Foundation grants assist numerous aspects of BAM’s
operations, including general and program support. These
grants provide a vital framework of support for BAM’s
mainstage presentations, as well as its Department of Education
and Humanities and community programs taking place in the
BAMcafé, the BAM Rose Cinemas, and in public spaces
in the neighborhoods surrounding the Academy.
The funder may choose to designate his/her support toward
a season, such as the Next Wave Festival or Spring Season;
toward discipline-based presentations, such as opera or theater;
or toward a specific production. Others, with a particular
interest in education and community, may restrict their support
to the Department of Education and Humanities as a whole
or for one of its numerous programs, such as the DanceAfrica
Education Program or Brooklyn Reads, or for other programs
that engage specific populations from throughout New York
City.
Programs supported with foundation gifts include:
Next Wave Festival
Spring Season
BAM Dance
BAM Music
BAM Opera
BAM Theater
BAM Rose Cinemas
Department
of Education and Humanities BAMcafé
Community Programs
Next Wave Festival
BAM's flagship presentation, the annual Next Wave Festival (inaugurated
in 1983), features performances in all disciplines with an emphasis
on contemporary international work. During its history, the Festival
has featured outstanding work from artists such as Robert Wilson,
Laurie Anderson, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Tan Dun, Jan Lauwers,
Pina Bausch, Philip Glass, and Bill T. Jones.
Spring Season
BAM's annual Spring Season presents the following discipline-based
performing arts programs: BAM Dance, BAM Music, BAM Opera,
and BAM Theater. Each is described below.
BAM Dance
U.S.-based dance artists such as Mark Morris, Bill T. Jones,
and Mikhail Baryshnikov; European choreographers such as
Pina Bausch and Angelin Preljocaj; and Asian artists such
as Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Sankai Juku have
all been presented at BAM in recent seasons, helping audiences
to gain an appreciation for ballet, modern, and indigenous
dance forms. Leading troupes from Africa and the African
Diaspora are presented each season through the annual DanceAfrica
festival.
BAM Music
In January 2003, BAM launched BAM Music: Rhythm & BAM, a new
component of the Spring Season devoted to celebrating the vast
contributions of African-American artists to American music,
and to galvanizing the relationship between BAM and its community.
Complementary programs in the BAMcafé further the objectives
of this initiative.
BAM Opera
BAM Opera formally inaugurated its opera program in 1989 to
foster innovation and to develop an alternative vision of opera
for American audiences. BAM Opera features contemporary staging
concepts from notable directors, rarely performed works, and
significant productions by opera companies from the U.S. and
abroad.
BAM Theater
BAM has established a reputation as a leader in presenting
acclaimed international theater, providing a New York venue
for the best companies from around the world. BAM has been
successful in providing American audiences the chance to
see the work of great directors who do not necessarily work
in English (simultaneous translation or supertitles are available).
BAM Rose Cinemas
The BAM Rose Cinemas feature first-run independent and international
films. One screen is devoted to BAMcinématek, a unique repertory
series that includes classic American and foreign films,
documentaries, retrospectives, and film festivals as well
as special thematic series that relate to BAM's mainstage
offerings.
Department of Education and Humanities BAM's
educational programs are carefully developed and selected to
be age-appropriate, each appealing to a specific constituency:
kaBAM offers programming for elementary school students and
Generation BAM consists of programs for intermediate and high
school students. Programs include school-time performances
and on-site initiatives; collaborative projects with community-based
organizations such as the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration corporation;
and BAMfamily, a program of low-cost Saturday morning presentations
for parents and their kids. Adult humanities programs include
pre-performance BAMdialogues, BAMtalks, and related programs.
BAMcafé
The BAMcafé is a flexible "public living room" for ticket holders
as well as the general public. The BAMcafé Live series, which
takes place in the BAMcafé, encompasses a wide variety of musical
styles and genres, including spoken word-based art forms. BAM
places special emphasis on showcasing young emerging artists
as well as local Brooklyn artists in the BAMcafé.
Community Programs
BAM's community programs include the annual Tribute to Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.; the free Rhythm & Blues Festival at
MetroTech (in association with the Brooklyn MetroTech Downtown
Fund); the Ticket Assistance Program, which offers hundreds
of free and discounted tickets for BAM mainstage presentations
and films to schools and community groups; the annual DanceAfrica
festival performances, Bazaar, and related education component;
and certain locally-focused BAMcafé Live and BAMcinématek presentations.
BAM's newest community programming initiative is the mainstage
series, Rhythm & BAM.
Contact us
BAM will work directly with the funder to achieve the
desired results of the gift, which could be made on an annual
or a multi-year basis. For more information, please contact
Grants Director, William Lynch.
Phone: 718.636.4132
E-mail: planning@bam.org
Fax: 718.636.4171
Address: 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217