Andrew W. Mellon News

The Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue Campus celebrates the return of Art After Hours, its signature monthly program, and the new school year on Tuesday, September 2, from 5 to 9 p.m. This year Art After Hours moves to the First Tuesday of the month, with a new lineup of events. Join us on the terrace for DJ-curated music and complimentary refreshments throughout the evening. At 6 p.m., come inside for an overview of the collection and the introduction of the first work in the museum's “Big Ten: Art” talks, followed by a guided tour of the new exhibition “Jesse Krimes: Apokaluptein: 16389067.” Admission to the museum and activities are free for all. For details, please visit www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu.

Texas Performing Arts welcomes back the iconic Martha Graham Dance Company on Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 8pm at Bass Concert Hall for the first time in many seasons performing a program of signature and new works.

The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to announce the publication of its first online scholarly catalogues, Monet: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago and Renoir: Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago.

A Stonewall-era drag queen and the cop entranced by her. A princess manipulates her captor during the Crusades. A man's literal vacation from Hell. On­­­­ Friday, September 12 and Sunday, September 14 at 7:30 PM, AOP (American Opera Projects) will present these and other excerpts of new operas at COMPOSERS & THE VOICE: SIX SCENES 2014, the culmination of this season's Composers & the Voice (C&V) opera training program. Audiences will see scenes by five emerging composers - Guy Barash, Avner Finberg, Jeremy Gill, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Gity Razaz - and one composer/librettist team, Joseph Rubinstein and Jason Kim, who were chosen by AOP to spend a year creating new works focusing on the operatic voice. The performances will be held at South Oxford Space in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, home of AOP. Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for students/seniors and are available at www.operaprojects.org.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival's CultureFest will celebrate multiethnic heritage and the diverse work on the Festival's stages September 11-14, 2014. Held every other year, among CultureFest's 2014 offerings are play readings and discussions, multicultural Green Shows and Spanish open-captioned performances of three plays.

Sheldon Best, Sun Mee Chomet, Lizan Mitchell, Chris Myers and Taliyah Whitaker will comprise the cast of the upcoming LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater New York premiere production of brownsville song (b-side for tray), a new play by Kimber Lee. The production, to be directed by Patricia McGregor, will begin performances Saturday, October 4, running for six weeks only through Sunday, November 16 at the Claire Tow Theater (150 West 65 Street). Opening night is Monday, October 20.

Texas Performing Arts opens the 2014-2015 Season with the world premiere of BASETRACK LIVE, a multimedia experience that delves into the human cost of war, September 11-13 at McCullough Theatre. This multimedia theatrical production uses live music, journalism, and technology to spark a conversation about the legacy of war.

Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director, today announced three major new scholarship initiatives at the New Museum. The Museum, which has always been at the forefront of artistic inquiry and experimentation, is an ideal place to conduct scholarship in contemporary art. Thoughtful and incisive platforms for discussion and debate around contemporary culture are a founding principal of the New Museum's mission. As the field, community, and audience for contemporary art continues to expand exponentially, geographically, and demographically, the need for scholarship has never been greater and the Museum is rededicating itself to this core purpose.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announces the 2014 Round 2 recipients of the Leadership U[niversity]-One-on-One program. Through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, grants of $75,000 have been awarded to six exceptionally talented early-career leaders from all areas of theatre for professional development via mentorships at a TCG Member Theatre, with an additional $5,000 honorarium for their mentor. The goal of this program is to strengthen the field by developing the individuals who are the core and the future of theatre.

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 42nd Rolling World Premiere: Robert Caisley's Lucky Me will receive four productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2014/15 season. Lucky Me will begin its Rolling World Premiere at Core Member New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch, NJ, today, August 2 - 31, 2014), followed by performances at Core Member Curious Theatre (Denver, CO, dates TBA), Core Member Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA, January 24 -February 15, 2015), and Associate Member 6th Street Playhouse (Santa Rosa, CA January 30-February 15, 2015).

While construction continues and St. Ann's works to raise the final $2 million of its $30 million capital campaign, the organization will present a stellar final season in its temporary home at 29 Jay Street in DUMBO. It kicks off this October when TR Warszawa and director Grzegorz Jarzyna return for the American Premiere of their internationally acclaimed production of Sarah Kane's 4:48 Psychosis, which St. Ann's Founder / Artistic Director Susan Feldman has wanted to bring to New York since she first saw it in February 2004 -- the same year St. Ann's presented the American Premiere of the original Royal Court production of Kane's play. St. Ann's Warehouse also announced the following season highlights today: Emma Rice and Kneehigh, The Wooster Group, the Slovenian choral group Carmina Slovenica, and The Tiger Lillies.

Theatre for a New Audience Founding Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz announces the second season at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, Brooklyn.

Single tickets are on sale now for The Public Theater's 2014-15 season that will include three world premiere musicals, a free Public Works musical adaptation of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, new plays by Suzan-Lori Parks, Young Jean Lee, and Lemon Andersen, Bridget Everett's new show at Joe's Pub, the 11th edition of the acclaimed Under the Radar Festival, the continuation of the Mobile Shakespeare Unit, the fifth season of Public Forum, New Work Now!, the Emerging Writers Group Spotlight Series and $20 tickets to Public Lab, now in its eighth year. Single tickets are available by calling (212) 967-7555, at www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at Astor Place at 425 Lafayette Street.

HERE announces its 2014-2015 producing season, commencing Labor Day Weekend with the premiere of the Artistic Director production, Trade Practices, by Kristin Marting & David Evans Morris; and followed by the HERE Resident Artist productions Send for the Million Men by Joseph Silvosky and Bloowst windku by Rebecca Davis. HERE's upcoming season also includes the third annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/ Now festival and HERE's yearly CULTUREMART festival, which gives audiences a first look at new work in process from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). The multidisciplinary productions in HERE's 2014-2015 season represent the culmination of commissions and developmental residencies of up to three years through HARP, and/or the Dream Music Puppetry Program.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that 6.2 million people—from New York City, the tri-state area, across the United States, and 187 foreign countries—visited the Museum during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. For the third year in a row, attendance at the Museum has exceeded six million—the highest levels of visitorship since the Museum began tracking admission statistics more than 40 years ago. The number includes attendance at both the main building on Fifth Avenue and The Cloisters museum and gardens in upper Manhattan, the branch of the Metropolitan devoted to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. The Cloisters experienced a remarkable 50% increase in attendance in the past fiscal year, attracting nearly 350,000 visitors.

The combined Boards of Olney Theatre Center for the Arts and Olney Theatre Corporation, led by President Jennifer Kneeland, are pleased to announce the appointment of Deborah Ellinghaus as Managing Director, beginning August 26, 2014.

The National New Play Network (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, in collaboration with the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and Stanford University's National Center for New Plays, will host nearly fifty playwrights, directors and dramaturgs today, July 26 - August 3, 2014 as part of a week-long workshop for new works by MFA students from New York University-Tisch School of the Arts, Hunter College, University of California-San Diego, and the Juilliard School.

Glimmerglass Festival presents An American Tragedy, July 20 - August 24, 2014. Check out a first look below!

Two River Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director John Dias and Managing Director Michael Hurst, has concluded its 20th Anniversary Season, highlighted by far-reaching new-play development activities supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The season was bookended by the Two River directorial debuts of acclaimed actors Joel Grey (Paul Osborn's On Borrowed Time) and Michael Cumpsty (Wendy Wasserstein's Third).

Sundance Institute and the LUMA Foundation today announced that the two organizations will again collaborate to host the second Sundance Institute | LUMA Foundation Theatre Directors Retreat in Arles, France, July 29 through August 11. The Retreat is one of 10 residential programs hosted by Sundance Institute this summer, collectively representing 15 weeks of support and mentorship for promising independent artists in theatre and film from the United States and around the world.