Press Releases

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Announces Jazz Touring Network Class Six
Grantees Receive Jazz Presenting Training and Tour Support

Baltimore, MD - Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation has announced its 2006-2007 Jazz Touring Network class. As part of its efforts to support jazz throughout the region, the Foundation has partnered with the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, DC to establish and train a network of emerging jazz presenters and support tours to their venues. The Foundation solicits applications from presenters in underserved areas of the region that have experience presenting other art forms, but limited practice with jazz.

Selected for class six are: Delaware Valley Arts Consortium, Frazer, PA; Jefferson Center Foundation, Ltd., Roanoke, VA; Music at Gretna, Inc., Elizabethtown, PA; and Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, Camden, NJ.  Representatives from these organizations recently attended an orientation session on November 12-13, 2006 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, MD.  The agenda included sessions on jazz programming and audience development, as well as time to review potential artists for 2007-2008 tours. 

Class Six joins eight other presenters who are continuing participants in the Jazz Touring Network program.  These presenters include: Carnegie Hall, Inc., Lewisburg, WV; Clay Center for the Arts and Science of West Virginia, Charleston, WV; Garth Newel Music Center Foundation, Inc., Warm Springs, VA; Germantown Cultural Arts Center, Germantown, MD; Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; Paramount Center for the Arts Peekskill, NY; Smyrna-Clayton Heritage Association, Smyrna, DE; and the Virginia Arts Festival, Inc., Norfolk, VA.

The presenters attend a total of six training sessions over a three-year period, building organizational capacity to support a stronger infrastructure for jazz programming in their communities and throughout the region. Faculty for the sessions is comprised of jazz industry and arts presenting professionals from across the country.

The participating presenters also select artists for regional tours to their venues and receive Foundation grants to support multiple jazz engagements.  In 2006/2007, the Foundation will support engagements by pianist Cyrus Chestnut, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, vocalist Rachael Price, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Orchestra.

The Jazz Touring Network is supported by funds from the National Endowment of the Arts Regional Performing Arts Touring Program.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supports the richness and diversity of the region’s arts resources and promotes wider access to the art and artists of the region, nation and world. The region includes nine states and jurisdictions that are closely related by geography or culture: District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, and West Virginia.