FOR RELEASE: JULY 28, 2008
Contact: Elaine K. Ficarra
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
Tel. 203.498.3710
eficarra@artidea.org
ARTS & IDEAS PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR TO BROADEN ARTISTIC REACH
Expands Profile with Appointment as Guest Artistic Director of Acclaimed West Coast Festival
(New Haven, CT… July 28, 2008) - Festival Programming Director Cathy Edwards broadens her artistic reach as she takes on the additional role of Guest Artistic Director of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's 2009 and 2010 Time-Based Art Festival, an acclaimed 10-day festival in Portland, Oregon, which features contemporary performance, dance, music, new media and visual arts projects.
"The Time-Based Art Festival in Portland is a very well respected 10-day festival of contemporary art that has a history of prominent guest curators who often are involved in other exciting projects around the globe. This is a prestigious appointment for Cathy and it shines a positive light on the International Festival as well to be linked to our artistic colleagues at PICA," said Aleskie.
"From our perspective, PICA is a perfect counterbalance to Arts & Ideas, in that it focuses exclusively on contemporary work. The range of programming that Cathy will oversee between both festivals will offer her the opportunity to work in the broadest possible spectrum of artistic expression. This is good news for our institutions as well as the artists and audiences we serve," Aleskie added.
"I am delighted to continue to program exciting, thought-provoking and extraordinary performance events here in New Haven at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to serve as guest Artistic Director of the Time-Based Art Festival at PICA in 2009 and 2010. I look forward to continuing my participation in national and international dialogues about art-making and live performance and to representing New Haven in those dialogues," Edwards said.
Edwards will continue her responsibilities at the Festival with a focus on performance programming. She will be PICA's second guest artistic director, replacing Mark Russell, who also curates the attention-getting Under the Radar Festival that occurs each January at New York City's Public Theater.
Her tenure at TBA PICA will begin at the close of the 2008 Time Based Festival which runs from September 4-14, with visual exhibitions on display until October 4.
About Cathy Edwards
Cathy Edwards takes on her additional role in Portland having been the Director of Programming at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT since September 2006. Before joining the Festival, Edwards was Artistic Director of Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), where she was recognized by The New York Times for supporting "provocative, experimental choreographers," and for "daring curatorial choices [that] showed her to be as creative and imaginative as many of the artists she booked." She was also recognized for her support of international artists and her dedication to commissioning and presenting work from a next generation of important performing artists.
During her first two years at the International Festival in New Haven, Edwards designed innovative programming initiatives in dance and emerging performance forms including such diverse performers and companies as the dance group Headlong Dance Theater (Philadelphia), Aurelia Thieree with a nouveau cirque production (France), dance company Chunky Move (Australia), the Apparatus Theatre Group (Russia), the theater ensemble Siti Company (New York), the sound and performance artist Ray Lee (UK) and a new play by Sebastian Barry produced by Fishamble (Ireland). While at Dance Theater Workshop, Edwards was instrumental in bringing the work of artists such as Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods (Belgium), Rachid Ouramdane/Association Fin Novembre (France), Maria Hassabi and Miguel Gutierrez to the DTW stage as well as for her commitment to residencies and commissions.
Edwards was appointed DTW Co-Artistic Director in 2001 and DTW Artistic Director in 2003. In 2003, while Edwards was Co-Artistic Director, DTW opened its new facility in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, which includes a 200-seat state-of-the-art blackbox theater, a digital laboratory, two dance studios, a gallery/café, as well as administrative and technical offices.
Additionally, under Edwards's artistic leadership, DTW performance projects were routinely recognized with year-end accolades by the New York press, field-wide through the receipt of multiple New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") awards, and with repeated funding from national entities such as the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the National Dance Project, and the National Performance Network, among others.
Edwards' professional activities include frequent talks and participation in funding review panels. She has been an invited speaker or panelist for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, International Society for the Performing Arts, National Performance Network and Tokyo Performing Arts Market and at national venues such as the Wesleyan Center for the Arts and the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival; participated in U.S. delegations to a variety of international festivals and projects in the performing arts, including delegations sponsored by the U.S. Department of State; served on review panels for programs of the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the New England Foundation for the Arts, amongst many other funding bodies; served as an evaluator and consultant for Creative Capital and the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund; served as co-director of the New York State DanceForce; and served as a member of the National Dance Working Group and of the awards committee for the "Bessie" New York Dance and Performance Awards. She was Curatorial Advisor for the June 2006 "Dance Boom!" festival at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia.
In addition to her travel to numerous international venues and festivals, Edwards' international activities have included serving as a 2006 Ambassador for Australian dance and as a 2007 Advisor to the Danish Arts Council for the development of its Denmark/New York program. From 2005 through 2007 she served as a member of the French-US Exchange in Dance program (FUSED), a program of French Cultural Services and the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Edwards currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the National Performance Network and Movement Research, Inc. She has frequently been quoted in The New York Times, The Village Voice, TimeOut New York, and Dance Magazine, and her own writing has been published in Inside Arts, the Movement Research Performance Journal and the Dance/USA Journal.
From 1990-95, Edwards was Co-Director of Movement Research, Inc., a dance and performance art presenting organization in New York City. She was previously at the American Center in Paris, Conde Nast Publications, and the International Herald Tribune in Paris. She is a 1987 graduate of Yale College and the mother of two children.
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The International Festival of Arts & Ideas plays host to 100,000 people each year. Since its founding in 1996, the Festival has presented more than 13,000 artists and thinkers in over 3,500 events, celebrations, explorations, forums, exhibitions, debates, presentations and more. The Festival takes place in more than two dozen venues in and around New Haven, Connecticut, including theaters, concert halls, courtyards and the streets. More than 75 countries have been represented in the Festival since its inception. In 2007, the Festival played host to performers from countries such as France, Japan, Brazil, Africa, Russia, Canada, and the United States. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas receives significant support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Yale University.