the 6th Annual right here Showcase is on!
2020 showcase dates. two WEEKENDS in may/june:
may 28-29-30-31, and june 4-5-6-7
2019 showcase venue:
the Off-Leash art box
4200 54th St E, Minneapolis, 55417
ABOUT
Right Here Commissions’ mission wth The Right Here Showcase is to support and promote the work of MN-based, mid-career, performing artists who create original contemporary performance, and introduce audiences to their work.
The impetus for this project came from Project Founder/Leader Paul Herwig. Over his 37-year career, Paul, a native Minnesotan, has lived and worked in Paris, Toronto, NYC, and Detroit, including 10 years of touring throughout 25 US states. For the past 20 years he has made Minneapolis him home, working as an actor and set designer.
In every major arts center Paul has lived and worked in there is a juried festival that presents and highlights their local mid-career artists. While in this amazingly rich arts community there is significant support for emerging artists and established institutions, there is a palpable gap in support for mid-career performing artists, especially those who create alternative work. In these 20 years Paul has seen exciting local companies and exceptionally unique artists come and go, often under the radar of the broader arts going public.
It’s the old story, that an artist has to move away to get recognition in the hometown, while those that stay struggle for attention, self-producing with little or no financial support in venues that have minimal technical capability, or marketing capacity to reach a broad audience. And yet, it is a fact that audiences areinterested in risky performance work. New audiences flock to see emerging artists take risks in the Minnesota Fringe, and to see well-funded and established international artists at the Walker Art Center’s “Out There Series.” So at Right Here Commissions we ask: Why not a program that supports mid-career artists located right herein our own community? The Right Here Showcaseis our answer to fill that void, and satisfy our community’s demonstrated need to experience their work.
In 2013 Paul received a Jerome Travel-Study grant to attend festivals in New York, Toronto, and Portland, to meet with their producing directors, and learn about festival organization from behind the scenes. Then in 2014 Paul was awarded an MSAB Artist Initiative grant for his Right Here Showcase project, which he produced later that year. That inaugural Showcase was in 2014; Paul founded Right Here Commissions in 2016; and this will be the 6th iteration of this vital community program.
The impetus for this project came from Project Founder/Leader Paul Herwig. Over his 37-year career, Paul, a native Minnesotan, has lived and worked in Paris, Toronto, NYC, and Detroit, including 10 years of touring throughout 25 US states. For the past 20 years he has made Minneapolis him home, working as an actor and set designer.
In every major arts center Paul has lived and worked in there is a juried festival that presents and highlights their local mid-career artists. While in this amazingly rich arts community there is significant support for emerging artists and established institutions, there is a palpable gap in support for mid-career performing artists, especially those who create alternative work. In these 20 years Paul has seen exciting local companies and exceptionally unique artists come and go, often under the radar of the broader arts going public.
It’s the old story, that an artist has to move away to get recognition in the hometown, while those that stay struggle for attention, self-producing with little or no financial support in venues that have minimal technical capability, or marketing capacity to reach a broad audience. And yet, it is a fact that audiences areinterested in risky performance work. New audiences flock to see emerging artists take risks in the Minnesota Fringe, and to see well-funded and established international artists at the Walker Art Center’s “Out There Series.” So at Right Here Commissions we ask: Why not a program that supports mid-career artists located right herein our own community? The Right Here Showcaseis our answer to fill that void, and satisfy our community’s demonstrated need to experience their work.
In 2013 Paul received a Jerome Travel-Study grant to attend festivals in New York, Toronto, and Portland, to meet with their producing directors, and learn about festival organization from behind the scenes. Then in 2014 Paul was awarded an MSAB Artist Initiative grant for his Right Here Showcase project, which he produced later that year. That inaugural Showcase was in 2014; Paul founded Right Here Commissions in 2016; and this will be the 6th iteration of this vital community program.
