Ford Foundation Names OSF's Bill Rauch Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch has been named a Distinguished Visiting Fellow under a new effort by the Ford Foundation centered on the roles art and culture play in illuminating and addressing urgent issues of equity, opportunity, and justice in the U.S. and around the globe. The yearlong exploration, The Art of Change, reaffirms the central importance of creativity and cultural expression to healthy societies at a time when they are increasingly under threat.

"Changes in the world around us demand, more than ever, that we recognize and celebrate art, creativity, and freedom of expression as the revolutionary forces they are," said Darren Walker, president of Ford Foundation. "Widening inequality, growing extremism, evolving technology, and volatile markets render art - and its unique role in effecting social change - more important, not less, for societies today."

Each of the 13 Fellows will study a thought-provoking issue or question during the course of the fellowship, ranging from the role of artists and artwork to challenge rising extremism, to literature's ability to elucidate the impact of climate change, to the importance of increasing diversity in leadership roles in the cultural institutions.

Rauch will use his fellowship to explore issues related to diversity and inclusion in American theater, among them enabling more young directors of color to work with the classics, diversifying audiences for regional theater and fostering innovations in gender-blind casting.

"This fellowship is an extraordinary honor," Rauch said. "The Ford Foundation is an international leader in fostering positive social change through the arts. I look forward to learning from this program, including the giants who have also been appointed visiting fellows."

Rauch has been challenging ideas of what theater is, and who makes theater, since 1986 when he and Alison Carey co-founded Cornerstone Theater. With his unwavering beliefs that artistic expression is civic engagement and access to a creative forum is essential to the health of every individual and community, Cornerstone pioneered new approaches to produce outstanding new work based on the concerns of specific communities. Rauch served as artistic director there until 2006 when he moved to Oregon and became OSF's fifth artistic director in 2007, after several seasons at the Festival as a guest director. In the past eight years, he has led a process of re-envisioning the festival's overall artistic program and its relationship to its communities and has directed four world premieres and 15 other productions. Among his initiatives at OSF, Rauch committed to commissioning up to 37 new plays to dramatize moments of change in American history. American Revolutions: the U.S. History Cycle, now in its sixth year of productions, has premiered six plays at OSF to date, all of which have moved on to other theaters across the country. He initiated the Black Swan Lab for New Work and a community-based format for the Green Show. Classic musicals as well as important plays outside of the Western canon are a more regular part of the OSF season playbill under his artistic leadership. He is known for his passionate dedication to diversifying the company and the audience.

In addition to Rauch, the 12 other Visiting Fellows include:

• Robert Battle, artistic director, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
• Amitav Ghosh, author
• Thelma Golden, director and chief curator, Studio Museum in Harlem
• David Henry Hwang, dramatist
• Deeyah Khan, music producer and filmmaker
• Arnold Lehman, director, Brooklyn Museum
• Joy Mboya, executive director, GoDown Arts Centre
• Laura Poitras, filmmaker
• Toshi Reagon, composer and musician
• Pedro Reyes, visual artist
• Albie Sachs, activist, jurist and author
• Carrie Mae Weems, visual artist

The Art of Change initiative is intended to help determine how the Ford Foundation can most effectively advance the arts-and by, extension, drive social change-in an increasingly diverse and evolving world. To help prompt and inform fresh thinking, the foundation is awarding a series of fellowships to exemplary artists and cultural leaders, each distinguished in their field, whose work touches on issues of equity and justice. The fellowships seek to inspire innovation and encourage civic dialogue, giving fellows the opportunity to study issues that intersect with the foundation's work and reflect the cultural richness of diverse communities around the world.

The arts have long been central to Ford's mission. Throughout its history, the foundation has invested in and supported key ideas, individuals, and institutions on the local, national, and international scene, supporting several generations of arts leaders who are firmly grounded in the communities in which they reside.

Founded by Angus Bowmer in 1935 and winner of a 1983 Tony Award for outstanding achievement in regional theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a major theatre arts organization that presents an eight-month season consisting of 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and new works.. The Festival also draws attendance of more than 400,000 to almost 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals. In 2008, OSF launched American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, a 10-year cycle of commissioning new plays that has already resulted in several OSF commissions finding success nationwide.

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