Providence, RI—Brown University Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies (TAPS) announced today a new fund for dance at Brown. The Sue E. Perlmutter Fund for Dance will bring visiting choreographers, dancers, and musicians to Brown University annually for the benefit of dance scholarship and for the enjoyment of students, faculty, and the general public. The Fund was established in loving memory of Sue E. Perlmutter P’06 by her husband, Marc E. Perlmutter ’74, P’06, as a lasting legacy to Sue, her love of dance, and her commitment to the joyful celebration of life through movement.
TAPS Department Chair Dr. Patricia Ybarra, said:
We are extremely grateful for the generous support of Marc Perlmutter in establishing this fund. Thanks to his support, the study of dance at Brown will be advanced as a dynamic art form and as a means of creative expression across world cultures. The fund will allow the department to link our students with those artists that are integral to dance but do not always receive due recognition—the musicians, international artists, and choreographers.
Marc Perlmutter commented:
Sue had a lifelong passion for dance. She also loved music and had a keen interest in learning and teaching about different world cultures. Brown held many special memories for Sue, and it gives me and my family great satisfaction to be able to honor Sue’s enthusiasm for life, diversity, and the arts by supporting the dance program at Brown in this way.
Founding Director of Dance at Brown University Julie Adams Strandberg looks forward to building on the dance program’s mission to provide students with intimate and in-depth interaction with practicing artists. This gift will allow the program to increase those interactions and to foster relationships with the global dance community.
The dance program at Brown University is part of the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and offers both concentrator and non-concentrator students many opportunities to take courses in dance technique, composition, and history. Although the program is primarily a modern dance program, it also has a strong West African dance, music, and culture component. The program utilizes Brown’s flexible curriculum to offer courses in Engaged Scholarship, Mindfulness-Based Expressive Arts, Somatic Studies, and Dance Pedagogy. It attracts students who wish to work independently on any of the numerous topics that can enrich one’s knowledge and appreciation of the art of dance.
This program is a part of, and aligns with, the values of the Brown Arts Initiative (BAI), which seeks to cultivate creative expression and foster an interdisciplinary environment where faculty and students learn from each other, and from artists and scholars in a wide range of fields from across the campus and around the world. “Dance has been a central part of the excellence of the arts at Brown,” said Butch Rovan, Faculty Director of the Brown Arts Initiative, “and this remarkable fund will help to ensure its continued excellence for many years to come. The University is deeply grateful to the Perlmutter family for their beautiful gift.”
The BAI builds on Brown’s reputation as a destination for arts exploration, contributing to cultural enterprise through the integration of theory and practice, with an emphasis on innovation and discovery that results from rigorous artmaking and experimentation.
Gifts to the Sue E. Perlmutter Fund for Dance will be gratefully accepted by the University. Donations to the Fund can be sent to Brown University to the attention of: Adrienne C. Morris, Regional Development Director, Brown University, 110 Elm Street, Box 1893, Providence, RI 02906. Please indicate that your donation is being made in honor or memory of Sue Perlmutter and that your gift is designated for the Sue E. Perlmutter Fund for Dance. Gifts can also be made online using the same gift designation described above. For questions about the Sue E. Perlmutter Fund for Dance or how to make a gift to the Fund, please contact Adrienne Morris at 401-863-1891 or via email at adrienne_morris@brown.edu.
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Brown University Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies press contact:
Paul Margrave
83 Waterman Street,
Providence, RI 09212
401-863-2730
paul_margrave@brown.edu