The Juilliard School in New York City has announced several initiatives and projects designed to make the institution “more diverse and ever more collaborative,” according to incoming President Damian Woetzel. In the new Juilliard Creative Associates Program, artists will lead workshops and discussions, teach classes, and collaborate with faculty and students to generate interdisciplinary work across the school’s divisions. The 2018-19 group includes bandleader and Juilliard alumnus Jon Batiste, dancers and choreographers Lil Buck and Michelle Dorrance, actor and clown Bill Irwin, and musician and composer Caroline Shaw. A centerpiece of Juilliard’s new Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiative will be a collaboration with the Sphinx Organization, the Detroit-based national entity focused on increasing diversity in the arts. In summer 2019, the organizations will launch the new Sphinx Performance Academy at Juilliard, a summer intensive for young Black and Latinx string players, with plans to expand the program to other instruments. The initiative will include a renewed focus on training and curriculum as well as performances and programming focused on diversity. Woetzel will teach Juilliard’s “The Arts in Society” course, with guest lecturers including Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Vijay Gupta, a Juilliard alumnus and co-founder of Street Symphony; Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans; and composer Caroline Shaw.
Posted September 11, 2018
