UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN: An “Intracity” Encounter and Free Workshop/Performance Opportunity

Download the Downtown Artist application as a Microsoft Word document. To determine if this is the right application for you, please read the overview on this page.

Selection for Uptown/Downtown has been closed.

What does it mean to be an Uptown or Downtown Artist? Is the idea grounded in geography? Community? Aesthetics? Are there Uptown and Downtown audiences? How can we bring these artists and ideas together?

This summer, The Field, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Harlem Arts Alliance will collaborate to provide a unique opportunity for performing artists to explore these questions within the context of developing new work for presentation.

Program Description:
Uptown/Downtown is a workshop and performance opportunity for 10 performing artists who have a technically simple, 12-minute work in progress or excerpt ready to perform.

The workshop consists of six consecutive weekly sessions in which artists will show works in progress and share non-directorial feedback with a moderator present. The workshops will be held in two venues, three weeks uptown and three weeks downtown.

For each of the six sessions, invited guests from the performing arts community, including arts administrators, artists and curators, will give short presentations to the group and observe or participate in feedback.

The workshops will culminate in two consecutive nights of performance in historically significant performance venues, to reach audiences uptown and downtown:

September 22, 2006
The Harry De Jur Playhouse of Henry Street Settlement, a Georgian Revival theater constructed in 1915.

September 23, 2006
The Gatehouse (operated by Aaron Davis Hall/HARLEM STAGE), was originally part of the Croton-Aqueduct System and has been restored as a new performance venue opening in October 2006.

Each artist will perform for up to 12 minutes. At the end of each performance evening, the audience will be included in a talkback about the work they have seen, the artists’ process, and the idea of an uptown or downtown aesthetic.

After the performances, all the artists will meet to share thoughts about the process with each other, and discuss next steps with their work.

Timeline:
Application Deadline: July 25, 5pm (receipt, not post-mark)
Lottery Drawing: July 26
Notification: July 27
Sessions: August 9-September 13, Wednesday evenings 6:30-9:30 pm
Performances: September 22, 23 at 7 pm (Tech each day from 9am-5pm)
Wrap-up Session: September 27, 6:30pm-9pm
Who can apply:

• You must be a performing artist (working for at least two years) living in the greater NYC area, who can identify as an Uptown or Downtown Artist.
• You must have performed at least 15 minutes of an original work publicly in the last two years.
• You must be available to participate fully in all of the workshops and performances.
• You must have a piece 12 minutes or less that you are prepared to to perform, finish, embellish, or excerpt in the workshop. Note: This program is not for those who will begin work on a piece –it is intended for artists who have a specific work in progress that could benefit from a development process and a showing opportunity.

How To Apply:
If you consider yourself a “Downtown Artist” please submit a complete application to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Click here to download the application as a Microsoft Word file. Please email your complete application to up.down@lmcc.net or mail it to:

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
125 Maiden Lane 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10038
Attention: Uptown/Downtown

If you consider yourself an “Uptown Artist” please submit a complete application to The Harlem Arts Alliance. Application forms may be downloaded from the website: www.harlemaa.org. Please email your complete application to Linda Walton at updown@harlemaa.org or mail it to:

Harlem Arts Alliance
290 Lenox Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10027
Attention: Uptown/Downtown

*No faxes, please.

Applications must be received (not postmarked) by 5 pm on July 18, 2006.

Selection:
Artists will be selected at random to participate through a lottery drawing process. One lottery will be held at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to select five downtown artists. One lottery will be held at Harlem Arts Alliance to select five uptown artists. Ten artists total will participate.

Am I an Uptown Artist or a Downtown Artist?
For the purposes of this program:

• An Uptown Artist is an artist who lives and/or focuses their creative activities in Harlem.
• A Downtown Artist is an artist who lives and/or focuses their creative activities south of 14th Street.

Sponsoring Organizatons:

LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL is an essential part of Downtown's cultural landscape and principal player in its redevelopment - as it has been since 1973. With cultural planning, art services, funding opportunities and free events in the performing, visual and new media arts, LMCC is a leader in enriching New York City's creative capital.

THE HARLEM ARTS ALLIANCE (HAA) is a non-profit service organization committed to nurturing the artistic growth and organizational development of artists and arts organizations primarily in Harlem and its surrounding communities. Comprised of nearly 400 individual artists and arts organizations, HAA is the only service organization of its kind in Harlem and plays an essential role by helping to build the resources, network and capacity of its richly diverse membership. Counted among its members are young emerging artists, established and nationally recognized artists and small grassroots organizations and major cultural organizations in Harlem and in New York City. HAA directs its efforts in three key programming areas: Professional Development (technical assistance and re-granting activities), Special Projects (presentations and showcases), and Advocacy and Education (programs that seek to elevate arts and culture specifically in Harlem and on a national level in general.)

THE FIELD The Field’s mission is to serve independent performing artists on a completely non-exclusive basis. This means that everything we do is open to artists from all aesthetic viewpoints, cultural backgrounds, and levels of development. Our priority is to create a climate where risk-taking and originality are championed, and where the broadest range of voices are included. Field programs are affordable, accessible, and rigorous. To support independent performing artists, The Field’s programs are directed toward the creation of new work and its dissemination.