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What's
Happening
What We Do
What We've Done
How We Do It
Who We Are
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OUR AIM
When we began, we said THE PERFORMANCE LAB™ would
create a replicable model for inter-active arts exchanges that brings artists
and communities
together
in different
places
at the same time.
That goal has in large part been accomplished; now we are
refining what we have learned over the years.
In 2007 & beyond, we continue to build a national network of interactive
studios to share innovative & exemplary work in all the performing arts. Ultimately,
we envisage a world-wide network of such studios, sustained by partnerships
that span the globe, connecting young people with their peers & arts organizations
with adventuresome institutions in other countries.
THE
PERFORMANCE LAB™ works
with students and teachers; schools at the elementary, secondary and college
level
as well
as artists, art organizations
and communities in Minnesota and across the country. Ultimately, we envisage
a network of interactive studios linked together for the sharing of innovative
and challenging works in the performing arts.
THE PERFORMANCE LAB™ is uniquely positioned to bring together
artists, arts organizations and their communities, including schools, by
providing the network
that will form the catalyzing core of new audiences, revitalized arts events
and new partnerships. Our work extends beyond the arts to influence the core
curriculum [New Content Standards in the Schools] and addresses acquisition
of cognitive skills, including non-verbal reasoning, expressive ability and
social tolerance.
Using existing interactive technology and human resources –– imaginatively
re–purposed videoconferencing rooms, handheld mobile cameras and technology–savvy
unafraid coaches –– THE PERFORMANCE LAB™ makes
it possible to communicate emotion, develop style and coach the performing
arts at a distance for audiences
of diverse sensibilities and culture, and for those of varying ability.
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WHY
WE EXIST

As is typical of the performing arts in America, arts organizations in Minnesota
tend to cluster around the largest metropolitan areas. Yet, as has been suggested
by a study commissioned by the McKnight Foundation [Here + Now, 1996], economic
uncertainty and the resultant pressure to minimize artistic risks present fewer
and more mediocre choices for audiences. The public itself needs "to be
educated about and attracted to the arts, tasks that arts groups cannot do alone.
Funding decisions over the past decade have eliminated arts classes at many public
schools, denying most children the kind of early working relationship with the
arts that creates interested and discerning audiences" [page 19 of the above
study]. Despite efforts at outreach, this influential study suggests, the arts
are not part of daily life, and remain something to "go" to or to save
for special occasions. Few would deny that the arts enrich our lives, provide
perspective on life’s challenges and speak to the better parts of humankind.
Access and knowledge are inseparable partners in the entrepreneurial effort
to bring the arts to everyone.
The technology itself disappears.
Only the compelling experience of art
remains.
TPL™— !
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