Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805, phunter@colum.edu or Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383, mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, May 2003 -- Columbia College Chicago will honor the spirit of entrepreneurship and outstanding service in the field of arts management at the Seventh Annual Paul Berger Arts Entrepreneurship Awards Luncheon. The event will be held on Wednesday, June 11 at noon in the Moulin Rouge at the Fairmont Hotel, 200 N. Columbus Drive. Tickets are $85 per person; $150 for individual sponsors; and tables of ten at: $850 (benefactor), $2,500 (sponsor), and $5,000 (patron). To purchase tickets call, 312.633.1124, Ext. 3. Proceeds benefit the Chuck Suber Scholarship Fund.
Last fall the Berger Awards Committee unanimously selected Carlos Tortolero, founder and executive director of the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum (MFACM), to deliver this year's keynote address. "He built the museum literally from scratch to its status today as the largest Mexican or Latino arts institution in the nation. He is, to put it mildly, a very successful and effective arts entrepreneur," notes Clarke Greene, faculty member in Columbia's Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management Department and coordinator of the awards luncheon.
Arts marketer and theatre legend, Danny Newman, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the arts. Newman was with the Lyric Opera for nearly 45 years. He is best-known throughout the world as the man who revolutionized the way live performances are marketed to audiences. Newman has always considered himself a press agent. He has also been a theatrical producer, motivational speaker, sports promoter, announcer, author, and movie theater owner.
Bill Russo, composer, founder and conductor of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and former chair of the Music Department at Columbia College will posthumously receive the honor of Lifetime Leadership in Music. His career spanned five decades. During his last year Russo devoted his energy to the development of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at Columbia College, composing and conducting up to the week of his death. His last gig with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble was at the Jazz Showcase nightclub in January 2003, six days prior to his death.
In other entrepreneurial categories, Broadway in Chicago received the winning nomination for the for-profit sector. Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago will accept the award. Broadway in Chicago has led the way in establishing Chicago as the premier location for pre-Broadway theatrical runs.
Receiving the award for not-for-profits with a budget under $1 million, is The Poetry Center. Kenneth Clarke, executive director will represent the organization. The Poetry Center, with its partners, continues to be a model for successful strategic collaborations. Since its inception in 1973 it has featured hundreds of poets as well as some prominent novelists.
The honors for not-for-profits with a budget over $1 million goes the Hyde Park Art Center, to be accepted by Chuck Thurow, executive director, and League of Chicago Theaters, accepted by Marj Halperin, president and CEO.
Under the leadership of Chuck Thurow, the Hyde Park Art Center has experienced significant growth. The Center's education programming has increased in scale and visibility and initiated outreach programs such as Visual Learners: Curriculum-Based Art in the Schools and partnerships with two elementary schools and four arts organizations.
The League of Chicago Theaters is the trade and marketing association that promotes awareness and visibility for live theater in the Chicago area. The League is comprised of an alliance of theaters that leverages its collective strength to support, promote and advocate for Chicago's theater industry locally, nationally and internationally.
Jackie Taylor will accept the New Initiative award on behalf of the Black Ensemble Theater. Founded by Taylor 25 years ago, BET was developed to use theater as a facilitator for change. Through its Five-Play Season, BET has sought to generate new knowledge about the African American community to increase understanding, acceptance and respect between people of differing cultures. BET has produced more than 100 productions, serviced more than 100,000 school students, 2,000 teachers and numerous community members through its educational outreach programming.
The Paul Berger Arts Entrepreneurship Awards is named in honor of the late, long-time faculty member of Columbia College who helped found the college's Entrepreneurship Program. Berger was a respected community activist who served as director of revenue under Mayor Harold Washington and founded several organizations that helped provide equal housing opportunities in Chicago. To learn more, visit www.colum.edu.
Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805, phunter@colum.edu or Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383, mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, June 2003 -- Columbia College Chicago will kick-off its month-long arts festival: Michiana Festival of the Arts with the assistance of Dani Lane, President of the Dunes Arts Foundation. Lane will host a pre-performance party on Friday, June 11 at 6 p.m. The party will be followed by a performance of Once on this Island at the Dunes Summer Theatre, Shady Oak & Oakdale, Michiana Shores, Indiana and a post-show, Caylpso-inspired party, featuring steel drums and food from the Islands. Tickets for this three-event opening night gala are $100 per person. Call 312.663.1124, extension 2 to purchase tickets.
"I fully expect the Michiana Festival of the Arts to become an annual event and grow in both prestige and size to include more and more events as the years progress," says Dani Lane, President of the Dunes Arts Foundation. This collaboration between Columbia College Chicago and The Dunes Summer Theatre in the area known as 'Harbor Country' will be something people will look forward to each summer. Its proximity to Chicago makes the event an easy day-trip or weekend in the country."
"Once on this Island" is an adaptation of an adaptation: It is Hans Christian Anderson's story of "The Little Mermaid," set in Haiti before the time of a political coup in Rosa Guy's My Love My Love, and then shaped in music and song into an expression of several universal motifs. Though the forms may have changed, the journey and the themes remain the same: there will always be oppression, there will always be death, and there will always be love. These stories have been told from the dawn of time, from the moment that we, as humans, first found voice. Out of these stories comes the most important message – hope. Based on the book My Love My Love or The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy; directed and choreographed by Danny Bernardo with Music by Stephen Flaherty; Book and Lyrics by Lynn Aherns. Showtime is 8 p.m. at the Dunes Summer Theatre, Shady Oak & Oakdale, Michiana Shores, Indiana.
The Dunes Bay Bash, post-show party with Clyde George's Steel Drum Band will begin at 9:30 p.m at the Dunes Summer Theatre.
Proceeds from events and activities of the Festival will support local arts programming such as the Dunes Arts Foundation, as well as scholarship funds at Columbia College.
Columbia College is the nation's largest visual, performing and media arts college. Located in the heart of Chicago's South Loop, Columbia blends the best of theory and practice in a dynamic and diverse urban environment.
Media Contact: Mark Lloyd, 312-344-7524, mlloyd@colum.edu
Chicago, June 2, 2003 - Columbia College Chicago, the nation's largest visual, performing and media communication college, has created a new Sports Management Program within its Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department. The announcement was made last week at the annual Charity Bash of the Make a Dent Foundation.
According to Dennis Rich, chair of college's arts management department, Columbia has unique experience in entertainment management education. We already teach content in the fields of audience building, box office management, special events, facility management and copyright protection, as well as labor relations, career and talent development, crisis management, broadcasting and media management, merchandising and retail management, and entrepreneurship.
This programmatic experience will be a strong competitive advantage to develop one of the most compelling programs in the nation, Rich said.
Richard Dent and Dan Jiggetts, former Bears football players, have accepted invitations to co-chair the Advisory Committee for Columbia's new Sports Management program.
Richard Dent's Make a Dent Foundation also announced a $15,000 contribution to Columbia to provide scholarships for deserving students in sports management. The college will match the foundation's gift.
There are many careers for talented and creative individuals in sports as sports managers, as marketers, as team executives, as promoters, as merchandisers, as stadium manager, Dent said. The new Sports Management program at Columbia is designed to give young people a chance to combine their interest in sports with an opportunity to become leaders in the business of sports management.
Dr. Warrick Carter, president of Columbia College, said that the college hopes that its program will become a national model that can attract support from the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball virtually all professional sporting organizations ... to enhance opportunities for individuals, regardless of color or ethnic background, to move into front office jobs, managing the complex, multi-billion dollar sports enterprise in this country.
Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or Micki Leventhal, 312.344.7383
Chicago, May 2003 - Columbia College Chicago undergraduate commencement ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, June 1 at the UIC Pavilion, 1150 W. Harrison Street. Three outstanding individuals whose life work and example embody the college's ideals and spirit will share this year's commencement address, announced Columbia's president, Dr. Warrick L. Carter. There will be over 1,600 Bachelor of Arts diplomas awarded.
The three distinguished individuals to be honored at the undergraduate ceremony are:
Russell Simmons, hip-hop pioneer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Tony Kushner, playwright, Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa
Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa
Russell Simmons, CEO and chairman of Rush Communications, one of the largest African-American-owned media conglomerates. Over the last twenty years, he has brought Hip-Hop to every facet of media and pop culture: in music with Def Jam Recordings; in film with Simmons Lathan Media Group; in television with HBO's "The Def Comedy Jam" and "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry;" on Broadway with the critically-acclaimed stage production "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway;" in the fashion industry with the Phat Farm and Baby Phat clothing lines; in magazine publishing with OneWorld Magazine; and in the financial services industry with the RushCard.
In 1995 he and brothers, Danny and Joseph, founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, a non-profit arts foundation, dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as providing exhibition opportunities to under-represented artists and artists of color. Following the historic Hip Hop Summit Simmons organized in June 2001, he founded the Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to harness the cultural relevance of hip-hop music as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well-being of at-risk youth throughout the United States.
Tony Kushner gained international prominence and won critical acclaim with the first part of Angels in America, Millennium Approaches (1991). In 1993, it won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play. The second part of Angels in America, Perestroika (1993) won a second Tony for best play (1994). In the fall of 2003, HBO will present a 6-hour film version of Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. Kushner's work has been produced at theaters around the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. Kushner's latest play, Homebody/Kabul, will open at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater this June, and is being adapted for film by Mia Nair. Caroline, or Change, a musical he is writing with composer Jeanine Tesori, will open in the fall of 2003 at the The New York Shakespeare Festival, directed by George C. Wolfe. He is also collaborating with Maurice Sendak on an American version of the children's opera, Brundibar, to premier in the spring of 2003 at ChicagoOpera Theater.
Lois Weisberg, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, serves as a member of Mayor Richard M. Daley's cabinet and supervises the municipal department charged with making the arts accessible to all and promoting the City of Chicago to a worldwide audience through its many distinguished and diverse arts and cultural attractions. Among her many initiatives as cultural commissioner have been the establishment of the Chicago Cultural Center as the nation's first free municipal cultural center; creation of Gallery 37, Chicago's pioneering arts education program; and development of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program into a municipal program maintaining relationships with 23 cities in 22 countries. As head of the agency that operates the City's Office of Tourism, Weisberg has established Chicago as a national model in cultural tourism through programs that range from sending Chicago artists around the world as goodwill ambassadors of the city, to numerous public art exhibitions. In 1999, she spearheaded the public art exhibition Cows on Parade.
She is the founder and a member of the Board of Friends of the Parks, a citizens' parks advocacy organization. As the founder and chair of South Shore Recreation, a bi-state citizens' group, she played a leading role in saving passenger service on the Chicago South Bend and South Shore Railroad.
To be honored at the graduate ceremony Saturday, May 31 at Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress:
John Edgar Wideman, the only writer to have been awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice--once in 1984 for his novel Sent for You Yesterday and again in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. Weidman has won the Rea Award for the short story, the American Book Award for Fiction, the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction and the MacArthur Award. Other honors include the St. Botolph Literary Award (1993), the DuSable Museum Prize for Nonfiction for Brothers and Keepers (1985), the Longwood College Medal for Literary Excellence and the National Magazine Editors' Prize for Short Fiction (1987).
Henry Fogel is the retiring President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is also the chairman of the Illinois Arts Alliance and a vice-chairman of the Board of the American Symphony Orchestra League. He is a member of the Seaver Conducting Awards Panel and a record reviewer whose writings are published in Fanfare. He is also a contributor to Contemporary Composers, published by St. James Press in Chicago and London.
Columbia College Chicago is the country's premier visual, performing and media arts college. To learn more visit www.colum.edu.