Indiana University South Bend has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Performing Media Festival. This project will bring together musicians and media artists from across the country and abroad to South Bend to weave their thoughts and ideas into the artistic fabric of this Midwestern community.
The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including Indiana University South Bend, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives, said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD.
The Performing Media Festival is an annual showcase of audio-visual performance works in which artists working with emerging technologies unapologetically cross disciplinary boundaries to create new works of integrated media. In addition to the varied performers and artists featured each year, the festival highlights the work of one special guest artist who, in addition to performing their works, conducts a workshop for the community to foster continued learning and engagement with the public about the interdisciplinary activities of media artists. Festival events focus on real-time performance media presented as both concerts in which a performer actively engages with their media (audio and/or visual) and screenings which feature recordings of live performances, generative processes, and edits of real-time captures.
The 2022 Performing Media Festival was hosted by co-directors Ryan Olivier and Eric Souther, both of whom specialize in electronic music. Dr. Olivier is an assistant professor of music at IU South Bend’s Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts. The festival’s most prominent guest performers were the innovative multimedia duo called Null-State, who presented a world premiere of a 40-minute piece in the Louise E. Addicott and Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall.
For 2023, the festival will include a call for works to be performed by local contemporary music ensemble, Ensemble Concept/21; curated works for the unique multichannel multimedia surround sound system in IU South Bend’s performance hall and IU South Bend’s newly installed 4x4k multichannel IQ video wall; and late-night events for artists to engage with the community through art and conversation. In addition to the events listed above, the festival will continue its partnership with the South Bend Museum of Art to screen a reel of festival works in the museum’s Project Gallery. With the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Performing Media Festival will be able to continue its tradition of fostering community growth and development through excellence in the arts.
For more information, visit performingmediafestival.com.
