Alliance for the Arts Announces Seven Groups to Watch; Showcase on 1/24

The Alliance for the Arts today announced its list of Emerging Voices of 2011: Seven Groups to Watch. These groups are all New York City nonprofit cultural organizations are innovative in the services they offer and extend their recognized expertise to audiences that are often not engaged in the arts. The Alliance will showcase and celebrate these groups at its Eighth Annual Friends of the Arts Party on January 24.

The Alliance believes that each of these seven organizations-whether by the audiences they serve, the content they create, the talent they foster, or the new perspectives they provide- offers a unique value that invigorates New York's cultural scene with new energy and direction. In five years or less, they have established themselves as important members of the arts community with lasting abilities to continue and build upon their work.

Bushwick Starr
The Bushwick Starr is a performance venue and presenting organization dedicated to bringing art and artists to the Bushwick community. The group offers a professional and supportive space for artists to develop and present new theater, dance and music, fostering an open social environment in which artists and audiences interact.

Citywide Youth Opera
Citywide Youth Opera provides young singers in-depth musical, dramatic and interpretive training, culminating in a public performance of operatic works by the great composers from the Baroque through contemporary periods. The program is open to students ages 14 to 21.

Dances For A Variable Population
Dance artist Naomi Goldberg Haas choreographs dynamic concert dances with diverse communities and age groups. Her performing group, Dances for a Variable Population, aims to erase the border between dancer and non-dancer, returning dance to its initial wellspring: joy.

Talea Ensemble
Talea Ensemble advances contemporary music by bringing it to venues in New York and abroad while also introducing works from overseas to New York audiences.

Theatre Askew
Since 2004, Theatre Askew's productions have redefined LGBT theater by using queerness as a metaphor for all who stand on the margins of American society.

Tong Xiao Ling Chinese Opera Ensemble
Established in 2005, this company performs classic Beijing Opera works with a full orchestra and costuming for local communities, schools and colleges throughout the metropolitan area. Director Tong Xiao Ling's family has been performing Chinese Opera for four generations. The company seeks to train new artists in this form.

UnionDocs
Based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, UnionDocs presents a broad range of innovative and thought-provoking non-fiction projects to the general public, while also cultivating specialized opportunities for learning, critical discourse, and creative collaboration for emerging media-makers, theorists and curators.

Additional detailed information on these organizations and their events and programs is available on NYC-ARTS.org, NYCkidsARTS.org and the NYC ARTS iPhone App. .

The Friends of the Arts Party will be held at Christie's on Monday, January 24, 2011, 6:30 pm. The evening includes cocktails, music and a private viewing of Christie's Winter Sale of Old Masters & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors. Tickets may be purchased by visiting AllianceforArts.org or by calling (212) 947-6340.