(Photo: Dancers Deanna Gooding and Jordan Lefton; photographed by Sara Rubinstein.)
MAY 17, 2019
Carissa Hahn / Assistant Director of Strategic Communication
phone: 612-728-5119 / email: [email protected]
web: smumn.edu/newsrelease
Saint Mary’s Performance Center Receives National Grant
WINONA, Minn. — The Performance Center at Saint Mary’s University has been awarded with an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the launch of the Driftless Dance Festival.
Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts, has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s second major funding announcement for 2019. The agency received 1,592 Art Works applications for this round of grantmaking and will award 977 grants in this category.
“These awards, reaching every corner of the United States, are a testament to the artistic richness and diversity in our country,” said Carter. “Organizations such as the Performance Center at Saint Mary’s University are giving people in their community the opportunity to learn, create, and be inspired.”
The Driftless Dance Festival, to be presented by the Page Series March 27-29, 2020, will encompass a weekend of performance by national, regional, and local dancers. The event will also feature artist talks, master classes, workshops, and events that offer festival goers the opportunity to interact with visiting artists, develop skills, and build community.
Festival performances will include:
● SPEAK, a collaboration of San Francisco-based Kathak dancers Rina Mehta and Rachna Nivas alongside world-renowned tap artists Michelle Dorrance and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, with live accompaniment from leading jazz and classical Indian musicians.
● James Sewell Ballet, as part of the company’s 30th anniversary tour.
● A showcase celebrating dancers from across the Winona area.
More information on the festival and Page Series will be announced at a later date.
“We are honored to receive this support from the National Endowment for the Arts as we work to create another great festival for Winona and to further our goal of bringing artists and community together,” said Theresa Remick, managing director of the Performance Center.
For more information on this National Endowment for the Arts grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news. To learn more about the Page Series and the Performance Center at Saint Mary’s, visit pagetheatre.org.
About Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota awakens, nurtures, and empowers learners to ethical lives of service and leadership. At Saint Mary’s, students find in every classroom — whether in person or online — a relationship-driven, person-centered education. Through intense inquiry, students discover the truths in the world and the character within. Founded in 1912 and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota enrolls 5,600 students at its residential undergraduate college in Winona and its Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs, based in Minneapolis but extending worldwide. Saint Mary’s offers respected and affordable programs in a variety of areas leading to bachelor’s, bachelor’s completion, master’s, certificate, specialist, and doctoral degrees. Learn more at smumn.edu.