklyn Arts Exchange
The Chocolate Factory
Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island
The Field
Harlem Arts Alliance
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
New York Theater Workshop
Joe's Pub
Queens Council on the Arts
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Anne Bogart
Thomas Bradshaw
Una Chaudhuri
Boo Froebel
Elinor Fuchs
Roselee Goldberg
Frank Hentschker
Jay Scheib
Mac Wellman
MADE HERE needs your support so we can continue capturing the lives of performing artists. Every donation helps us expand the project to more issues, episodes, artists, contributors, and audiences.
For questions or information on corporate sponsorship, contact info@madehereproject.org.
MADE HERE is supported by a 2009 Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund award.
For this issue, MADE HERE asks artists what has influenced their work. Artists find inspiration in many different places: their environments, their pasts, people in their lives, and other artists. The individuals in these episodes discuss how art impacted their childhood, how mentors helped shape their careers, and what influences they have drawn from to create their own aesthetic.
Finding a mentor is often an integral part of an artist’s journey. Mentors not only open doors for young artists, but they can also inspire them and help them realize their dreams. These artists discuss how they found their mentors and how their mentors helped shape their careers.
An article about a mentoring program that pairs middle-school girls and college-aged dancers with working choreographers.
Too Much Mentoring, Not Enough ModelingA look at the limitations of mentoring and how young artists can benefit from focusing on different models of production.
An article about one freelancer who worked in so many different and varied fields that he had no choice but to become his own mentor.
For Cicely Tyson and Kerry Washington, Roles of a LifetimeAn interview with actresses Cicely Tyson and Kerry Washington, which addresses their decision to go into the arts and how their families reacted.
The Creativity CrisisAn article about the decline of creativity in America and what we can do to fix it.
Are Unpaid Internships Worth It?An article supporting the use of unpaid internship and the essential experience they offer young artists. The article tells the story of how unpaid internships launched one author’s career.
Want to Make Internships More Just? Stop Requiring School CreditAn article about how to fix the unfair unpaid internship system.
The AIGA/NY Mentoring Program provides creative professionals with the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young artists from the New York City High School of Art and Design.
Queer/Art/MentorshipQueer/Art/Mentorship works to pair and support mentorship between queer working artists in New York City.
The NYFA Mentoring Program pairs immigrant artists from all disciplines with artist mentors who provide one-on-one support for their mentee.
Research that shows the decline in creative thinking in America.
The Wonder YearsA list of ways to encourage children’s creativity based off research that found creative individuals tended to grow up in families that encourages uniqueness yet provided stability.
An interview with neurologist Rex Jung where he discusses how family life can impact creativity.
What theater, music, film, or work of art were you exposed to in your early life that influenced your decision to become a performing artist?
NELKEN (Carnations) by Pina Bausch.
I saw this work when I was a dance student at Purchase in the 80’s at BAM. From that moment I knew everything. My path became clear. After the piece I went to the bathroom into a stall closed the door and began to weep uncontrollably. After pulling myself together I went to the sink to wash my face and at the mirror was a handwritten audition note for an audition the next morning at the Gilman rehearsal space. I decided to skip school the next day and went to the audition. I arrived to the space and there were about 30 dancers there, not a big mob, very relaxed atmosphere. It was set up like a company class. BALLET taught by Alfredo Corvino. Pina was there wearing a black Bundeswehr tank top, smoking with one of her breast slightly exposed. We went through a full ballet class and then an improvisation. She then had us all line up. In silence, Pina stood in front of the line of dancers and scanned them from stage left to right, slowly. She stopped for a long time at the amazing Quincela Swinegan, looked her up and down for a while and gestured to her to step forward. She continued scanning gesturing to a few others and then it was my turn. She stoped, looked into my eyes and walked towards me. She gestured to me as well. My body internally shuddered with Joy. She then said thank you and gestured to the five dancers she chose to come with her. Each of us sat with her individually for a brief chat. I was the third of five to speak to her. We sat at the table face to face and the only thing she said to me that I remember was “you are too young, come to my school and learn from me”. A year later I was in Germany, working at a State Theater as a solotanzer in Munster about 30 minutes from Essen where the Folkwang School was located. 14 years later, I had taken the experience of German expressionist dancetheater, (ausdrucktanz) from the great, Cebron, Malou, Forster, Mercy and have created my own post-tropical expressionist method which I share with passion within my choreographic offerings and teaching. Thank you PINA and to all the artists that inspired me, mentored me, pushed me, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Bob Wilson, Bert Terborg, Gale Young, Kevin Wynn and Leslie Neal. I dedicate this post to you.
My dad used to have all these old vinyl showtune records, like Annie and Hair. When I was really young I used to love listening to them. Then as I got older my dad and I used to go on daddy/daughter dates to the movies every week, sometimes twice! My dad has always been a theatre fan, when I was 14-15 years old he came home one day with preview tickets for this new show that was opening, RENT. We went 3 days before it opened and sat 3rd row center. At the time I had just started doing theatre in high school. My mind was blown. I remember sitting there thinking, “people get paid to do this?! I want to get paid to do this!”
The movie Fame. Cheesy but true. I also loved the music of Debussy, which buoyed me through years of competitions—my least favorite part about studying classical piano.
You’re right. Clowney’s official stat line is: 3 tklaces (2 solo, 1 assisted), 2.0 TFLs, 1.0 sacks, 0 passes broken up, 0 QB hurries, and 0 forced fumbles or fumbles recovered. When I first checked ESPN on Sunday they had him listed with only a single tackle, which I thought weird because I remembering him getting to Murray, but still accepted it. The point being though: Clowney was cracked up to be a one man wrecking ball. Georgia was able to make him a near non-factor about as well as you can.
“Don’t think the UGA team is better than the USC team and ctnaeirly not by two scores.”) What did I say the score would be? 41-27. I was off by a field goal, sorry. And about your run game…Gurley, Marshall, and Hicks combined for 220 rush yards, 85 receiving yards, and 3 TDs. And did that defense “overwhelm Murray” like you thought it would? And without Mitchell…5 different receivers stepped up along with Gurley, Marshall, and Hicks also contributing. And…where was Clowney? I guess “desire to win” really doesn’t triumph over actual talent.