International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) has announced the recipients of its 2016 Awards as well as its 2016 Fellowship programme. Dutch museum patron Elise Wessels, American choreographer Bill T. Jones, Brazilian cultural expert Claudia Toni and American producer Linda Brumbach have all been honoured. The awards will be presented in a ceremony at The Times Centre on 14 January as part of the ISPA conference.
‘The call for nominations resulted in more than 30 exciting submissions from around the world,’ said ISPA CEO David Baile, who explained the final choice was made by ISPA’s executive committee.
Perhaps the best known name among the prize winners is Bill T. Jones, who founded the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (now part of New York Live Arts). Jones’ pieces like Spring Awakening and Fela! have toured internationally and won many prestigious prizes including several Tony Awards.
ISPA has named Jones as its 2016 Distinguished Artist, while Toni receives the International Citation of Merit, Brumbach is honoured with the Patrick Hayes Award and Wessels is recognised with an Angel Award.
In addition to the prizes ISPA has also released its 2016 Fellowship list. There are 13 fellows in total, representing 12 countries. The programme supports arts professionals with a national reputation to develop an international profile. ISPA has invested USD240,000 (€225,000) in the scheme since 2007, with a total of 99 global fellows graduating.
The 2016 list includes Nigerian theatre director Oluwole Oguntokun, Egyptian arts manager Reem Kassem, and Ruchira Das, who founded Indian group Think Arts. ISPA has yet to announce the recipients of its regional fellowships.
ISPA 2016 runs from 12-14 January in New York, with 300 delegates already registered. Three weeks remain to submit advertisements for the 97th ISPA conference programme book.
More information on the prize winners and fellows can be found on ISPA’s website.