OPEN CHANNELS NEW YORK INC
161A Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002 www.dixonplace.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: To foster, promote and advance greater knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the performing and literary arts, including dramatic, dance, video, and other visual presentations.

An incubator for performing and literary artists since 1986, Dixon Place is dedicated to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, literature, performance and visual art at all stages of development in front of a live audience. This local haven inspires and encourages artists of all stripes and callings to take risks and push personal and professional limits. DPs foremost priorities are to serve as a safety net for artists, and to provide vivid experiences for our audiences.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dixon Places facility closed on March 13, 2020 and our programming necessarily more limited in scope than typical. Over 260 individual events were canceled. In addition to ongoing dance, literary, theater, and Works-In-Progress programs, cancellations included 32 subsidized rentals, six commissioned productions, and one co-production. Several of these productions have been rescheduled for 2021. To support artists and engage audiences after closing, Dixon Place began presenting online programming in April. In overview, Dixon Place presented over 210 performance, music and literary events from January through December 2020, in the lounge, on the main theater stage, and online, serving over 1,800 artists or groups. The breakdowns of programs and artists served are as follows:NEW WORKS & WORKS-IN PROGRESS PROGRAMFY20 marks the 34th year of the NEW WORKS & WORKS-IN PROGRESS PROGRAM at Dixon Place, which nurtures every stage of the artistic processfrom readings to fully-staged workshops with professional production values. From January 1 to March 12, 2020, we presented 77 events featuring 172 generative artists presenting original works in the practices of theatre, dance, music, puppetry, performance art and everything in between. These programs were curated by DP staff as well as outside curators, all of whom are artists working in the creative communities of their disciplines. Some artists presented short works on a shared bill, others had an entire night to themselves. After closing in March, we presented 132 free virtual programs of performance, dance, puppetry, and literature, reaching almost 14,000 viewers, for which participating artists were remunerated. Our NEW WORKS & WORKS-IN-PROGRESS PROGRAM included 24 ongoing monthly and quarterly series focused on puppetry (Puppet BloK), experimental theater (Little Theater), animated slideshows (Carousel), circus and variety arts (Bindlestiff Open Stage) and hybrid theater work (Gershwin Live), to name a few. Our 8 dance programs included series focusing on emerging artists (8 in Show and Under Exposed); choreographers working solely with male dancers (Moving Men); international dancemakers (Crossing Boundaries); opportunities to present longer pieces (Fast Forward); and a series featuring 10 choreographers who create around a common theme (On 1 Condition), among others. Our literary series served LGBTQ authors (QueerText), and diverse writers of poetry and fiction (Experiments & Disorders, Guerrilla Lit, and Text & Con/Text). Several ongoing programs focus on spoken word and storytelling (Campfire! Queer Storytime, Hearts on the Wall, Womens Salon Lounge, and The Mosquito). All of these programs coalesced to make DP the premiere home in NYC for emerging and mid-career live artists and myriad art forms, in spite of the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are incredibly grateful for the DCLA funding that supports these ongoing programs.Artists presented in the Works-in-Progress Program typically receive full technical support, complimentary rehearsal space (when open), video documentation of their performance, a web page for each show, and marketing/publicity support. Artists presented on the mainstage also received a stipend of $25-$175. In order to make the work accessible to as many people as possible, ticket prices ranged from $0-$18 with discounts for students/seniors and groups. COMMISSION & PRODUCTION PROGRAMPrior to closure, DP presented two full length premieres through our COMMISSION & PRODUCTION PROGRAM, to great audience and critical acclaim. Each production received 60+ hours of rehearsal space; full technical support with a production manager, lighting designer, board ops, state-of-the-art light, sound, and projection equipment, and 20 hours of tech rehearsal; marketing, graphic design, and admin support; video documentation; professional fees for writers, directors, designers, dramaturges, and performers ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per commission, depending on the scope of the production and targeted funds secured; artistic guidance from DP's Artistic team, and a 5-8 performance run over 2-4 weeks in our mainstage theater; Productions in the reporting period were:January 2020 PACKRAT, by Carlo Adinolfi & Renee Philippi of Concrete Temple Theatre; Puppetry, projections and an original score elegantly come together to contemplate humanitys relationship with the natural world.February 2020 Burnt-Out Wife, by Sara Juli; this dance-theater-comedy tackles monogamy, intimacy, loneliness, sex deprivation, and other impossibilities of marriage.CRIMINAL QUEERNESS FESTIVALIn 2020, DP partnered with National Queer Theater and the Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs to produce the second annual Criminal Queerness Festival (CQF), with the generous award of a Mayors Grant for Cultural Impact. A platform for artists facing censorship or criminalization, CQF hosts four LGBTQ+ playwrights from around the world and challenges audiences to engage and reflect upon the status of civil rights in the United States in order to better support LGBTQ+ people at home and abroad. Exploring global homophobia and world pride, the festival includes workshops and panel discussions, that contribute to the impact of ongoing advocacy and activism addressing LGBTQ+ decriminalization worldwide. CQF was originally to have exclusive use of the theater to premiere a repertory of four new plays in June, but was converted to a free virtual festival with performances, interviews, panels, and workshops. CQF brought the work of LGBTQ+ artists from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Venezuela, and South Asia to a vast global audience.HOT! THE NYC FESTIVAL OF LGBTQ+ CULTURERather than canceling our 29th annual HOT Festival in July, artists rallied and adapted their work for virtual presentation, including Marga Gomez who brilliantly live streamed her DP commissioned production Spanking Machine from San Francisco for five live performances. Continuing the Dixon Place tradition of celebrating the lives and work of LGBTQ+ people with diverse presentations in myriad artistic disciplines, HOT took place over 4 weeks, with 610 performances a week, from July 6 through August 1, 2020. Co-curated by DP Artistic Director Ellie Covan and Artistic Associate Ashley Brockington, Festival ticket prices ranged from free to $21, and audience members included artists, Dixon Place supporters, tourists, and friends, families, peers, and fans of the artists presented. The festival was vigorously promoted through social networking, along with more traditional marketing like press releases, postcards, e-blasts, and a dedicated festival website. CULTURAL EDUCATION & COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM (CECO) We conducted two workshops for seniors in partnership with Sirovich Senior Center as part of our CULTURAL EDUCATION & COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM (CECO), each culminating in public performance. Even during the pandemic, with workshops held virtually on Zoom, a full cohort of elders participated, evidencing the need and enthusiasm for this continued engagement. Whether virtual or in person, the prominence and exposure of the public performances, positive testimonials from participants and audiences, and the fact that seniors and youth in our community are stretching their creative muscles are all compelling indicators of the vitality and success of our CECO program. DPs Artistic Director Ellie Covan and Artistic Associate Mark Hayes administered the program, and teaching artists Renee Philippi and Carlo Adinolfi of Concrete Temple Theatre were joined by Artistic Associates Eric Nightengale and Sam Casey to lead a cumulative 90 hours of workshops one-on-one meetings to develop writing, acting, puppetry and performance techniques, serving a total of 29 senior participants. Additional time was spent on administration, class preparation, editing and reviewing assignments, and developing specific strategies for each participant to help them improve their skills. All workshops were free for participating seniors. Final performances, free and open to the public, which typically take place in DPs mainstage theater, were held online. THE GALLERY AT DIXON PLACEAs a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dixon Place closed on March 13, 2020. Since the Galleryserves as the first stop for Dixon Place theater patrons, essentially setting the stage' for performative events in our lounge and mainstage, the reduced tr

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