The New Harmony Project (Lori Wolter Hudson, Artistic Director; David Hudson, Executive Director), an organization dedicated to nurturing writers whose work interrogates the complexity of hope, has unveiled a bold and ambitious new vision for the future. Through an extensive nine-month planning process, the board of directors, staff, and stakeholders crafted a detailed multi-year strategic plan, adopted a new mission, and articulated a set of values focused on the prioritization of people who make up their community.
The planning process, led by Lisa Mount & Sam Morreale of Artistic Logistics and Keryl McCord of Equity Quotient, began in March of 2021 with a series of training sessions focused on dismantling racism. Over the course of the year, board, staff, and stakeholders gathered to brainstorm new and exciting opportunities for The New Harmony Project to grow and expand.
“For more than three decades, The New Harmony Project has supported and nurtured brilliant writers from across the country,” says Executive Director, David Hudson. “We are thrilled to begin our next chapter by embracing the opportunity to build space for writers, artists, and communities that have been systemically excluded. By centering people first and foremost, we have a chance to change the who in order to change the what and how.”
As part of the process, The New Harmony Project adopted a new mission statement that recognizes and celebrates the many ways that hope can manifest in stories for the stage and screen:
The New Harmony Project is a national arts organization whose mission is to nurture writers in the development of scripts and new works that interrogate the complexity of hope. Through artist-centered programming, we care for writers so they can change the world.
The New Harmony Project has already begun to realize its newly adopted strategic vision through a series of exciting events, including the addition of six new board members, two new full-time staff, a pivot to paid reader opportunities, and programs that provided majority support in 2021 and 2022 to writers and artists from systemically excluded and/or underrepresented communities. More details and the full strategic plan can be found online at newharmonyproject.org/strategic-plan.
The next phase of The New Harmony Project’s work will center on building responsive, community-centered programs that meet the needs of writers, artists, and audiences in Central Indiana and across the United States. A series of public town halls will launch that process in May of 2022, and anyone with a passion for the development of new works for the stage and screen are invited to participate at newharmonyproject.org/program-development.
The New Harmony Project boasts an impressive roster of past participants including Erika Dickerson-Despenza (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner cullud wattah, 2019 Princess Grace Award), Robert Schenkkan (All the Way, The Great Society, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner), Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, NBC’s Smash, Seminar), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, King James), Lee Blessing (Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee, A Walk in the Woods), Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour), Steven Dietz (Lonely Planet), Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Where We Stand, Last Night and the Night Before), Vichet Chum (Bald Sisters, 2018 Princess Grace Award), James Still (four time Pulitzer Prize nominee, The Velocity of Gary), Meredith Stiehm (Emmy winner, Homeland, Cold Case), Danny Strong (two time Emmy winner, Empire, Dopesick), George Brant (Grounded, Marie and Rosetta), Idris Goodwin (Break Beat Play, How We Got On), Regina Taylor (Drowning Crow, Crowns), Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51, Actually), Dael Orlandersmith (After the Flood), Jim Leonard (Major Crimes, Dexter), Ngozi Anyanwu (The Homecoming Queen, Good Grief), Mark St. Germain (Freud’s Last Session, The Cosby Show), Matt Williams (Home Improvement, Roseanne), David McFadzean (Home Improvement, Roseanne) and Angelo Pizzo (Rudy, Hoosiers).
In April of 1986, a group of theater, film, and television professionals gathered in Indianapolis to explore the trend in the entertainment arts toward exploitative and sensational material. They concluded there was a need to engage and support writers whose work sought a goal beyond mere entertainment, work that sought to empower and uplift. It was out of this meeting that The New Harmony Project was created. For more than three decades, The New Harmony Project has been serving writers whose work emanates hope, courage, and the strength and resiliency of the human spirit. We elevate stories for theater, television, and film that inspire, enlighten, and endeavor to make the world a better place. Following a leadership transition in the fall of 2017, The New Harmony Project began to drastically expand its programming in Central and Southwestern Indiana, and is working tirelessly to expand its impact across the state and around the country.
The New Harmony Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For information on how to support this unique and worthwhile organization, please visit www.newharmonyproject.org.