Brainstorm Forum: Apply NOW!!

Brainstorm Forum: This open forum invites emerging artists to display a work in progress to an audience & panel of professionals for artistic feedback. This monthly event will be held at Chez Bushwick on the following dates:8:30pm-10:30pm oct 20th & nov 18th. The Brainstorm Forum was created to allow for artistic growth from presentation experience, and to promote cross disciplinary artist networking. We invite creators of all types to apply. Limited space is available. Please submit your application at http;//www.surgeinitiative.com (programs page/brainstorm forum). all pieces or presentations must be under 10 minutes. please provide a brief explanation of work when applying.

Master Class Series: Release

Master Class Series: open for all levels this free community class will be held weekly at Chez Bushwick. The first series will feature RobinSimpson: Contemporary:Release. Robin is a founding member of SURGE Performance Initiative, Inc, has performed in Cats, Beauty & the Beast, Sweet Charity, Willm-S, and West Side Story. She has brought choreography to stages with Willm-S, Flapper, Showboat, New Way Dance Alliance, and ZetaFest. She has over 10 years of teaching experience of all levels. She has taught Kinesiology and currently works as the Fitness Director and alignment/post rehab personal trainer at Complete Body Development in NYC. This contemporary class is great for individuals of all levels to explore movement and self expression. No previous dance experienced required but always welcomed. All levels of dancer will be challenged. Ages most appropriate for all classes are 14-adult. For more information on classes, please write to info@surgeinitiative.com

Classes will be held at Chez Bushwick 304 Boerum Street #23 Brooklyn NY

4-6pm

oct 20th

oct 27th

nov 3rd

5-7pm

nov 10th

nov 17th

We Need Interns

We are looking for 2-3 volunteer intern positions. Interns will receive college credit or a donation receipt for tax purposes.


What we are looking for:

Administrative Intern (1-2 positions)- Works primarily from home via email communication. Will be responsible for data entry, managing schedules & assistance with community events (2 per month). Interns will need to attend our weekly meetings (2 hours), Upper West Side, which food & fun will be provided. This position is perfect for a upper high school student or college student. Entire position only requires about 10 hours per week, mostly done on your own schedule. Intern is eligible for our Class Card Scholarship Award and are encouraged to participate in our community classes. Should have experience or an interest in the arts.

Marketing Intern- (1 position) Works primarily from home via email communication. Will be responsible for managing our blog, info email account, keeping up to date with affiliates events and programs, designing advertisements and distributing information to the community regarding our events, creating a monthly newsletter & delegating intern if needed. Interns will need to attend our weekly meetings (2 hours), Upper West Side, which food & fun will be provided. This is a volunteered position, which candidate will be given first consideration for the salaried position in January 2010. Entire position only requires about 10 hours per week, mostly done on your own schedule. This position is perfect for marketing/advertising students and/or professionals. Should have experience or an interest in the arts.

Accounting Intern- (1 position) Works primarily from home via email communication. Interns will need to attend an occasional weekly meeting (2 hours), Upper West Side, which food & fun will be provided. This will only be necessary in the preparation for an event. This is a volunteered position of about 2-3 hours per week on average or 8-10 hours per week during an event. Intern would be responsible for building budget for events, managing accounts revenue & commissions from events & classes, events projection. This position is perfect for accounting professionals who are required to volunteer for career purposes and/or higher education accounting students. Should have experience or an interest in the arts.

Please submit all resumes and availability to: robin.simpson@surgeinitiative.com

Artist in Residence & Project RETROGRADE

We have accepted our first Artist in Residence, a very talented up and coming photographer Jenna Gard (see bio below). She will be the starting point in RETROGRADE, working with concept/choreographer Robin Lynn Simpson to create the first collaborative performance piece to be presented at the Fundraising Gala this late summer/early fall. We are still looking for more artists for [this piece] the piece RETROGRADE. Still in needed of: writer, musicians/musical director, and acting coach/director. Please submit your resume and sample of work to robin.simpson@surgeinitiative.com RE: retrograde application

RETROGRADE iArtists in Residence will work a typical creative process in reverse starting with a photographic storyboard. The storyboards will then be passed to a writer who will develop dialogue, then on to a choreographer whose dance will ultimately be set with an original score, and finally completed with stage direction. In this unique approach we hope to open new doors and inspire creativity among up and coming artists.

Photographer/Artist in Residence: Jenna Gard is feeling fine in 2009, and it's extremely excited to be a part of the SURGE crew! Currently a student of photography at Marymount Manhattan College and International Center of Photography, she will be graduating in 2010. Hailing from Sarasota, Fl., her background is in a multitude of things, ranging from the visual fine arts to technical theatre and stage managing, and the prospect of constant collaboration is something she enjoys in being able to push her art further. She has been the recipient of the Disney Dreamers and Doers Award, a NFAA youngARTS Award, and has recently had her work show in a number of small shows featuring herself and her peers. Thank you to everyone who has gotten her to where she is, and everyone who will take her to where she is going. "New art should not arouse hostility among the learned, but does, and alas always will." -Alan Ginsberg

Outreach Programs Offered in our 2009-11 Seasons

I. Brainstorm Forum

Artists today are met with increasingly prohibitive expenses with regard to securing rehearsal and performance venues; for this reason, they lack opportunities to expose developing work to trial audiences for the purpose of gaining feedback.

Once a month SURGE will be offering a no-fee forum for artists, particularly emerging artists, to show works-in-progress to an invited audience of SURGE Board Members and established artists in related fields. Brainstorm Forum will be held in NYC. Location and start date TBA.

Population to be served: Artists of any performance-related discipline including, but not limited to, music, dance, writing, set design, video, etc… who would benefit from the opportunity to show and gain feedback on work-in-progress.


If interested in participating please submit an email to info@surgeinitiative.com with the following information:

Name:
Artistic Medium:
Title of Piece:
Short description of piece:
If additional performers are needed, what is the total head count for your piece including your self?
Please list items or props you will be bringing:
Will you need a sound system for your piece?
Email:
Phone:
Web-site:
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II.Class Card Scholarship Award

The cost of open-enrollment arts classes, a source of ongoing education critical to artists and aspiring artists, is prohibitively expensive. Recipients will be awarded a 10-class card to be utilized in an intensive period of arts study. SURGE staff will work with the recipient to formulate a schedule of classes that will expose the artist to new styles and/or disciplines.

Population to be served: New-to-the-arts individuals, and aspiring/professional artists who have financial difficulties affording open-enrollment arts classes in New York City.

For more information on The Class Card Scholarship Program please email us at info@surgeinitiative.com

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III. Master Class Series

High-quality performing arts instruction is prohibitively expensive for many community members and dancers; master classes currently offered are limited in diversity of styles, levels and philosophies. SURGE Performance Initiative offers The Master Class Series, which exposes artists and community members of all backgrounds and ages to high-quality performing arts training in a spectrum of styles at low or no cost. All members of the general public are welcome to participate, from beginning to professional skill levels. Classes will be held in New York City.

The Master Class Series will offer six no-fee, two-hour performing arts classes once a week for six weeks. Each class will be open-enrollment. Each series will highlight one specific style (ex. world dance, jazz theory, contemporary theory, musical theater, performance art, etc…). A different master instructor will teach each class. There will be a suggested donation of $10 (optional but not required). Each series will be video documented for assistance in future funding opportunities.

For more information on The Master Class Program please email us at info@surgeinitiative.com
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Licenses On The Way. YES!

In two-three weeks we will officially be 501(3)(c). Yes that's right, Non-For-Profit. The state has received our application and is "in process". WOW this is exciting. Stay updated and receive email updates on our blog posts. Please set up a subscription as well as becoming a follower. This way you wont miss a beat of this exciting endeavor.

Our Mission

Mission Statement

SURGE Performance Initiative seeks to unite people of all backgrounds in study and celebration of multi-disciplinary performance art; the organization is committed to strengthening culture in our community by promoting collaboration between artists of different disciplines and providing for the formation of new work.

Organizational Overview

SURGE Performance Initiative (hereafter referred to as “SURGE”) was organized exclusively for charitable, educational, and artistic purposes. Specifically, SURGE is dedicated to building interdisciplinary collaboration in the performing arts. SURGE maintains that drawing together individuals’ skills from distinct disciplines and cultures supplies insight into our self and others, nurtures new means of expression, strengthens arts culture, and connects us more deeply to our shared humanity.

SURGE programming serves three core interest areas: education, community outreach, and performance.