Strandberg is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies and the Founding Director of Dance at Brown University.
Strandberg will be honored with the Charles Sullivan Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts. She will join her fellow award-winners at a Gala Reception hosted by Trinity Repertory Company on June 15. Other award winners this year include Debra Messing, John Chan, and Michael Gennaro.
Over the past 50 years, Julie Adams Strandberg has been a pioneering force in bridging the gap between the academy, the professional dance world, and the indigenous culture of American modern dance. She is the Founding Director of Dance at Brown University and was named Artist-In-Residence in 1994 by Brown University President Vartan Gregorian. Under her leadership, dancers are provided with conservatory-level arts experiences within a liberal arts context.
Strandberg is also the Co-Founder of American Dance Legacy Initiative (ADLI), which documents and preserves historic masterworks, commissions Repertory Etudes, develops materials, designs dance curricula and assessment tools to integrate dance across the K-university curriculum. ADLI, which is housed at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, impacts thousands of dancers, students, educators, scholars, and the general public, nationally and internationally.
Strandberg was Artistic Director of Rhode Island Dance Repertory Company from 1971-78, which reconvened in 1999 as the Arabella Project to explore what mature dancers have to offer. She has directed and choreographed for Trinity Repertory Company, Barrington Players, Rhode Island College, Festival Ballet, and Rhode Island School of Design. As the first Dancer-In-Residence for the State Council on the Arts, she brought dance to schools throughout Rhode Island.
In 1973, she co-founded The Harlem Dance Foundation with her parents, Olive and Julius Adams, and sister Carolyn Adams to, "nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community." Since 1989, she and Carolyn Adams have directed the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance.
In 2012, Julie co-founded Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) with Brown University alumna Rachel Balaban '80 to research dance and music for people with Parkinson's Disease and Autism, and to work with national and international partners to implement existing and design new arts programs for these populations. Through ASaP, Strandberg also taught at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University on arts and healing.
Strandberg has served on several national boards and panels, is the author of multiple articles, and has received numerous awards. She is married to Josiah Strandberg. They have two daughters, Laura and Marie, a son-in-law William, and grandsons, Andrew and Jackson.
In honor of her long service, Strandberg will be honored at the 2015 Pell Awards. Now in its 19th year, the Pell Awards honor Senator Claiborne Pell and recognize artistic excellence in Rhode Island and the New England region as well as on the national level. Throughout his life, Senator Pell worked to support the arts and provide new opportunities for artists. He sponsored the landmark legislation that established the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities in 1965, and chaired the Senate Education and Arts subcommittee.
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