A new, two-year project to promote an arts partnership between the United States and Cuba was announced Tuesday by the Joyce Theater Foundation and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The project is designed to offer Cubans arts administration training, internships and help creating a new dance work to be performed at the Joyce Theater.
The project is funded with a $215,000 grant to the Joyce and BAM from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, which supports the arts and exchanges between arts organizations here and abroad. Other partners in the initiative are the choreographer Ronald K. Brown and the non-profit Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, which promotes contemporary Cuban artists and culture.
Mr. Brown will travel to Cuba to select a Cuban dance company to create a new work, to be performed at the Joyce in May, 2014. The Cuban dance company will also participate in a production residency at the Joyce with Mr. Brown and his compay, Evidence, A Dance Company.
“I had an amazing time when I went to Cuba in 2001 and had the opportunity to meet some artists, so I am grateful for this awesome opportunity,†Mr. Brown said in a statement.
The program begins this month with a professional development seminar in Havana led by Joyce and BAM staff members, who will work with 20 Cuban arts professional selected by the Ludwig Foundation. Four participants from the seminar will be invited to New York this fall and in spring of 2014 for internships at both the Joyce and BAM. The Joyce and Brooklyn Academy of Music worked together in 2011 on the ¡Sà Cuba! Festival.
