In partnership with Northrop Auditorium, the Walker offered a show-case of new directions in jazz, dance, and theater through the Discover Series, which celebrated its 15th anniversary. Discover was sponsored by Marshall Field’s Project Imagine, with support from the Target Foundation. Out There, the monthlong series of boundary-crossing performance alternatives copresented with the Southern Theater, also celebrated its 15th anniversary. Music + Film: Sound Unseen was supported by the Bentson Family Fund for the Acquisition, Conservation, and Presentation of Film. As in years past, the Walker’s Performing Arts programs were generously funded by the Doris Duke Fund for Jazz and Dance, the Wallace Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Heartland Arts Fund, the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project.

The Walker’s Film/Video Department received support from the Bush Foundation for the programs: Hubert Bals Fund at 15: Making a Reel Difference, featuring independent films from Argentina, Bangladesh, Syria, China, Iran, India, Mauritania, Mexico, and Tajikistan; and the DIG.IT festival of digital media, which highlighted works by five artists from Beijing, China. Copresented by the Minnesota Film and TV Board, DIG.IT received additional support from Best Buy Co., Inc. and Northwest Airlines. A global programming component in the Walker’s annual Women with Vision film/video festival, sponsored by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, was also funded by the Bush Foundation. Countries represented in the festival included Denmark, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Cuba, Bangladesh, France, Iran, Germany, and the United States. This year Gus Van Sant and Matthew Barney participated in Regis Dialogues, which were again made possible by the Regis Foundation. We are especially grateful for Anita and Myron Kunin’s longstanding support of the Walker’s film program. The popular Summer Music and Movies series, copresented with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, was sponsored by Old Navy with promotional support provided by City Pages and Cities 97.

With major funding from the McKnight Foundation, the New Media Initiatives Department further developed the mnartists.org Web site, which has grown to become both a critical resource for Minnesota artists and a national model for supporting artists and arts organizations. The Jerome Foundation continued its support of Emerging Artists/Emergent Medium commissions. The installation Architecture for Temporary Autonomous Sarai in the exhibition How Latitudes Become Forms and the related Translocations site were supported by the Bush Foundation, the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology, and the Rockefeller Foundation.