Program areas at National Sawdust
Original Music Workshop / National Sawdust offered a robust roster of artistic programming for our 2022-23 season (season 8). There were approximately 80 in-person performances, welcoming over 10,426 attendees to our space.
Our season 8 mentorship programs provided impact mentoring supporting artists at all stages of their careers. Student colab, our flagship education program, collaborated with el puente williamsburg to engage young students in the process of creating Original Music guided by teaching artists; blueprint fellows project in collaboration with the juilliard school helped students and recent alumni design a blueprint for their artistic and professional life; hildegard commission, for composers who are women and other marginalized genders, provided an in-depth commissioning, mentorship, and recording program with $5k commission premiering works by the ns ensemble; toulmin fellowship in partnership with center for ballet and the arts at nyu provided creative and financial support with mentorship designed to foster collaborations between composers and choreographers.
National Sawdust produced and hosted many festivals and public programs during season 8 - in "archive of desire", robin coste lewis, julie mehretu, vijay iyer, jeffrey zeigler, and charlotte brathwaite meditated on the sensuality of greek poet c. p. cavafy, part of the "archive of desire" festival by the onassis foundation curated by composer paola prestini, co-founder and artistic director of National Sawdust, and under the creative direction of afroditi panagiotakou, onassis foundation's director of culture; nationalsawdust+ continued with "for nature," three programs exploring the natural world with artists and musicians, scientists, and leaders and activists working to preserve and restore the environment; moral injuries of war, led by jack saul, was a Workshop for veterans, held on memorial day to provide participants tools for working through trauma via facilitated story-telling, Music, and dance; winter jazzfest was hosted featuring mark giuliana, zoh amba, photay; and many more.
National Sawdust continued to invest in written and multimedia work featuring artists presented on its stage with "ideas zone," a digital-first platform of arts, innovation, and ideas. Ideas zone produced 49 articles across 9 months related to s8 programming. In addition to reviewing and interviewing s8 artists, ideas zone invested in digital content like playlists, performance video premieres, and photo essays. Ideas zone fostered creativity and diversity of thought by working with organizations like unrestricted interest, sounds of saving, and nyu to produce collaborative works. Led by poet lynne procope, ideas zone would strengthen the poetic throughline of its work throughout season 8 by programming two poet openers for s8 performances and publishing 11 poems, including new work by chicago's first poet laureate avery r. young.