FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2000

Mid-America Arts Alliance Receives Grant from U.S. State Department
$100,000 to support US/China Performing Arts Presenter Exchange

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. State Department. Henry Moran, executive director said, "We are grateful to the State Department's Office of Educational and Cultural Affairs for its vision and commitment to work with domestic arts organizations to help achieve international cultural exchange. M-AAA is pleased to once again collaborate with Arts Midwest (AM), our sister regional arts organization, to involve the 15-state central U.S. region in a project that will enhance international performing arts presentation." The project will organize a program of seminars, site visits, and reciprocal mentoring between leading arts mangers from China and the U.S.

Goals of the project include: building relationships between practicing performing arts presenters in the U.S. and China; providing opportunities for arts presenters of both countries to learn new skills and broaden their knowledge of the international performing arts touring field; and exposing those arts administrators to the work of artists from the other country. The project will also create a key group of arts presenters from both countries who will act as future resources and networks for touring performing artists.

Dr. William B. Bader, Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, said, "This project will strengthen newly-formed private performing arts enterprises in China that have limited experience presenting performing American artists. I hope and expect that the exchange will have a significant multiplier effect by enabling arts presenters in the U.S. and China to put together programs that deepen each country's understanding of the other's culture and society. Cultural diplomacy can play a meaningful part in reducing the misunderstandings between the U.S. and China. It can correct misapprehensions, misrepresentations, and just plain inaccuracies about who we are as a nation and what our policies seek to accomplish. A coalition of actors from both inside the government and out will throw their combined weight into a concerted effort to use culture to build enduring bridges between China and the U.S. Exchanges have long played a substantial role in bolstering our national security. In fact, -more- Mid-America Arts Alliance Receives $100,000 (continued) mutual understanding is the cornerstone on which many of our most productive relationships with American allies and friends around the world have been built."

According to Henry Moran, the exchange will run from October 2000 to October 2001. A delegation of 6 U.S. and 6 Chinese experienced presenters from prominent performing arts organizations will be invited to participate. The U.S. Embassy and Ministry of Culture in Beijing will select the Chinese participants. The U.S. participants will come from the combined M-AAA/AM regions.

M-AAA has nearly a decade of experience designing and managing special international initiatives including projects in conjunction with the former United States Information Agency (USIA). Programs with the USIA included the International Arts Program Networking involving binational centers in Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East as well as the International Visual Artist Residency and Fellowship Program. M-AAA has also managed U.S. tours of performing artists from Japan, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, Mexico, and Canada. M-AAA and AM are currently collaborating on another Chinese project. Efforts are underway to mount a North American tour of the National Ballet of China in the fall of 2001.

M-AAA is a private, not-for-profit, partnership organization based in Kansas City, Missouri. M-AAA's primary purpose is to stimulate and enhance performing and visual arts activity in the six-state region comprised of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Supported by its states, the National Endowment for the Arts and leading foundations and businesses, M-AAA also collaborates with the neighboring Arts Midwest regional organization to offer the combined area the Heartland Arts Fund which supports presenting organizations and some 200 performing arts touring artists and groups. ExhibitsUSA is M-AAA's national traveling exhibition program which develops and annually distributes 30 exhibitions reaching all 50 states and over 1 million visitors with high quality, diverse, arts and humanities exhibitions, and educational tools. For more information on M-AAA visit its website at www.maaa.org.

The financial assistance for the US/China Performing Arts Exchange is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State under the authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, as amended.