Minneapolis, Oct. 19, 2015 – Part social gathering, part information share, part work session, the Monday Night Grant Circle was created for local dance makers to provide time and space to ask questions, get feedback, and work on dance grants. Hosted monthly at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, the program aligns with The Cowles Center’s mission of acting as a catalyst for dance and aims to increase the visibility of the art form throughout the state. This month, the Grant Circle is presenting a special event, Building a Sustainable Life as a Dance Artist, sponsored by Springboard for the Arts.

More about the Monday Night Grant Circle

Co-hosted by Michèle Steinwald of The Cowles Center and Sam Johnson of SuperGroup, the Monday Night Grant Circle started in 2014 and encourages participants at all stages of the grant writing process. Since its inception, the program has featured several special guests, including Sara Nash (National Dance Project, Boston), Kathee Foran (MSAB), Lauren Slone (Map Fund, New York City), Sheila Smith (MCA), and Shannon Forney and Greg Nielsen (MRAC).

The program “provides an invaluable space for members of the community to share skills and experiences…as well as access to national grant leaders and their insights into their specific programs and to trends in the broader funding community”, Johnson says. The Grant Circle has also become a meeting place to advocate for funding changes and provides a forum for artists to organize and a platform from which they can speak collectively to funders.

More about Building a Sustainable Life as a Dance Artist

Co-hosted by the Monday Night Grant Circle and Springboard for the Arts, this daylong event is based on choreographer Andrew Simonet’s book, Making Your Life as an Artist.

Free to attend, Simonet says participants of the event “will do some specific, practical work (planning, writing about our work) and some big picture thinking” and “will look at the specific challenges facing dance artists: the demands of creating and producing the work, funding and touring cycles”.

Participants must RSVP online on the Monday Night Grant Circle page at thecowlescenter.org.

About The Cowles Center

The Cowles Center for Dance & The Performing Arts is the Twin Cities’ flagship for dance in Minnesota. Centrally located in downtown Minneapolis, The Cowles Center includes the refurbished 500-seat Goodale Theater; the former Hennepin Center for the Arts, home to 20 leading dance and performing arts organizations; the state-of-the-art Target Education Studio, housing The Cowles Center’s innovative distance learning program; the Illusion Theater; the James Sewell TEK Box; and the U.S. Bank Atrium. The Cowles Center is a catalyst for the creation, presentation, education, enjoyment and celebration of dance and the performing arts in the Twin Cities.

Building a Sustainable Life as a Dance Artist

The Cowles Center- Target Education Studio

October 28, 2015

10:00am – 5:00pm // Free

Dana Munson

Marketing Director

The Cowles Center for Dance

& The Performing Arts

O: 612.206.3630

C: 612.363.0322

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