Operating Support

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2013 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$26,882
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Pangea World Theater
Recipient Type
Non-Profit Business/Entity
Status
Completed
Start Date
July 2012
End Date
June 2013
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Dakota
Hennepin
Ramsey
Rice
Stearns
Washington
Dakota
Hennepin
Ramsey
Rice
Stearns
Washington
Project Overview
Operating Support
Project Details
General operating support
Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications
Judson Bemis Jr., Actor, arts administrator, founder and principal of Clere Consulting. Secretary, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Ardell Brede, Mayor of Rochester, elected 2002.; Peggy Burnet, Businesswoman, art collector, and community volunteer. Chair of the Nominating Committee, Smithsonian National Board. Trustee, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Michael Charron, Dean of the School of the Arts, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Sean Dowse, Executive director, Sheldon Theatre. Board member for Minnesota Music Coalition, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.; John Gunyou, City manager, Minnetonka.; Benjamin Klipfel, Board member, Minnesota State Arts Board. Executive Director, Alexandria Area Arts Association, Inc. Director and arts educator.; Ellen McInnis, Director of Twin Cities government relations, Wells Fargo. Member of Bottineau Boulevard Partnership. Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Pamela Perri, Executive vice president, Builders Association of Minnesota.; Margaret Rapp, Former educator, Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. Officer at-large, Minnesota State Arts Board.; Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe, Bemidji State University.
Advisory Group Members and Qualifications
Sara Buechmann: Executive director, Mankato Symphony Orchestra.; Lawrence Gorrell: Program director, Master of Arts in Human Development; associate professor, Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Management, St Mary's University.; Paula Justich: Program director of arts and cultural management, St Mary's University of Minnesota.; Elisa Korentayer: Artist and consultant. Founder, Geekcorps, and E.K. Consulting.; Linda Nelson-Mayson: Director, Goldstein Museum of Design.; Cuong Phan: Associate professor of visual arts, St John's University. Filmmaker and educator.; Melisa Riviere: Professor of anthropology, Hamline University, and University of Minnesota. Director and Co-founder, B-Girl Be summit. Founder, Emetrece Productions.; Christi Schmitt: Teacher, L'Etoile du Nord French Immersion School. Executive board member, St Paul Federation of Teachers.
Conflict of Interest Disclosed
Yes
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2011, First Special Session, chapter 6, article 4, section 2, subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access

2013 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$26,882
Other Funds Leveraged
$418,183
Direct expenses
$445,065
Administration costs
$10,000
Number of full time equivalents funded
0
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

Provide significant opportunities for artists from diverse backgrounds to create new work and present it to the larger community. Create at least two productions of original work created by diverse artists in each fiscal year. Present at least one national or international artist of color, and commission or present at least one local or national indigenous artist to audiences in Minneapolis and St Paul. Evaluations were quantitative and qualitative; they were participatory including surveys, feedback, and narrative evaluation. Both plays were attended by diverse audiences. Hmong Bollywood included eighteen flash mob dancers and worked with local Hmong community organizations in St Paul, bringing in a large Hmong audience to see the performance. There was a smaller population of South Asian Indians because of the content of the play. One audience member said, The show was tremendously well done. Not enough attention is paid to immigrant/refugee men. It was amazing how I saw my life reflected in a story you think would be dissimilar to my own. 2: Cultivate the cultural vitality of local immigrant communities through artistic and community based programming. Commission and produce plays and performances by two new artists from immigrant communities through our Alternate Visions series, and actively market this to develop a more diverse audience. Foster dialogue and create large-scale performance events with the immigrant community on Lake Street as part of our Hyphe-Nations: Immigration Matters series. Pangea evaluated its progress through the constituencies we serve: diverse and immigrant audiences, participating artists, community activists, peacemakers, human rights workers, scholars, workshop participants, and immigrant community leaders, in cooperation with Pangea staff. In the process of internal and external evaluations we: 1) used qualitative measures to assess the positive impact of the diverse working environment on artists and technical staff. 2) Used artists, our audiences, and our board to evaluate productions. The information collected is being used to improve internal processes of the theater. 3) Kept records of the ethnic make-up of our audience garnered through surveys asking for detailed demographic information. Demographic information about audiences helped us directly target the diverse audiences we serve.

Measurable Outcome(s)

Pangea presented Morphologies: A Global Queer Arts Festival, a first ever collaboration. Pangea productions Hmong Bollywood and Lorca in a Green Dress challenged perceptions and brought multiple communities together at the intersection of art and human rights. Hmong Bollywood was a one-woman show, written and performed by 1.5 generation Hmong American Katie Ka Vang. The play depicts her experiences of American struggle, painful memories, fear, and cancer as she escapes into the fantastical world of Bollywood. The performance blended creative non-fiction, broken prose, monologues, video installation, media art, Bollywood dance numbers, and choreography. The production team was incredibly talented and diverse, and led by director Meena Natarajan. Our annual collaboration with Teatro Del Pueblo was Lorca in a Green Dress by Pulitzer prize winning playwright, Nilo Cruz. The play took place in 1936 Spain, in a time of civil war and a climate of intolerance. The play had a diverse cast with three Latino actors and was performed at the Ritz Theater. 2: In the 2013 Alternate Visions Series we commissioned new playwrights Al Justinano, Marisa Carr, and Ismail Khalidi. We have also been working with Anton Jones' multi genre piece Med/i/a and Masanari Kawahara's Hiroshima in workshops and will premier both of those plays in 2014. Our Hyphe-NATIONS: Immigrants Matter program culminated in a performance and celebration of our community-based theater program that addressed issues facing the Latina/o immigrant community of the Twin Cities. Performed in bilingual Spanish to English with interpretation support, the performance was called PersonA HumanA: A bilingual historia, and was the result of gatherings and stories-shared for over a year. We trained and developed a company of eight Latino/a community actors and performed in simultaneous translation.

Description of Funds
Source of Additional Funds

Other

Recipient Board Members
Afshan Anjum, Lana Barkawi, Arnie Bigbee, Sharon Day, Joseph Brown Thunder, Mona Antilla Carloni, Paul Cimmerer, Chris Fisher, Karen Lokkesmoe, Dipankar Mukherjee, Rajan Menon, GiGi Mullins, Meena Natarajan, Laura Provinzino, Emily Anne Tuttle, Carlos E. Vasquez, Bert Wilson, Joyce Wisdom, Roy Woodstrom
Source of Additional Funds

local or private

Project Manager
First Name
Meena
Last Name
Natarajan
Organization Name
Pangea World Theater
Street Address
711 W Lake St Ste 101
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Zip Code
55408
Phone
(612) 822-0015x 2
Email
meena@pangeaworldtheater.org
Administered By
Administered by
Location

Griggs Midway Building, Suite 304,
540 Fairview Avenue North,
St. Paul, MN 55104

Phone
(651) 539-2650 or toll-free (800) 866-2787
Email the Agency