Category: News & Press

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21 Mar '23

IABD receives National Medal of Arts from President Biden

News & Press

The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) received a National Medal of Arts from President Biden on March 21, 2023. IABD was co-founded by PHILADANCO! Founder Joan Myers Brown and was developed out of the 1988 International Conference of Black Dance Companies which was launched by Ms. Brown and PHILADANCO!

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD, said, “The National Medal of Arts recipients have helped to define and enrich our nation’s cultural legacy through their life long passionate commitment. We are a better nation because of their contributions. Their work helps us see the world in different ways. It inspires us to reach our full potential and recognize our common humanity. I join the President in congratulating and thanking them.”

https://www.arts.gov/news/press-releases/2023/president-biden-award-national-medals-arts

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01 Mar '23

Joan Myers Brown Receives Alan Cooper Leadership Award

General, News & Press

At a ceremony in February 2023, in Baltimore, MD, Joan Myers Brown received the Alan Cooper Leadership Award from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

(https://www.midatlanticarts.org/grants-programs/alan-cooper-leadership-in-the-arts-award/#joan-myers-brown—2022-award-recipient)

Joan Myers Brown is the founder of The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) / The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts. She serves as honorary chairperson for the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), an organization she established in 1991. She also founded the International Conference of Black Dance Companies in 1988. She is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which bestowed upon her an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts; is a member of the dance faculty at Howard University in Washington, DC; and has been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. Listed in Who’s Who in America  and described as an “innovator and communicator,” Ms. Brown has made significant contributions to the national and international arts communities. 

Regionally and nationally, Ms. Brown has served a broad range of organizations, including the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project; the United States Information Agency; Arts America; the National Endowment for the Arts; the state arts councils of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio; and the National Forum for Female Executives. Locally, she has been a part of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance; the Minority Arts Resource Council, Inc.; the Philadelphia Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Council; the Philadelphia Dance Alliance; the Women’s Heritage Society; and Dance/USA. Ms. Brown was appointed to the choreographer’s panel of the Rockefeller Foundation Arts & Humanities Program and served as vice president (and co-founder) of the Coalition of African American Cultural Organizations. 

In 1997, Ms. Brown was honored as one of the “Dance Women: Living Legends” during a four-day series sponsored by New York-area presenters, in tribute to five African-American pioneer women who founded distinguished modern dance companies with deep roots in black communities around the country. In 2005, the Kennedy Center honored her as a Master of African American Choreography. In 2009 she received the prestigious Philadelphia Award, and November 7, 2010 was declared Joan Myers Brown Living Legacy Day. Ms. Brown was chosen as one of the 2013 Dance/USA honorees “for her extraordinary artistic guidance, her nurturance of many dancers and choreographers, visionary leadership, and grace under fire in the dance field.” 

She has also received a host of other accolades throughout her lifetime, including awards from The Philadelphia Tribune and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and membership to the Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania in 2012. She was designated as one of The Ten Best Philadelphians by Philadelphia magazine in 2012, in addition to recognition as an Outstanding Alumni of West Philadelphia High School, her alma mater. Her legacy has been documented in the 2011 publication of Joan Myers Brown & the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance (Palgrave), written by dance scholar and critic Brenda Dixon Gottschild, author of several books on dance. 

Joan Myers Brown’s undisputed status as a leader in the national and international arts communities was acknowledged when she was selected to receive the 2012 National Medal of the Arts, the nation’s highest civic honor for excellence in the arts. President Barack Obama presented the prestigious honor at a ceremony that took place in July 2013 at the White House. President Obama cited Ms. Brown for carving out “an artistic haven for African American dancers and choreographers to innovate, create, and share their unique visions with the national and global dance communities.” 

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01 Nov '22

Joan Myers Brown Named 
2022 Alan Cooper Leadership in the Arts Honoree

News & Press

Baltimore, MD – October 17, 2022 – Joan Myers Brown, the powerhouse dance educator and founder of PHILADANCO, has been named the 2022 Alan Cooper Leadership in the Arts (ACLA) honoree. Named after Mid Atlantic Art’s Executive Director from 1994 through April 2017, the Award honors an arts leader who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the arts sector within the mid-Atlantic region.

Joan Myers Brown is the founder of The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) / The Philadelphia School of Dance Arts. Ms. Brown is the honorary chairperson for the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), an organization she established in 1991. She is also the founder of the International Conference of Black Dance Companies and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts and Howard University in Washington, DC. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Ursinus College, an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts. Listed in Who’s Who in America and described as an “innovator and communicator,” Ms. Brown’s efforts for dance excellence are only part of her contribution to the field. She was co-chair of Dance/USA in Philadelphia and her story has been documented in “Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina,” by Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Ms. Brown has received awards from the City of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania, and the Embassy of the United States of America. She was honored as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, Outstanding Alumni of West Philadelphia High School, and received the American Dance Guild Honoree Award in addition to many other awards. In 2012, she received the prestigious National Medal of Arts Award from President Barack Obama. Ms. Brown is a recipient of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s 2017 Industry Icon Award and received the Philadelphia Cultural Funds’ David Cohen Award in 2019. Most recently, Ms. Brown received the distinguished 2019 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance for her choreographic influence on black dance in America.

Ms. Brown was chosen by a panel of arts professionals from the mid-Atlantic region. The final selection was based on the published Award criteria. Ms. Brown will be recognized at Mid Atlantic Art’s February board meeting during an Award ceremony and dinner.

Romona Riscoe Benson, Chair of Mid Atlantic Arts said “Joan Myers Brown’s impact on the field of dance is absolutely unquestioned. Her work with PHILADANCO, IABD, and a myriad of other organizations have changed the landscape of choreography, education, and dance as a whole. Her impact on generations of black dancers and dance makers cannot be underestimated. I am proud to be a fellow Philadelphian and congratulate Joan on being our 2022 Honoree.”

Theresa Colvin, Mid Atlantic Art’s Executive Director continued, “Every year, the ACLA nomination pool brings the very best in creative and inspiring work to our attention. How lucky we are to live in a region where people have put their hearts and souls into making the arts sector the best it can be. I salute all of the nominees.”

Ms. Brown joins four previous honorees: Stanford Thompson (2021), Rebecca Medrano (2020), Julia Olin (2019), and Michael L. Royce (2018).

Information about the 2023 round of the Alan Cooper Leadership in the Arts Award will be available this winter. Nominees will have demonstrated impactful leadership in the arts in one or more of Mid Atlantic’s nine partner jurisdictions of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Full Press Release

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19 Jun '22

PHILADANCO! Selected for National Arts Initiative Funded by The Wallace Foundation

News & Press

June 3, 2022 – The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO!) has been selected to participate in the first phase of The Wallace Foundation’s new five-year arts initiative focused on arts organizations of color[1], created as part of the foundation’s efforts to foster equitable improvements in the arts. Following an open call in 2021 that drew over 250 applicants, PHILADANCO! was selected as one of 18 nonprofit organizations representing dance and a diverse range of artistic disciplines, geographic locations, and communities served. Alongside the other selected organizations, PHILADANCO! will receive five years of funding to develop and pursue a project to address a strategic challenge. Researchers will document each organization’s work with the aim of developing useful insights about the relationship between community orientation, resilience, and relevance.

“We are very honored to be one of two dance companies invited to be part of the initiative,” states Joan Myers Brown, PHILADANCO!’s Founder and Executive Artistic Advisor.  “We are looking forward to working with the wonderful cohort of organizations to explore and address issues that affect us all, such as succession, changing community needs, reslience, and sustainability.”

Originally announced in July 2021 as a $53 million endeavor involving about a dozen organizations, Wallace has expanded the initiative to include additional grantees and planned funding of up to $100 million across five years. While Wallace’s support will not eliminate the need for the other funding that sustains PHILADANCO! and the other grantee organizations, it does help provide the time and resources to explore new approaches to urgent challenges, including: succession planning; developing equity-centered practices; developing values-aligned business models; increasing visibility; and creating cultural spaces that nurture the creativity and well-being of artists and communities served.  

First, PHILADANCO! will embark alongside the other grantees on a planning year for their individual projects in partnership with Wallace, researchers, consultants, and financial management advisers. While the specifics of each organization’s projects are unique, there are some commonalities and opportunities for shared learning and support. Grantees will work with Wallace to name the initiative and identify any technical supports they might need before beginning four years of project implementation.

The Community Orientation Action Research Team (COART), made up of researchers from Arizona State University and the University of Virginia, has been funded to co-develop the initiative’s research design with the grantees. The research is expected to explore the initiative’s guiding question through the lens of the projects that grantees will implement over four years. Additionally, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is overseeing a fellowship program for 18 early career qualitative researchers, one of whom will be paired with PHILADANCO! to develop an ethnography that documents the organization’s history, practices, and culture.

Complete list of participating organizations:

  • 1Hood Media (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
  • Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, Mich.)
  • BlackStar (Philadelphia, Pa.)
  • Chicago Sinfonietta (Chicago, Ill.)
  • EastSide Arts Alliance, Black Cultural Zone, and Artist As First Responder (Oakland, Calif.)
  • Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio, Texas)
  • Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture (Charlotte, N.C.)
  • Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
  • PHILADANCO! The Philadelphia Dance Company (Philadelphia, Pa.)
  • Pillsbury House + Theatre (Minneapolis, Minn.)
  • Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (Manhattan and Bronx, N.Y.)
  • Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (San Francisco, Calif.)
  • Ragamala Dance Company (Minneapolis, Minn.)
  • Rebuild Foundation (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Self Help Graphics & Art (Los Angeles, Calif.)
  • Theater Mu (Saint Paul, Minn.)
  • The Laundromat Project (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
  • The Union for Contemporary Art (Omaha, Neb.)

The initiative builds on research going back to the 1970s suggesting that community orientation, along with high-quality artistic programming, may be foundational to organizational health. Community orientation has been described, across the literature, as preserving or presenting the artforms of a particular racial, ethnic, or tribal group, supporting artists from the focus community, developing the cultural workforce of that community, and advocating for the community within broader socio-political contexts, among other activities. In addition to building understanding of what community orientation looks like in different organizations, Wallace hopes to learn with the organizations how they define relevance and resilience. For more information, please click here.

About the grantee selection process

To select the first group of grantees, Wallace considered applications submitted from organizations across the visual and performing arts fields, media arts, and community-based organizations focused on artistic practice with budget sizes between $500,000 and $5 million. The foundation sought to create a group of funded organizations serving a variety of communities, focusing on projects that leverage community orientation and addressing different kinds of strategic challenges.

ABOUT PHILADANCO!

Founded in 1970, The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) is a 501© 3 organization that is celebrated for its innovation, creativity, and preservation of predominately African American traditions in dance.  Recognized for its artistic integrity, superbly trained dancers, and electrifying performances, PHILADANCO! is committed to empowering youth with essential development skills that facilitate achievement and success in the world of dance and everyday life.

ABOUT THE WALLACE FOUNDATION

The Wallace Foundation’s mission is to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people, and in the arts for everyone. Wallace works nationally, with a focus on the arts, K-12 education leadership and youth development. In all of its work, Wallace seeks to benefit both its direct grantees as well as the fields in which it works by developing and broadly sharing relevant, useful knowledge that can improve practice and policy. For more information, please visit the Foundation’s Knowledge Center at wallacefoundation.org.

For inquiries about The Wallace Foundation:

Delaney Smith
Resnicow and Associates
212-671-5160
DSmith@resnicow.com

[1] The Wallace Foundation uses the term “arts organizations of color” to describe organizations that have been founded by (in either artistic or administrative leadership) and for communities of color. Wallace recognizes that no one umbrella term can accurately represent the plurality and diversity of arts organizations that serve communities of color including Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Arab American, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders.

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17 May '22

PHILADANCO! Receives Mellon Foundation Grant

News & Press

The Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO!) is excited and honored to announce the awarding of a 3.5 year grant from the Mellon Foundation to support staff expansion, new programming, the cataloging and preservation of archives, and the upgrade and renovation of the company’s University City headquarters and nearby residential apartments.  The $850,000 grant, one of the largest investments in the 52-year-old dance company’s history, provides essential resources that will allow PHILADANCO! to invest in its staff to maintain its dance excellence and innovation, build out its educational and community programming, and preserve its legacy of artistic achievement and leadership that has been built over the last five decades.

PHILADANCO! Founder and Executive Artistic Advisor Joan Myers Brown states “The Mellon Foundation has been one of the most important partners of PHILADANCO! and Black dance companies in America, valuing the work we do to commission, perform, and preserve works by African American choreographers and other artists of color and to be an important incubator of emerging talent from all walks of life. We are honored that the Foundation has chosen to make this significant investment in PHILADANCO!’s artistic and educational future which includes preserving our history and enhancing the role we can plan in our various communities.”

Artistic Director Kim Bears Bailey adds, “This generous grant is an extraordinary vote of confidence in PHILADANCO!’s ability to carry forward the traditions, innovations, and particular definition of excellence Joan Myers Brown has placed at the center of the organization for over 50 years.”

“PHILADANCO! is one of Philadelphia’s most important cultural institutions,” says Board Chair Ivory Allison. “It means a great deal to everyone associated with the organization that the Mellon Foundation is making this amazing investment which is helping to launch PHILADANCO! successfully into its next half-century.”

PHILADANCO!’s professional and apprentice companies perform at venues across Philadelphia throughout the year and offers classes and workshops as well as its renowned Instruction & Training Programs at its studio headquarters on PHILADANCO! Way in University City/West Philadelphia.  PHILADANCO! also presents performances and workshops throughout the year in locations across the US and in other countries.

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03 Aug '21

COMMITMENT TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY

General, News & Press

As a predominantly African American Organization operating in a community of mixed races, income levels, and cultures, we are inherently involved in programs and operations of diversity. Our programs have and will always be open to persons of all ancestries, cultures, and backgrounds.

PHILADANCO! was found to have the most culturally diverse audiences of any other dance organization in the city.  This information was documented in a survey conducted by Portfolio Associates, Inc., and The Ziff Marketing Study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The students attending classes at PHILADANCO! include African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Latino, and White.  This diversity also is reflected on the Board of Directors whose members are African-American, White, and Latino.  Instructors for the Instruction and Training Programs are similarly diverse.

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