Mar 04, 2015

SFJAZZ Awarded CENIC’s 2015 Innovations In Networking Award for the Performing Arts

LA MIRADA and BERKELEY, CA – San Francisco Jazz (SFJAZZ) is being honored by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) as a recipient of the 2015 Innovations in Networking Award for Performing Arts, the first performing arts award in the Educational Applications category.

SFJAZZ was connected to CalREN just a little over a year ago, in February 2014. Their highly innovative and inaugural use of high-speed broadband was to create a cyber-symposium focused on the work of pianist and jazz legend Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981). This cyber symposium was a collaboration between eight educational and cultural institutions: University of Michigan, Harvard University, Emory University, Columbia University, University of Pittsburgh, SFJAZZ, and the Kennedy Center. High-speed broadband allowed participants to use music collaboration software and video-conferencing to explore and celebrate the life of this great American artist. This national symposium, streamed live and archived at music.pitt.edu, featured improvised piano duets by pianists in studios hundreds of miles apart, a portion of a work-in-progress film on Williams, and panel discussions with university scholars. Subsequent symposia and performances over CalREN and Internet2 have built upon this foundational event.

“When SFJAZZ contemplates technology in a strategic context, fundamentally, we think in terms of how innovation can support the art form. Integrating education and advanced networking technology is a cornerstone of our outreach vision. Our mantra is, 700 seats to 7 million, in recognition of our venue capacity, and the global nature of our projected impact, respectively. This impact is accomplishable in coordination with the international research and education network community via CENIC and CalREN,” said Mount Allen III, who leads SFJAZZ’s technology innovations and initiatives.

SFJAZZ, along with the Exploratorium, a previous winner of CENIC’s Innovations in Networking Award, leads the way for cultural organizations in San Francisco and around California to take advantage of CENIC’s broadband network. The collections, research, artists, scientists, performances, staff, and facilities currently in use by these and other cultural institutions constitute a vast and unique resource that can be used to enrich and educate people all around the globe. The possibilities are endless, from museum curators as virtual guest lecturers in arts administration classes at a state university, to opera singers conducting master classes for high school choirs, to plays for children broadcast into K-12 classrooms across California and beyond.

New knowledge is created in cultural institutions just as it is created in universities. Museums conduct scientific experiments and fund expeditions. Theaters conduct historical research on plays and past productions of these plays. Dance companies build archives, and many museums have built digital archives of the majority of their holdings, which are not currently on display. Through CENIC’s broadband network, these riches from cultural institutions are integrated with education and research programs at CENIC’s member institutions – California’s universities, colleges, schools, and libraries.

“Cultural institutions have always had a dual mission: an artistic or scientific mission and an educational mission. If these institutions are to fulfill their missions to their maximum potential, interactive access to these irreplaceable resources must exist throughout California’s and the country’s educational institutions. However, the barriers to this vision – geographic and otherwise – are daunting,” stated Louis Fox, President and CEO of CENIC. “High-speed broadband can break down these barriers and bring people together with one another and priceless far-flung resources in new and innovative ways, and leaders like SFJAZZ bring California and the world closer to the this vision of access for all.”

Innovations in Networking Awards are presented each year by CENIC to highlight the exemplary innovations that leverage ultra high-bandwidth networking, particularly where those innovations have the potential to revolutionize the ways in which instruction and research are conducted or where they further the deployment in underserved areas.

About SFJAZZ • www.sfjazz.org

SFJAZZ is a recognized international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education. SFJAZZ explores the full spectrum of jazz, from the music's origins in the African American community to its diverse present-day expressions around the world. As a non-profit organization, SFJAZZ works to develop the audience for jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. SFJAZZ celebrates jazz as a living art form, built on a constantly evolving tradition.

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