The MacDowell Virtual National Benefit 2021

December 7, 2021

Thanks for joining our 2021 Virtual National Benefit when we honored Urban Word with the 2nd annual Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award, which was accepted on their behalf by Mahogany L. Browne, Artistic Director of Urban Word NYC and Poet-in-Residence at Lincoln Center. We also featured performances and interviews by MacDowell Fellows, and a performance by 2022 New York City Youth Poet Laureate Elizabeth Shvarts on the stunning stage at National Sawdust.

A piece of artwork titled "The outside being here right now". The work is abstract, colorful, and features imagery of silhouettes and shadows

The outside being here right now - inkjet print, etching, 2019, Sky Hopinka (MacDowell Fellow 2021)

Through the Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award, we aim to honor arts advocates who uniquely and profoundly support and amplify the work of art and artists. This year, we were thrilled to honor Urban Word, one of the oldest and most comprehensive youth literary arts organizations in the United States.

This year's theme was "Met at MacDowell: Creative Collaboration." It was an opportunity to experience and celebrate some of the magic that happens at MacDowell when artists—writers, visual artists, composers, architects, interdisciplinary artists, filmmakers, and theatre artists—engage in artistic exchange to create new works.

2021 MacDowell Virtual National Benefit

View the full recorded program above from December 7, 2021

Sharon Greytak Talks About Her MacDowell Experience for the 2021 MacDowell National Benefit

Anne Beal and Christopher Zuar Discuss Their Collaborative Dynamic

Poet John Murillo Reads "Mercy, Mercy, Me"

Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award Presented to Urban Word at the 2021 MacDowell National Benefit

Architect Peter Zuspan Introduces National Sawdust

Shaina Taub Intros SUFFS & Nikki M. James Performs

Raphael Xavier Talks MacDowell, Creative Connections

Benefit Chairs

Susan Bay-Nimoy
Eleanor Briggs
Marcy Carsey
Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal
Christine and Todd Fisher
Anne Stark Locher and Kurt Locher
Robert and Stephanie Olmsted
Thomas and Babs Putnam
Andrew and Barbara Senchak
Amy Davidson Sorkin and David Sorkin
Peter Wirth and Catherine Lou

Benefit Patrons

Charles Gaines and Roxana Landaverde
Gerald and Teresa Gartner
Elizabeth and Russell Gaudreau
John Hargraves and Nancy Newcomb
Darrell and Robin Harvey
Charles F. Stone III and Theresa Stone

Virtual Program Credits

Directed by
Anne Kauffman

Production Stage Manager
Ashley-Rose Galligan

Technical Producer
ibid mobile

Edited by
Wide Iris

Executive Producer
Brett Evan Solomon

Associate Producers
Gina Hsu, Stacey Bosworth

Consulting Producers
Jonathan Gourlay, Philip Himberg, Christian Holland

Program Curators
Philip Himberg, Anne Kauffman

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Anne Beal
Mahogany L. Browne
Shanelle Gabriel
Sharon Greytak
Andrea Grody
Philip Himberg
Cathy Park Hong
Sky Hopinka
Nikki James
John Murillo
Nell Painter
Rufus Reid
Cheryl Savageau
Elizabeth Shvarts
Patricia Smith
Shaina Taub
Raphael Xavier
Christopher Zuar
Peter Zuspan
The Public Theater
The entire Urban Word team
National Sawdust
The MacDowell Benefit Committee

The entire MacDowell staff, artists, board,and donors who make up our community

PHOTO/VIDEO CREDITS
Brittany K. Allen
Anne Beal
Monica Chang
Jasmine Clark
Hannah Fitch
Jonathan Gourlay
Sharon Greytak
Christian Holland
Sky Hopinka
Tyler Jensen
Dan Kennedy
Dan Millbauer
Joanna Eldredge Morrissey
Ann Putnam
Lena Rudnick
Beowulf Sheehan
Raphael Xavier
Christopher Zuar
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Library of Congress, Music Division
Bureau V
New Hampshire PBS
Urban Word
National Sawdust

MUSIC
Rufus Reid
Christopher Zuar
The Xav
Provided by Wide Iris

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Additional thanks to Boston Private an SVB company, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Mayfair Farm, Crossfire Sound Productions, Carl Wislon, Scott Manning, David Macy, Robin Cherof, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, Musa and Tom Mayer, Anne Stark Locher, Tammy Bosworth, Sharon and Bradford Malt, Ann Putnam, Cecilia Aldorando and Hannah Buck, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Adriana Corral, The Hancock Inn, Pearl Restaurant & Oyster Bar, R.O. Kwon, Jessica Bruder, Michelle Boulé, Christine Lahti, New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center Theater, Studio 54, The Public Theater, Amitava Kumar, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Jung Yun, Danny Kahn, Portia Munson, Harvest and Revel Catering.