Philip Bither

Philip Bither has served as Walker Art Center’s Senior Curator of Performing Arts since April 1997, spearheading one of the country’s leading contemporary performing arts programs. During this time, he has overseen the building of the McGuire Theater, an acclaimed theatrical space and production laboratory within the Walker expansion (opened in April 2005), the raising of the Walker’s first dedicated performing arts endowment, the commissioning of more than 180 new works in dance, music, and performance, and the annual residency and presentation support of dozens of contemporary performing arts creators, established and emerging. Prior to this, he served for eight years as the Artistic Director for the Flynn Center and its Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington, VT; and before that he served seven years as Associate Director and Music Curator for BAM’s Next Wave Festival. In 2011, he helped found the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance graduate program at Wesleyan University. He regularly sits on national foundation and governmental arts panels, and he actively travels globally to research new performance and to speak about trends in the contemporary performing arts.
Submissions

Toward a New Curation

Fellow national curators (myself included) would recognize when our own limitations of history/age/privilege were a barrier and step aside to let others more aligned with an artist or project take over. In this landscape, talented younger artists and curators would receive effective, thoughtful mentorship and training, while those more seasoned would acknowledge and draw inspiration from the energy and ideas of next-generation curators.