Water Mill - Through cross-disciplinary exploration, apprenticeship-style training with master artists and creative exchange, the Watermill Center supports new work in all artistic disciplines, with a primary focus on inspiring a new generation of performers, artists and global citizens. Moving closer to that objective, the Watermill Center is hosting a committee of eminent individuals representing a diversity of fields, including founder Robert Wilson and the center's creative director, to select participants this July for the Center's prestigious residency program for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009.

By furnishing emerging artists with the Center's unique environment for creation and exploration, including a network of peers, mentors and like-minded institutions, the Watemill Center seeks to serve as a springboard for the future of the avant-garde. Since Watermill's new facilities were inaugurated in July 2006, the Center's Fall and Spring residency programs have hosted young artists of numerous cultural, social and religious backgrounds.

The appointment of a committee to select residencies for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 is
another move toward the future of Watermill. It will involve a highly talented group of
people in curating Watermill programs. Their background in disciplines such as visual arts, performing arts, education/social sciences/sciences/politics, business/administration, journalism/literature, music/opera, film and entertainment will provide expertise in view of the widest possible range of applicants. The committee will consist of 16 members, eight of whom will be required to join Wilson and Watermill Creative Director Jörn Weisbrodt for the selection proceedings each July.

To date, the following individuals have agreed to be part of this inaugural committee: Marina Abramovic, Performance Artist, Serbia; Marie Claude Beaud, curator and Director of the Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Jonathan Safran Foer, Writer, USA; Alanna Heiss, Director PS1, USA; Dr. Jürgen Kluge, Director, McKinsey and Company, Inc., Germany; Xavier Le Roy, Choreographer and Performer, France; Albert Maysles, filmmaker, USA; Michael Morris, Co-Director, Artangel and Director, Cultural Industry UK; Gerard Mortier, General Manager of the Opera de Paris and General Manager elect of the New York City Opera, Belgium; Ida Nicolaisen, Anthropologist and President of the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues, Denmark; John Rockwell, Journalist, USA; Christoph Schlingensief, Film Maker, Visual Artist and Theater and Opera Director, Germany; Richard Sennett, Sociologist and Cultural Critic, New York University and London School of Economics, USA; Nike Wagner, Artistic Director, Kunstfest Weimar, Germany.

The committee's selections will be based on artistic quality, originality and collaborative, interdisciplinary nature. Committee members will look for diverse projects that fit within the facilities that the Center has to offer, and to applicants who demonstrate that the time at Watermill will be of significant benefit to the processes of their projects.

The committee will also look for proposals that question, define and redefine the mission of the Watermill Center and centers for the arts and humanities in general. The Center is founded upon the conviction that the arts of the stage need to draw inspiration from all arts, as well as from social, human and natural sciences. Watermill embraces anyone from those fields with a strong interest with the theater.

As part of the experience, all Watermill artists-in-residence are required to lead at least one lecture, master class, workshop, open rehearsal or other public event for local community members (adults and/or children) to provide insight into the creative process. The residencies will take place between Sept. 8 and Dec. 12, 2008 (Fall), and March 16 to June 12 in the Spring of 2009. Proposals are due May 31. Selected projects will be announced at the end of July 2008. For additional information, contact Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates at (718) 643-9052.