Ira Glass began his career in public radio as an intern at National Public Radio's network headquarters in Washington in 1978. He was 19 years old. Since then, he has worked on nearly every NPR network news program and done virtually every production job in NPR's Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor and producer. He has filled in as host of "Talk of the Nation" and "Weekend All Things Considered." From 1989 to 1995 Glass was a reporter in NPR's Chicago Bureau. For two years, he covered Chicago school reform for "All Things Considered" with two unusual series of reports. The first followed Taft High School for an entire school year. The second followed Washington Irving Elementary for a year. School restructuring at Taft went poorly; at Irving it went well. In 1988 Glass was named as one of a handful of Young Journalists of the Year by the Livingston Foundation. In 1991, he and John Matisonn, NPR's South Africa correspondent, were honored by the National Association of Black Journalists for their four-part series comparing race relations in South Africa with those in the United States. During the 1992 presidential campaign, he travelled with the Clinton campaign, and in January 1993, he anchored NPR's live broadcast of the Clinton inauguration. From 1990 until 1995, he co-hosted a weekly, local program on Chicago Public Radio called "The Wild Room," a show that defies easy description. For more information on This American Life, visit www.thisamericanlife.org.
GOTHAM ARTS EXCHANGE, INC. is a non-profit arts organization set-up to provide administrative, management, booking, fundraising, insurance, and fiscal sponsorship services to the artists that make up the roster of Zia Artists. The idea behind Gotham Arts Exchange is to "pool" the resources of many companies together to be able to afford the many aspects of running a non-profit corporation that is vital to the infrastructure of a dance company. By doing this, each dance company that is not an incorporated non-profit becomes a sponsored project of the organization. Gotham Arts Exchange began producing at The Joyce Theater in 2006, presenting Battleworks and Paradigm, followed by Keigwin+Company and Battleworks (2008), Nicholas Leichter and Keigwin+Company (2009), Gotham Dance Festival (2010, 2011, 2012), and Camille A. Brown & Dancers (2012). The most recent venture is FOCUS (2012, 2013), a new initiative that promotes American dance duringAPAP.
The Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for New York University and lower Manhattan. Led by executive producer Jay Oliva (President Emeritus, NYU) and senior director Michael Harrington, the programs of the Skirball Center reflect NYU's mission as an international center of scholarship, defined by excellence and innovation and shaped by an intellectually rich and diverse environment. A vital aspect of the Center's mission is to build young adult audiences for the future of live performance. www.nyuskirball.org