Issue link: http://floodesign.uberflip.com/i/868427
I have produced, presented and supported artists in dance, music, opera, theater, performance and all combinations thereof since 1976. And through my gritty experience, I say that I live now in an abundant age of creative endeavor (smarmy politics aside). Looking every which way, I find smart performances testing conventional wisdom and landing strong proof that new ideas are the best ideas. Yet I must ask: Who are and who will be the audiences for these super-duper protean artists? Jedediah Wheeler receiving the William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals in 2016. Photo: Adam Kissick BY J E D E D I A H W H E E L E R IT'S ABOUT TIME T H E P E R F O R M I N G A R T S R E S E A R C H L A B Making new work is hard work. Contemporary explorations need extended periods of experimentation and copious infusions of financial resources — both of which are in short supply in these remarkable days of discoveries. The Performing Arts Research Lab (PeARL) targets both issues: How do artists of considerable imagination realize their ideas without compromise, and how do audiences come to appreciate new performing arts ideas as personal resources in achieving continuity in daily life? The program takes a long view of making work that instills lasting audience curiosity. Is it possible to support artists and build audiences in tandem? I believe so, and that the time and space artists need to realize new work is the same time and space that audiences need to understand and appreciate this work — not in a thumbs up, thumbs down sort of way, but in the good old liberal arts sense of learning to think for ourselves. For all of us, contemporary performance can be a purposeful means of lifelong self-discovery. PeARL'S debut residency ran September 2015 through March 2017: 19 months from scratch to performance. Composer-librettist Amy Beth Kirsten, director-designer Mark DeChiazza and the performance ensemble HOWL started in our studio with little prewritten material and ended up on our Alexander Kasser Theater stage with the chamber opera "Quixote." Students from across CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT 41