[New-Poetry] Dodge Festival cancelled for 2010, possibly for good

Fri Jan 16 12:41:13 EST 2009

In this same vein, one of the residencies I'd applied for last summer sent out notice that they did not have the financial means to sponsor a residency this year: the Robert M. MacNamara Foundation.? All applicants got the same form letter saying that the foundation's losses were too great and that they could not finance any residencies this year.

I think we'll see more and more situations like this in the next couple of years.

Mill

-----Original Message-----
From: TheOldMole <Opus40-01 at opus40.org>
Sent: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 9:23 am
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Dodge Festival cancelled for 2010, possibly for good

Bad.?
?
browning at splitthisrock.org wrote:?
> Thought you'd be interested to know that the Dodge Festival is OFF, at > least through 2010, possible for good. Here's a letter from the > organizer with details:?
>?
> From: David Grant, President and CEO, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation > Greetings to you all at the beginning of a new year. Some of you may > know that we have reduced the Dodge Foundation's grantmaking budgets > annually since 2002 in an effort to develop a sustainable approach to > grantmaking and initiatives in relation to our assets. During that > period, we have reduced all areas of our giving except for Poetry. The > severity of the recent financial downturn--a 30% decline in > assets--has meant that we must finally reduce that budget as well, at > least for the near future.?
>?
> I know how much Dodge's work in Poetry means to so many of you, and I > wanted to let you know the Foundation will remain committed to Poetry > as a signature interest. But financial realities are forcing us to > take a different approach to our Poetry activities in 2009 and 2010. > Specifically, and most importantly, we know we will not be able to > produce a Poetry Festival in September 2010 on the scale of past > Festivals. We will maintain much of our work with New Jersey teachers > of poetry this spring, and we will actually expand our efforts to make > the audio and video archives of past Festivals readily available via > YouTube and other means for all who want to enjoy them. Yet we must at > least take a cycle off from the biennial Festival as you have known it > and, depending on how things turn out, we may need to "reinvent" the > Festival on either a more affordable scale or in a more affordable > venue. (Unfortunately, over the last three Festivals, the production > costs have more than doubled, and a mere 20% of the Festival budget > went toward hiring the poets at the very center of the event.) >?
> Under these circumstances, our esteemed colleague Jim Haba will move > this year from Poetry Director to Consultant to the Foundation. > His longtime associate Martin Farawell will take on the role of > Program Director for Poetry and lead our efforts with the Archive and > other Poetry initiatives. Neither you nor we have seen the last of > Jim, but I wanted to take this opportunity to acknowledge and > celebrate his remarkable achievements as the guiding spirit behind the > Dodge Poetry Festivals since 1986. First as a consultant working with > the Dodge Founding Executive Director Scott McVay, then later as our > full-time Poetry Director, Jim strove tirelessly to create, in his own > words, "a space in which poetry can assume its rightful place at the > center of our imaginative and emotional lives." The result has been a > singular international poetry event, one which instead of featuring > scholarly papers or professional advice always gave priority to the > simple, direct and profound experience of coming together and > listening to poets and poetry. The late Stanley Kunitz went to the > heart of the matter, I think, when he praised the Festivals' great > democratic spirit. Over the course of its twenty-two year history, > the biennial Festivals drew approximately 140,000 people from 42 > states--including 17,000 teachers and 42,000 high school students who > attended without charge and traveled from as far away as Florida, > Maine, Minnesota and California. The Festivals also gave rise to > several NPR radio programs and five PBS television series, including > The Power of the Word, The Language of Life and Fooling with > Words, all hosted by Bill Moyers and seen by a national audience of > nearly 50 million. >?
> From the outset, Jim strove to include poets and audiences from a wide > base of the culture, and to invite unknown and unrecognized voices > from those groups traditionally excluded from the Western canon. He > recognized that America and American poetry could not thrive unless > they had a deeper connection to the poets and poetries of other > cultures, and so poetry-in-translation has been a central feature of > every Festival. Under his leadership, the Festival spawned a > complementary Poetry-in-the-Schools Program that has since sent poets > into every county in New Jersey to work with thousands of teachers and > students. For me, Jim's brief essay in the Dodge Foundation"s 2000 > Annual Report, Slowing Down for Poetry, will always be the best > rationale behind the Foundation's significant (over $13 million since > 1986) and ongoing investment in Poetry as an art form. He describes > how "Poetry redeems our human possibilities," and reminds us in this > frantic modern world: "Image by image, thought by thought, feeling by > feeling, poetry invites us to sink even more deeply into a kind of > 'before' time, at once achingly familiar and exhilaratingly new. Only > by slowing down for poetry can we hope to accept its delicious > invitation."?
>?
> Perhaps the most lasting testimony to Jim's achievement will be the > Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Audio and Video Archive. Consisting > of over 2,500 hours of audio and video recordings, recorded by > industry professionals to the highest broadcast standards, the Archive > is already one of the most extraordinary records of contemporary > poetry and poets in the world. In the months and years ahead, the > Dodge Poetry Program will work to make as much of this archive > available to as wide an audience as possible, and we will be > considering ways in which the Archive can continue to grow through > newly designed events. The Festival experience itself cannot be > duplicated, but we take heart that it can and will be shared by > students, teachers, poets, and poetry lovers the world over. It is a > remarkable legacy--not yet ended--but one for which Jim Haba has our > everlasting gratitude, respect and affection.?
>?
>?
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