Callahan Consulting for the ArtsHelping funders and arts organizations realize their vision since 1996.
CLIENTS
We have worked with colleges as funders, trainers, and writers. Through our publishing and forums, we have supported dance practitioners working in the academy in understanding and addressing issues affecting their curriculum and students.
Thanks for two days of superb workshops, with great information, energy, and insight. We gained clarity about our Creative Campus Initiative and a deeper understanding of outcome measurement. We continue to consult the evaluation products you developed for us, which provide sanity to our vision. And, we’ve shared this new way of thinking with other departments.
—Hank Lazer, Associate Provost, Creative Campus Initiative
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Dance/USA’s National College Choreography Initiative (NCCI) and the American Masterpieces Dance – College Component (AMD-CC) (1999-2008)
Designed, managed, and evaluated these grant programs, which support collaborations between guest artists, colleges, and communities around the country. What was to be a single round of funding for colleges to bring guest artists into their departments grew into three rounds of support and a complementary program that focused on restaging and reconstructing historic dance works. In its six rounds of funding, 199 residencies supported over 100 artists at over 100 different colleges reaching over 55,000 students; audiences numbered over 287,000. Based on the documentation and evaluation of its accomplishments, the NEA renewed the NCCI from a single year to three rounds of funding and then developed American Masterpieces Dance – College Component (AMD-CC).
Through the NCCI Initiative, we facilitated a series of national forums with artists and faculty across the country. They inspired dialogue among college faculty about dance curricula in university programs and creating partnerships with artists, faculty, and students. Examples are Workshop on Artist-College Collaborations: New Models for Planning, Negotiation, and Curriculum and NCCI: From the Campus to the Real World and Back Again.
Both of Callahan’s books have been used as textbooks in university programs across the country. Based on the lessons learned from NCCI, Callahan conceived of, produced, and edited Dance From the Campus to the Real World (and Back Again): A Resource Guide for Artists, Faculty, and Students. As the culmination of four years of activity, this guide is designed to benefit faculty, administrators, and emerging and professional artists, as well as the next generation of dancers throughout the country. “Residencies 101” guides artists and faculty in planning and implementing projects. “Universities 101” guides those who are considering faculty positions on what to expect and ask. “Real World 101” orients young dancers (and faculty) to what life will be like once they graduate from college and begin a career.
We wrote a position paper for the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), the national dance and choreographic research center based at the Florida State University, as it was setting the direction for its services to artists.
Our national study Choreography in the United States: A Comparative Study of Training and Support Systems explored the professional choreographic training opportunities currently available in the United States through college programs as well as select training methods in Europe.
We documented the success of residencies at university programs around the country through the NCCI program in three publications.
Affiliate Researcher, Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2019 to present)
National Adjudicator. American College Dance Festival, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (2014)
Our firm has offered evaluation trainings on multiple campuses including the Creative Campus Initiative at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and at George Mason University. Callahan has been a guest speaker or professor to students at numerous colleges about transitioning into the professional dance world, including The George Washington University, UNC Greensboro, and Bates College.
Above: photo courtesy of Marwen.