Pivot Arts Announces Departure Of Director Julieanne Ehre, New Partnership With Northwestern's Wirtz Center

Pivot Arts, a hub for adventurous, multidisciplinary performance, announces the departure of Director Julieanne Ehre, who has been appointed assistant director for programming and engagement at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
 
Ehre has served as Pivot's director since co-founding the organization 10 years ago. She has conceived the organization's programming and curated and produced the Pivot Arts Festival, Pivot Arts Podcast, and site-specific works. She has directed Pivot's incubator program in partnership with faculty and staff at Loyola University Chicago, and she has developed multidisciplinary works by more than 30 artistic groups. She has produced discussion events with artistic and civic leaders, including Senator Richard J. Durbin. Newcity cited Ehre as one of “50 People Who Perform for Chicago” in 2019 and 2022. Under her leadership, Pivot Arts has been a hub for innovative performances and a home for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and diverse artists and audiences.
 
“Pivot Arts has been essential to celebrating multidisciplinary works in Chicago,” Ehre said. “With many theaters struggling post-pandemic, I hope other local organizations will follow suit in getting out of their silos of 'theater' and/or 'dance' and finding ways to cross-pollinate artists and audience. I'm excited to see where Pivot lands down the road, and I look forward to continuing to create space for innovative and adventurous performance works at the Krannert Center.”

Moving forward, Pivot Arts is entering into a new partnership with the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Centers at Northwestern University to co-produce a residency for Anna Martine Whitehead's new work in development, FORCE! an opera in three acts. A meditation on Black women, femmes, and queer people in invisible places like prison waiting rooms, FORCE! was part of the 2022 Pivot Arts Festival. Ayanna Woods is music director, and composers are Whitehead, Woods, Angel Bat Dawid, and Philip Armstrong. Pivot's plan is to produce a workshop of FORCE! in January 2024.
 
To help oversee this project, Pivot Arts welcomes new board member Jorge Silva, managing director for the Wirtz Center. He previously served as managing director for The Neo-Futurists and was producing coordinator for The Goodman Theatre. 
 
Joining Silva in this effort is Pivot Arts board member and artistic associate Tanya Palmer, assistant dean and executive artistic director in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She previously spent 14 seasons as producer and director of New Play Development at The Goodman Theatre, where she led new play programs, and five seasons as the director of new play development at Actors Theatre of Louisville. 
 
“As a longtime supporter, collaborator, and now board member of Pivot Arts, I'm incredibly grateful for all the work Julieanne has done to establish a vibrant organization that has offered artists and audiences unique, revelatory experiences during its 10-year history,” Palmer stated. “I am also thrilled that Northwestern University and the Wirtz Center can partner with Pivot at this critical moment to continue to support and incubate interdisciplinary artists like Anna Martine Whitehead and Ayanna Woods.”

Pivot Arts amplifies adventurous artists by creating and presenting contemporary, forward-thinking works across performance genres. The organization brings diverse people together through uniquely presented arts experiences, often in unusual spaces. 
 
Pivot Arts is funded in part by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Edgewater Chamber of Commerce, FLATS, the Illinois Arts Council, and the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

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