NCCAkron Announces New Open Application Period for Creative Administration Research Program
The National Center for Choreography – Akron (NCCAkron) announces its next Creative Administration Research (CAR) open application period. Funded by the Mellon Foundation, the CAR program supports U.S. dance artists and challenges the field to think beyond the boundaries of known, traditional models and “best practices.” Launched in 2020, the program serves as a national think tank for the dance and performing arts industry and, to date, has initiated five cohorts for a total of 22 Artist Teams from across the U.S. The application period for the Creative Administration Research program closes October 25, 2024.
Through this open application, NCCAkron will welcome a new CAR cohort of up to three Artist Teams. Teams include the Artist, a curated Thought Partner, and NCCAkron staff members. Artists are encouraged to include any other staff or independent contractors from their own operating environment in the experience as well. Each Artist Team will engage in a virtual Investigative Retreat to reflect on the Artist’s body of work; project long-term artistic goals; examine chronic pain points across their operations; reconsider current habits and practices; and identify possible administrative experiments to evolve business operations.
The Artist and Thought Partner are provided a stipend— $8,750 and $3,750, respectively—to do this work in the Investigative Retreat as well as meet on their own throughout the contract period. After launching the program in 2020, NCCAkron received a $1 million reinvestment from the Mellon Foundation to fund and evolve the CAR program 2023-2026.
The new book Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography,emerged from the CAR program and was released on September 24, 2024 by the University of Akron Press. Artists on Creative Administration features essays from and interviews with 30 artists and advocates from the dance and the performing arts worlds (many of whom are alumni of the CAR program), sharing first-hand stories of creative administration in action through case studies, interviews, life tools, and experiments. NCCAkron will soon announce a Making Moves book event tour, through which they will host events centered on creative administration in cities like Nashville, Seattle, New York, Detroit and beyond.
NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke notes “Ideal Creative Admin Research candidates have a strong and distinct artistic point of view as well as a specific sense of self-awareness when navigating the performing arts field. With 22 teams across 20 states to date, new CAR Artist Teams will become a part of this special network that we hope strengthens the foundation of the dance field for whatever is next. What has surfaced to date through our Investigative Retreats and the publishing of Artists on Creative Administration is that this work is often unseen and unacknowledged – and it is more important than ever to recognize, name, and interrogate the administrative practices so we can adapt and evolve as a field.”
An Artist Selection Committee will review applications, and in December 2024 selected participants will be invited to join the program. Non-selected applicants will also be notified of the committee’s decisions. A detailed schedule is below. Learn more about this application and program here
CAR Artist since 2021, Pioneer Winter (Miami, FL) remarks, “The NCCAkron ethos is so warm and accepting. I immediately felt welcomed into a community of humans asking questions I never knew how to verbalize. The questions asked and lessons learned have inspired a new approach to ‘administration’. It has also fostered in me new confidence as an artist and leader. The opportunities, experiences, and lessons shared between us have expanded my capacity to consider and create beyond what I thought possible.”
Thought Partner,Indira Goodwine-Josias (Boston, MA), reflects, “NCCAkron’s Creative Administration Research program provides an opportunity to intentionally merge a choreographer’s creative practices with emergent administrative strategies that support their career trajectory and overall desired social impact through dance. It not only creates additional pathways to better support individual artists, but also places a high value on the stewardship of trust that must be built amongst all members of the dance ecology for equitable transformation to occur in our field.”
Interested parties can email programs@nccakron.org with any questions about the program or the application.
Pictured: [left] CAR Artists, Thought Partners, and NCCAkron team members at the 2023 Summit Convening (photo Shane Wynn), [top right] CAR Artists Pioneer Winter Collective (photo Peter Nieblas), and [bottom right] CAR Artist Kara Jenelle Wade (photo JahBrielle Henning Rayford).