Learning Through Doing
The Non-profit arts organizations course is a Field study/internship in which students work with an arts organization of their choice and get first-hand experience of the business side of the work of an artist. Students are placed with a company, artist or organization that matches their individual interests. Students make life-long connections and many alums have been offered positions at their TLM internships after graduating from college.
Example Arts Organizations
Amas Musical Theater is devoted to the creation, development and professional production of new American musicals, the celebration of equity and minority prospective, the emergence of new artistic talent, and the training and encouragement of inner-city young people.
Art Therapy Project
The Art Therapy Project is a nonprofit mental health organization providing free group art therapy to adults and youth affected by trauma. Using the art-making process and with support from our art therapists, clients learn how to explore feelings, increase self-awareness and cope with life’s challenges.
Black Revolutionary Theater Workshop
Black Revolutionary Theatre Workshop,LLC is a Brooklyn-based collective founded in summer 2015. We are dedicated to developing, producing, incubating, and promoting Black art and artists who actively engage with justice in their work.
BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, founded in 1991, is a multigenerational arts organization nurturing creative expression and artistic process through education, residencies, and performance at the intersection of arts and social justice. BAX is dedicated to serving artists in progress, from children to professionals, at all ages and stages of development.
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance is a performance and workshop space founded by acclaimed dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles (formerly of Bill T. Jones Co.) in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. In addition to concerts by Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre, BAAD! annually presents BAAD! ASS WOMEN, a cultural celebration of works by women; OUT LIKE THAT!, the Bronx’s only festival of works by Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgendered artists; The BlaKtino Playwrights Showcase, presenting the work of Black, Latino and playwrights of mixed race. The space also curates visual art exhibitions and community programs to coincide with all programming.
The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement particularly among underrepresented communities. CUPprojects demystify the urban policy and planning issues that impact our communities, so that more individuals can better participate in shaping them.
Dixon Place
Dixon Place, a non-profit organization, was founded in 1986 to provide a space for literary and performing artists to create and develop new works in front of a live audience. Their mission is to support and nurture the development of new work and work in progress from diverse artists and to build new audiences for the work. They provide a venue for emerging and established artists; encourage artists of color and gay and lesbian writers and performing artists to explore their work in a supportive environment; provide a forum for writers to read their work and speak to audiences and provides a meeting place for social change organizations. Dixon Place is a local haven for creativity and an international model for the open exploration of the process of creation.
“What began in 1985 as a literary reading space, a throwback to Paris salons, is now one of the city’s most important and fiercely experimental artists’ nests.” – The Village Voice
HERE Arts Center
HERE Arts Center supports multidisciplinary work that includes theater, dance, music, puppetry, media, and visual art. They have developed such acclaimed works as Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist and Joey Arias’ Arias with a Twist, and Faye Driscoll’s 837 Venice Boulevard. HERE supports the work of artists through fully-produced works, commissions and subsidized rehearsal space. Key elements of their programming are designed to allow the public to have as many access points to the development of original art as possible through work-in-progress showings, workshop productions, post show artist talkbacks, informal discussions in their café and full productions.
“One of the most unusual arts spaces in New York and possibly the model for the cutting-edge arts spaces of tomorrow.” – The New York Times
The Kitchen
The Kitchen is a non-profit, interdisciplinary organization that provides artists working in the media, literary, and performing arts with exhibition and performance opportunities to create and present new work. Founded as an artist collective in 1971, it was among the very first American institutions to embrace the then emergent fields of video and performance art, while also presenting dance, music, literature, and film. The resulting combination was an environment uniquely conducive to experimentation and cross-disciplinary explorations that helped launch the careers of artist who have defined the American avant-garde, including Vito Acconci, Constance de Jong, Gary Hill, Kiki Smith, Charles Atlas, Lucinda Childs, Elizabeth Streb, Bill T. Jones, and Laurie Anderson.
La MaMa, Experimental Theater Club
La MaMa is a world renowned cultural institution that is home to three theaters, an art gallery, a six story rehearsal studio building, an artist dormitory, the Trinity/La MaMa Program, and an extensive archive documenting the history of the Off-Off Broadway movement. Founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa quickly became a leading force in American theater and the artistic home of Sam Shepherd, Lanford Wilson, Tom O’Horgan, and Philip Glass. La MaMa was one of the first downtown theaters to support full-time resident companies including the Great Jones Repertory Company and to bring international artists to the U.S. such as Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and The Tokyo Kid Brothers. To date, La MaMa has presented artists from 70 nations, and each season, produces over 100 productions. La MaMa has been honored with over thirty Obie Awards, a Tony Award, and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie and Villager Awards.
Founded in 1946 by José Limón and Doris Humphrey, the Limón Dance Company has been at the vanguard of American Modern dance since its inception and is considered one of the world’s greatest dance companies. Choreographer and dancer José Limón is credited with creating one of the world’s most important and enduring dance legacies— an art form responsible for the creation, growth and support of modern dance in this country. Acclaimed for its dramatic expression, technical mastery and expansive, yet nuanced movement, the Limón Dance Company illustrates the timelessness of José Limón’s work and vision. The Company’s repertory, which includes classic works in addition to new commissions from contemporary choreographers, possesses an unparalleled breadth and creates unique experiences for audiences around the world
Loco 7
Under the direction and vision of Federico Restrepo, Loco7 has been in existence since 1985. Loco7’s mission has been to develop the use of puppetry as an instrument for the dancer, a style which incorporates dance and design. Utilizing rhythmic music, dancers, body puppets and larger than life marionettes, Restrepo weaves a choreography which extends beyond the body of the dancer. Dealing with themes such as South American Culture & History, the immigrants’ experience and urban life, Restrepo creates an animated movement, in an ever-changing and surreal environment, bringing the stage to life.
Movement Research
Movement Research is one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. These include several performance series at Judson Church, dance residencies, diverse classes and workshops, and outreach programs in New York City Schools. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike.
Located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City, New York Live Arts is an internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry offering audiences access to art and artists notable for their conceptual rigor, formal experimentation and active engagement with the social, political and cultural currents of our times. At the center of this identity is Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director, a world-renowned choreographer, dancer, theater director and writer
Pan Asian Repertory Theater
Pan Asian Repertory Theater celebrates the artistic expressiveness of Asian and American theatre artists under the highest standards of professional theatre and professional productions. It encourages the production of new plays, especially those with contemporary Asian American themes and draws upon the unique heritage of Asian Americans by utilizing the style, music and movement of Asian performing arts traditions in order to explore new theatrical forms. PART also nurtures emerging Asian American talent through professionally led workshops and on-the-job training and introduces Asian American Theatre to the general theatre-going public as well as the differently-abled; to deepen the appreciation and understanding of Asian American cultural heritage.
Ping Chong and Company
Ping Chong and Company produces theatrical works addressing the important cultural and civic issues of our times, striving to reach the widest audiences with the greatest level of artistic innovation and social integrity. The company was founded in 1975 by leading theatrical innovator Ping Chong with a mission to create works of theater that explore the intersections of race, culture, history, art, media and technology in the modern world. Productions range from intimate oral history projects to grand scale cinematic multidisciplinary productions featuring puppets, performers, and full music and projection scores. Ping Chong and Company has produced over 90 works at venues such as La MaMa ETC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Central Park Summerstage, Lincoln Center Festival, New Victory Theater, and The Asia Society.
Founded in 1994 by David van Asselt and Gary Bonasorte, Rattlestick Theater has been steadfast in producing diverse, challenging, and provocative plays while fostering the future voices of the American theater. Now in our 29th year, the company is focused on energetic theater that responds to the complexities of our culture in conversation with community partners. Our mission is to produce ambitious plays to inspire empathy and provoke conversation that will lead to positive social change.
STREB’s mission is to support, perform, and share widely the work of choreographer Elizabeth Streb. Built around Streb’s organizing principle “Extreme Action,” a movement style that thrills participants, audiences and students with choreographed feats of physicality, scientifically planned chaos, strength, risk, grace, and elegance, STREB actively engages with, ensures inclusion of, and advances cultural equity for its diverse staff, audiences and communities. This is achieved via a broad range of performance, engagement and education programming that provides access to, and participation in, creation and presentation.
The Tank is a small, Manhattan-based non-profit arts presenter and producer serving emerging artists. Our goal is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers or experimenting within their art form, while being inclusive and accessible. We keep ticket prices affordable, expanding the creation and attendance of the arts for a broad and diverse community. Founded in 2003, The Tank champions emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression working across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. From the company’s two-theater home on 36th Street, The Tank serves over 2,500 artists every year, presents over 1,000 performances, and welcomes 36,000 audience members annually. The company fully produces a curated season of 13-18 theatrical World or New York premieres each season.
Tectonic Theater Project
Tectonic Theater Project transforms contemporary theater by changing the way theater is made. Tectonic believes that theater must evolve if it is to remain relevant in the twenty-first century. Our work is grounded in the belief that both new ways of making theater and new forms of theatrical expression are necessary for the revitalization of American theater. We are committed to creating work that engages all audiences in a conversation about the human, political, and social issues of our time. Tectonic Theater Project is a collaborative group/network of theater-making artists who have developed a new way to create theater. Utilizing its unique, boundary-breaking Moment Work technique, Tectonic both creates its own memorable and innovative work and seeks to influence the way others make theater by sharing and disseminating its methods.
Urban Bushwomen
Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. They do this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community. UBW believes in facilitating the use of art as a means of addressing issues of social justice and encouraging civic engagement. Based in Brooklyn, they aspire to ensure continuity by strengthening and expanding out international community via ongoing professional education, development of new audiences, nurturing young talent and presenting bold dance works in NYC, nationally and internationally.
The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group originated in 1975 with works composed and directed by Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte. They are a company of artists who make work for theater, dance and media. The company is constantly evolving, and with its many artistic associates, has created and performed nineteen pieces for theater, eight film/video pieces, and five dance pieces. The Performing Garage has been The Wooster Group’s permanent home and venue since its beginning and all of their work has been developed there. It was bought in the early 1970s when Soho was still an empty warehouse district being reinhabited by artists. The Wooster Group is considered one of the most influential companies in the American avant-garde.
Yasmeen Hadaway Trinity/La MaMa alumna ‘08“My internship with Arthur Aviles at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance was a huge influence on why I went back to school to study arts management. It helped me see what’s needed to build a nonprofit from nothing and develop programming that champions social justice, and it made me an even stronger advocate for arts education.”
