CounterPulse

THE MOST RECENT RESOLUTION IN ART INDUSTRIES AND SUPPORT FOR OTHER ART PROGRAM IS SOLIDIFY BY THIS ETHIC OF PROGRAM DESIGNS METHOD OF IDEA RECONDITION IN FIELD OF ART BRIEFS AND CREATION IN OTHER NON PROFITS PROJECTS.

CounterPULSE deserves recognition for not only their excellent programming, history of community building and fierce support of experimental arts, but also for their commitment to pushing the field forward. The staff and board and interns stay connected to the power of people + ideas + creative collaborations.
I enjoyed learning from each contributor for the last four months. As their Program Intern, I helped with the office and administration aspects, while helping out with a few programming and marketing items.
Like a good school or community space, the culture at CounterPULSE stimulates discussion, problem-solving and an attitude of 'we can do it!'. Without this type of healthy environment, non profits may not survive in this competitive economy. I appreciate how the staff always seeks ways to improve methods of making and working. This shows a great command of leadership and strong consistent development.
One of my favorite moments while working here was attending the their special program "Performing Diaspora", where artists working in traditional or folkloric forms were commissioned to make full length feature works. I appreciated how the artists' points of view challenged and intrigued my sensibility as an artist and as a viewer. The director of CounterPULSE has a great insight on international innovation and the power of human connection speaking to many audience members. I feel lucky to have felt the heartbeat going strong at CounterPULSE.

CounterPULSE has been an inspiration to me as an aspiring artist and community organizer. I worked closely with Executive Director Jessica Robinson as an intern, as was continuously inspired by her passion and dedication to supporting art and activism. The entire CounterPULSE team is a dedicated a supportive group, their love of the work they do carries through to the artists and the community they support. I continue to volunteer and see shows at CounterPULSE, and work as a contractor for the 2nd Sundays program. I always miss it if I have been away too long!

CounterPULSE is a fierce advocate for artists as valued cultural workers and activists as community leaders. You could flip all those words around and it would still all be true. CounterPULSE's dedicated staff, board and community are actively supporting and creating engaged cultural discourse through arts and activism in the SF Bay Area and beyond. In 2005 I was a resident artist and in 2008 CounterPULSE co-presented my work in the San Francisco International Arts Festival. CounterPULSE's staff, board, volunteers and especially ED Jessica Robinson Love did a crazy brilliant job that allowed me to focus on my artistic work in a way that is rare in our culture. Thank You is simply an understatement.

CounterPULSE is one of the main reasons I am still making work as a choreographer. I had the honor and privilege of being an artist in residence there in the winter of 2008/2009. The generous support and encouragement that I received revived my inspiration to keep choreographing. CounterPULSE supports artists to push their own boundaries and supports risk taking. Their commitment to supporting the artistic process through the work in progress showings that accompany the Artist in Residence and Performing Diaspora programs really provides the constructive feedback which helps an artist see their work from a different lens. It is a space that is an absolute joy to both present work and to see work. The over all programming at CounterPULSE truly represents the cultural diversity of the bay area in every sense. Being an artist in residence there was one of the most positive and productive experiences I have had as a choreographer.

CounterPULSE is a remarkable community space for performance and other creative work. With a passionate and talented staff who do a wonderful job curating exemplary artists, CounterPULSE acts as an incubator for new work, launching new careers and projects. Their track record is exceptional - artists who have started as "unknowns" at CounterPULSE have gone on to prestigious careers in dance, theater and visual arts. The organization itself is stable and well-managed. The very talented Executive Director, Jessica Robinson Love, leads a terrific staff of professionals, interns and volunteers to accomplish great things on a very small budget.

CounterPulse continues to serve as a model for how other small to midsize performing arts presenters can not only thrive but function as an inspirational home for both audiences and artists. CounterPulse rocks it!

CounterPULSE provides a wide array of artists with a platform for developing, sharing and presenting really exciting new works. It plays an important role in supporting emerging artists in the SF area. With this support, artists are able to really shine. Plus, they have an unbeatable dance performance space that's huge and intimate at the same time.

I was an Artist in Residence at CounterPULSE and without their support I would not be at the level in my career as an artist that I am today. They took a risk on accepting me, a relatively new choreographer, and gave me all the necessary resources to launch my first production in a theater, not at a wedding or cultural event, as I was used to. CounterPULSE gave me space to rehearse free of charge, a budget for technicians and costumes, as well as money to pay the artists I worked with, 3 nights of shows in their theater with their staff free of charge, and 1/4 of the box office. Their staff also did the marketing and publicity for the show, allowing us to free our time to work on the performance itself without being bogged down by administrative work. I have never worked in such a supportive environment and I fully believe that CounterPULSE is a vital incubator for new and cutting edge art in the Bay Area.

An EXEMPLARY organization supporting art that funders are shy about funding--meaning, the important and good stuff (the emerging, the interdisciplinary, the experimental, the queer, the challenging, and the political). I was honored to be an Artist in Residence at CounterPulse, so experienced first had how their support allowed me to take risks I otherwise can't afford to take. As a fiscal sponsee, they have helped me create more financial stability for my work. CounterPULSE is also that rare bird of an nonprofit that is organizationally and financially *functional* and *stable.* I truly believe it to be a model for how arts funding and art support should happen in this country.

I write to express my appreciation for CounterPULSE and all of the tremendous work this organization does on behalf of San Francisco artists. As a 2007 winter artist-in-residence at CounterPULSE I was the fortunate recipient of truly top-notch artistic support. My goal in applying for the residency at CounterPULSE was to take my work to the next level. Though it sounds clichéd, "taking work to the next level" is paramount, especially for those of us who make movement-based performance, who tend to languish for longer than we would like in that category labeled "emerging." At CounterPULSE, I was treated as a real, valid, adult, professional artist. Yes, I was creating new work during the residency, so there was some emerging going on, but the residency validated that emergence as the well-thought-out evolution of a body of work that already exists. CounterPULSE Executive Director Jessica Robinson is joy to work with. She is a rare find: a fully committed arts producer/administrator. She is thoughtful, intelligent, organized, and most important to an artist-in-residence, available. The production support I received from CounterPULSE was unparalleled. We had regular production meetings with Jessica and other (wonderful, competent, professional) staff members. Things got done. Calls got made. We received reminders about deadlines (from which most of us artists benefit greatly). The minutiae that can weigh an artist down like rocks in her pockets and keep her from emerging were taken care of, or at least made less daunting. Jessica and Marielle Amrhein helped me prioritize, which was definitely on my list of goals. And the first priority during the residency was the work. Every production meeting, no matter how pressing the other items on the checklist, always started with Jessica asking: "So, how is the work coming?" Even when the answer to that question was a terrifying gaze into the abyss, its asking always lifted my spirits. In addition to the production meetings, built into the residency was the expectation that we (my fellow artist-in-residence and I) set aside time to watch and share feedback on each other's work. This kind of thing does not happen enough in this community, in which we are all so busy making work and making a living. We had one of these sessions before the work felt quite ready (always an important leap) and one about a week and a half before the show. We used the critical response method, again facilitated by Jessica, with every CounterPULSE staff member present who could be there. This wide rang of viewpoints was especially valuable. In the residency, I developed a new work Crying in Public. It was a success. Its success was a direct result of the fact that I got to create and rehearse it in the actual theater in which I performed it. Rehearsing in the performance space is a rare luxury in this country. Another rare luxury in this country is monetary compensation for artistic work. In addition to receiving free and discounted space, I actually received considerable financial compensation. I got to pay my director and myself well for the hard work. This was definitely "the next level." One of the other components of the residency that helped me emerge into new territory was the requirement that I teach a workshop. I had been wanting to teach performance for quite some time and had a lot of ideas. Teaching the workshop as part of my CounterPULSE residency forced me to articulate these ideas. Now I have teaching experience, a great step toward artistic sustainability. Had it not been for the winter CounterPULSE residency, I might still be vaguely pondering that step toward teaching. Working with CounterPULSE helped me articulate and achieve my artistic goals and create new ones. The support I received there has helped me not only to emerge, but to build. While this is a continual process for any artist, it feels great to have made tangible progress. I could not have made that progress, and it certainly would have been less tangible, without Jessica Robinson and the rest of the CounterPULSE staff.