By Laura Spencer
Kansas City, MO – The Charlotte Street Foundation has supported visual artists in Kansas City for more than a decade with unrestricted cash awards and a curated exhibition of work. The new awards for Generative Performing Artists support professionals who are actively creating new work in their fields, from dance to music to theatre and performance art.
This year's award recipients include choreographer, dancer and teacher DeeAnna Hiett, a company member of Wylliams/Henry Dance Theatre since 1994 and a former dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York; Playwright, producer, director and actor Ron Megee, the former artistic director and founder of Late Night Theatre Company; and composer and musician Mark Southerland who uses the saxophone to explore sound and has developed a way of scratching 8 track tapes.
Lisa Cordes, Executive Director of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, served on this year's rotating panel of Awards Advisors. "We started with the primary criteria being the quality of that work," says Cordes. "Part of that quality of work was also in its characteristics of innovation and freshness and the contribution it was making to the community."
The recipients of this year's Charlotte Street Awards for Generative Performing Artists receive unrestricted cash awards of $5000 each, and a public presentation of their work.