Artists Comments

When I began making dances and working with other artists, I was fortunate to have known artists working in a contemporary way: John Cage, Robert Raschenberg, Jasper Johns, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff and Earle Brown, to name a few. The experience of being with, and talking with, contemporary artists with contemporary ideas was important to me and my work. I suspect that is what Misha wants to give young artists - a chance to meet and talk together much in the same way. I'm happy to be a part of Misha's plan.
-- Merce Cunningham

Mikhail Baryshnikov has done more for Modern and Postmodern Dance than any single individual since Loie Fuller. His next venture - the Baryshnikov Arts Center - is only the latest example of his devotion and commitment. Such a site will not only fulfill a desperate need of the dance community in New York City for rehearsal and performance space, but will undoubtedly constitute a welcome stimulus to future choreographic production.
-- Yvonne Rainer

A major design incursion into the ubiquitous commercial architecture that dominates NYC can only be applauded and admired. Dance specific facilities are now part of the urban landscape world wide, and NY deserves to participate in this global phenomenon.
-- William Forsythe

I say, let's help Misha build a new house of dance in Manhattan! The investment will come back times ten. Think about his gift to us, the body élan, the mastery of form in space and time, the liftoff as in belonging to the air and its landing on absolute center, the partnering, on stage and off, in ballet and modern, from artist to audience to person. Add into this mix the entrepreneurial element of White Oak/Judson Redux/etc., and the just plain old rhapsodic boundary busting achievement, daily throughout his life. Now picture innumerable dancers from all over the world entering and exiting this new facility in mid-town to take class, to choreograph, and to rehearse.
-- Trisha Brown

We all need a place to live and work. And the sad fact of Manhattan is that choreographers and dancers, too many of us, don't have that basic starting place. A grim and endless succession of small, hard and inadequate rented rooms has been the reality for too many generations. Mikhail Baryshnikov is helping to change that, and Hooray! The genius dancer, the inclusive popularizer, the restless challenger of all our expectations, now wants to provide us with a workplace and home. This is necessary for art, and it's necessary for New York City, and aren't those two things the same? So let's keep it that way, and get on with it and help him!
-- Mark Morris