Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions
Your Silence by Michael R. Jackson
Premiered Sunday, May 3, 2020
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Last night Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presented the premiere of playwright, composer and lyricist Michael R. Jackson’s “Your Silence“, a Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions. His musical A Strange Loop recently received the Drama Critic’s Circle Award for Best Musical and multiple nominations from the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Jackson was supposed to be at Works & Process for a sneak peek of Federal Hall’s The Democracy Project, now postponed to the fall. “Your Silence” was premiered the same night the postponed event was to occur.
Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions, a direct response to the pandemic, was launched to financially support artists and nurture their creative process during these challenging times. With the generosity of our board, Works & Process is granting more than $45,000 in commissioning funds to artists who have been or were supposed to be featured at Works & Process. Artists from a wide variety of genres have been commissioned to create new works, less than 5 minutes long, while observing social distancing guidelines, that will premiere on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (@worksandprocess) every Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm.
WPA Virtual Commission: Your Silence by Michal R. Jackson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbJND58eZVY&list=PLJ08rQmWB63RFC3avQF-nDsneUXLrUd4X
Chris Celiz and Anthony Rodriguez kicked off the series on April 19 and 20, followed by Kamala Sankaram and Preeti Vasudevan on April 26 and Conrad Tao on April 27: https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PLJ08rQmWB63RFC3avQF-nDsneUXLrUd4X.
Upcoming Schedule of Premieres:
May 4 – Nora Brown and Caleb Teicher
May 10 – Karma Styles and Omari Wiles; May 11 – Gus Solomons, Jr.
May 17 – LaTasha Barnes; May 18 – Evita Arce
May 24 – Jamar Roberts; May 25 – Brandon Stirling Baker
May 31 – Dance Heginbotham
Works & Process Artists (WPA)Virtual Commissions
Participating artists as of May 4
Solos
Ephrat Asherie * Brandon Stirling Baker * LaTasha Barnes * Hope Boykin * Brian Brooks * Rena Butler * Chris Celiz * Anthony Roth Costanzo * Dylan Crossman * Machine Dazzle * Michelle Dorrance * Tom Gold * Michael R. Jackson * John Jarboe * Gabrielle Lamb * Pontus Lidberg * Missy Mazzoli * Ryan McNamara * Andrea Miller * Calli Quan * Anthony Rodriguez * Penny Saunders * Claudia Schreier * Gus Solomons Jr. * Conrad Tao * Eyal Vilner
Collaborations
Evita Arce and Michael Jagger * Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung * Joshua Bergasse, Sara Mearns, Zoe Sarnak and Margot Siebert * Nora Brown and Caleb Teicher * Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook * Tony Buck, Jamar Roberts, and David Watson * Alejandro Cerrudo and Ana Lopez * Dance Heginbotham * Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon * Simone Dinnerstein, Isaac Mizrahi and Pam Tanowitz * Jack Ferver and Jeremy Jacob * Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott * Ashley Laracey and Troy Schumacher * Nico Muhly and Adam Tendler * Carson Murphy and Nicholas Van Young * Michael Novak and Josh Prince * Kamala Sankaram and Preeti Vasudevan * Dan Siegler and Dawn Sinkowski * Karma Styles and Omari Wiles
BalletX Partnership
The current circumstances no longer permit the Works & Process on June 14, featuring BalletX summer offerings, including a glimpse into the creative process of choreographers Hope Boykin, Rena Butler, Calli Quan and Penny Saunders. To continue to support these choreographers, their creative process, and company dancers, Works & Process Aritsts (WPA) Virtual Commissions in partnership with BalletX will provide the resources for the choreographers to workshop solos and duets (for dancers sheltering together), using Zoom video conferencing with dancers from BalletX. These commissions will premiere on Works & Process social media channels on June 14 and 15 at 7:30pm.
Details are available at www.worksandprocess.org and the commissions will broadcast on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (@worksandprocess).
SELECT ARTIST RESPONSES
And what a wonderful way to support the dance community. Obviously, all of their performance fees are gone, but also so many work in restaurants or as yoga instructors and those gigs are on hold as well. I was just thinking about how I didn’t know where my next dollar was going to come from and you answered that!
I’d love to donate my fee to a dancer who cannot legally file for unemployment and is stuck in New York.
I’m so happy to hear that you’ve reached out to so many artists in my web of collaborators — I’m, of course, experiencing personal hardship, but I’m much more broken up about the hardship that my collaborators are experiencing. Thanks for what you do.
As soon as I read your email my head started going on ideas and I started experimenting. Thanks for reaching out and triggering my brain to experiment at home during this time!
Lead funding for Works & Process is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Works & Process has received support from the U.S. Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program.
New music for dance Virtual Commissions supported by The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for 35 years, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Most performances take place in the Guggenheim’s intimate Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. worksandprocess.org.
