Baryshnikov Arts Center Premiers Mariana Valencia's brownout on March 1 and Holland Andrews' Museum of Calm on March 15

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Kristen Miles
Baryshnikov Arts Center
kmiles@bacnyc.org
646-731-3221

Katlyn Morahan
Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com
610-914-3152

BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER PREMIERES
MARIANA VALENCIA’S BROWNOUT ON MARCH 1 AND
HOLLAND ANDREWS’ MUSEUM OF CALM ON MARCH 15

New Works Commissioned by BAC Available to Stream
Free On Demand at BACNYC.ORG For 2 Weeks Following Premiere

February 4, 2021, New York, NY—Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) presents the next installments of its 2021 digital spring season. brownout, a solo created, directed, and performed by choreographer and performer Mariana Valencia, premieres on Monday, March 1 at 5pm ET and is available to view until Monday, March 15 at 5pm ET at BACNYC.org. Filmed at locations in upstate New York, Valencia’s new work uses a series of movement and sound scores to play with narrative, abstraction, and inference. Generating a visual essay through the “stage” of the camera, brownout shifts the frame from one lens to the next with a focus on loss and lack.

“By definition, a brownout is ‘an electrical demand that exceeds the available supply of power,’ says Valencia. “A brownout is similar to other words used to describe shifts in electricity, visibility, or perception such as ‘whiteout,’ ‘greyout,’ and ‘blackout,’ and in this work, we explore them all.”

A live-streamed conversation with Mariana Valencia and curator Ali Rosa-Salas will be held on Wednesday, March 10 at 8pm ET. Free registration for the live Zoom conversation is available beginning March 1 at 5pm ET at BACNYC.org.

Museum of Calm, a solo by extended-technique vocalist, performer, and composer Holland Andrews, premieres on Monday, March 15 at 5pm ET and is available through Monday, March 29 at 5pm ET at BACNYC.org. The digital music performance generates interior worlds to offer strategies for navigating through chaos, accessing freedom within fantasy, and sustaining the energy required to survive in a reforming society. The new vocal and electronic music score conjures this realm to convey a total reset from chosen realities and identities, pointing towards a realignment with something that gives craved expansion within a world full of circumstances beyond one’s control.

Filmed in November 2020 at BAC’s John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio with the natural light of late autumn serving as a backdrop, the piece is equal parts vocal music composition, meditation, and performance art video designed to trigger a cathartic emotional experience.

“By using my own emotional reality as a map to connect to the world, that understanding leads me to the simple desire for offering a reprieve,” says Andrews. “An opportunity to stare our wounds in the eye and give them permission to bleed while saying, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ We cannot truly face our demons while laying in a bed of poppies, and we cannot heal without evidence of hope.”

A live-streamed conversation with Holland Andrews and performer Morgan Bassichis will be held on Wednesday, March 24 at 8pm ET. Free registration for the live Zoom conversation will be available beginning March 15 at 5pm ET at BACNYC.org.

Additional upcoming premieres include: Justin Hicks’ Use Your Head for More (February 15 - March 1); Stefanie Batten Band’s Kolonial (May 3 - 17); Tei Blow’s The Sprezzaturameron (May 17 - 31); and Kyle Marshall’s STELLAR (June 7 - 21). Currently available to view until February 15 is Bijayini Satpathy’s Vibhanga. Each premiere is available for two weeks at BACNYC.org. A future schedule of live-streamed conversations with the artists to discuss their projects and creative processes will be announced.

Event Information

Mariana Valencia
brownout
(World Premiere)
March 1 – 15 (Monday at 5PM EST until Monday at 5PM EST)
Free and available on demand at bacnyc.org
Running time: 30 minutes

Creator, Director, and Performer: Mariana Valencia
Audio Editor: Tatyana Tenenbaum
Film Location: Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY and Coxsackie, NY

In Conversation: Mariana Valencia with Ali Rosas-Salas
Live on ZOOM
Wednesday, March 10 at 8PM EST
Free / Registration required at bacnyc.org beginning March 1 at 5pm ET

Holland Andrews
Museum of Calm
(World Premiere)
March 15 – 29 (Monday at 5PM EST until Monday at 5PM EST)
Free and available on demand at bacnyc.org
Running time: 20 minutes

Creator and Performer: Holland Andrews
Filmmaker: Tatyana Tenenbaum
Film Location: BAC’s John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio

In Conversation: Holland Andrews with Morgan Bassichis
Live on ZOOM
Wednesday, March 24 at 8PM EST
Free / Registration required at bacnyc.org beginning March 15 at 5pm ET

Holland Andrews was a collaborator of 2017 BAC Presents Artist and BAC Resident Artist Dorothée Munyaneza.

About the Artists
Mariana Valencia is a New York based choreographer and performer. She has recently been commissioned by The Chocolate Factory Theater, Danspace Project, The Whitney Museum, The Shed, and Performance Space New York. Valencia has toured nationally and internationally in England, Norway, Macedonia and Serbia. She is an LMCC Extended Life grantee (2020), a Whitney Biennial artist (2019), a Bessie Award recipient for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer (2018), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award to Artists grant recipient (2018), a Jerome Travel and Study Grant fellow (2014-15), and a Movement Research GPS/Global Practice Sharing artist (2016-17). Valencia’s residencies include Chez Bushwick, New York Live Arts, ISSUE Project Room, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Gibney Dance Center, Movement Research, and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (OR). Valencia has worked with Lydia Okrent, Jules Gimbrone, Elizabeth Orr, Kate Brandt, AK Burns, Guadalupe Rosales, Em Rooney, robbinschilds, Kim Brandt, Morgan Bassichis, Jazmin Romero, Fia Backstrom and MPA. In 2019, she published two books of performance texts entitled "Album" (Wendy's Subway) and "Mariana Valencia's Bouquet" (3 Hole Press). Valencia holds a BA from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA (2006) with a concentration in dance and ethnography.

Holland Andrews is an American vocalist, composer, improviser, and performance artist whose work is based on emotionality in its many forms. In their work, Andrews focuses on the abstraction of operatic and extended-technique voice to build soundscapes encompassing both catharsis and the interplay between dissonance and resonance to tell stories of the interior worlds of humanity. Frequently highlighting themes surrounding vulnerability and healing, Andrews arranges music with voice and clarinet to serve as a vessel for these themes. As a vocalist, their influences stem from a dynamic range of musical stylings including contemporary opera, free jazz, musical theater, as well as ambient, drone, and noise music.

About Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC)
BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov who sought to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC’s opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC’s activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices. For more information visit bacnyc.org.

BAC is grateful for the support of its generous individual and institutional annual fund donors in 2018––20.

Anonymous (2); Pierre Apraxine; Joanne and Tuvia Barak; Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart; Simon Basner; Carol Baxter and Loren Plotkin; Michael Benari; Ray and Jane Bernick; Jamie Bishton; Dr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Borer; Catherine Brennan; Dino Buturovic and Mirjana Ciric; Pamela Ceglinski; Frank and Monique Cordasco; Nancy Dalva; Richard and Jennie DeScherer; Janet Dewan; Joseph and Diana DiMenna; Estate of James H. Duffy; Cheryl Lee and Steven C. Dupré; William James Earle; Alan and Judy Fishman; Barbara G. Fleischman; Anne and Chris Flowers; Sandra Foschi; Eve R. France; Alex and Jenia Fridlyand; Randy Gaugert; Carol Giles-Straight; Jon Gilman and Brad Learmonth; Denise L. Stefan Ginascol; Slavka B. Glaser; Michael Goldstein and Carolyn Katz; Peter Greenleaf; Cynthia Harvey; Kim Hendrickson and Grant Delin; Jeffery Hentze; Jano Herbosch; Joan Hooker; In Honor of Roger Hooker; Sarah Hooker; Huong Hoang; Fred Humphrey; Yukiko Inoue; Susan Israel; Bobbo Jetmundsen; Carine Joannou; Stephanie Joel; Colleen Keegan; Leo and Nadine Keegan; Donald M. Kendall; Herman E. Krawitz; Iya Labunka; Nicole Leibman; Lisa and Anton LeRoy; Jarrett and Maritess Lilien; Julie Lilien; Topper Lilien; Bruce Lipnick; Marianne Lockwood and David Bury; Nick and Cass Ludington; Sarah and Alec Machiels; The Honorable and Mrs. Earle Mack; Deanna Maclean; Maia Mamamtavrishvili; Elizabeth Manigault; Paul and Caroline McCaffery; Karen McLaughlin and Mark Schubin; Gary Miller and Valerie Beaman; Bob and Carol Morris; Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich; Alessandra Nicifero; Ingrid Nyeboe and Louise Fishman; Zoya and Anna Obraztsova; Alvise Orsini; Denis Pelli; Ray Pepi and Karen Arrigoni; Alvin Perlmutter; Steven and Michèle Pesner; Georgiana Pickett; Ronnie Planalp; Noni Pratt; Christina Repetti: Piedad Rivadeneira; Laila Robins; James Roe; Isabella Rossellini; John Sansone; Sophia Schachter; Hillary Schafer and Mark Shafir; Dorothy Scheuer; Natasha Schlesinger; Laura Schoen; Vernon Scott; Dawn Sequeira; Dennis T. Serras; Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan; Wallace Shawn and Deborah Eisenberg; Sandy Siegel; Jeremy Smith; Gus Solomons; Ellen Sorrin and David York; Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley; Christina Sterner and Steve Poses; Angele Surault; Lev Sviridov; Anne and William Tatlock; Michael Tersigni and David Palachek; Jennifer Tipton; Deidra Wager; Robert and Kathleen Wallace; Robert Warshaw and Debbie Schmidt; Mary R. Waters; Suzanne Weil; Roger Weisberg and Karen Freedman; David N. White, Edgar Wilson; Michael Worden

Affirmation Arts Fund; Altman Foundation; Amazon Smile Foundation; American Chai Trust; Anonymous (2); Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust; Bay and Paul Foundations; Blavatnik Family Foundation; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy  Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; DeWitt Stern/Risk Strategies; The Enoch Foundation; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Irving Harris Foundation; Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust; Dubose & Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund; Consulate General of Israel in North America; Japan Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation; Sean Kelly Gallery; Kent Van-Alen Fund; The Frances Lear Foundation; The Lupin Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; New England Foundation for the Arts Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris  Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Stavros Niarchos Foundation; North American-Chilean Chamber of Commerce; Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation; NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust; Muriel Pollia Foundation; Princess Grace Foundation-USA; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; The Reed Foundation; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund; Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation; Soros Fund Charitable Foundation; Consulate General of Switzerland in New York; The Thompson Family Foundation; Trust for Mutual Understanding; Twin Beeches Foundation

Baryshnikov Arts Center is also grateful for support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Funding is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Yamaha is the official piano of the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

As of December 10, 2020

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