Christopher Williams named as the 2025 Sybil Shearer Fellow at Ragdale
The acclaimed choreographer, Christopher Williams, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship Residency at Ragdale, a nonprofit artist residency program and community in Lake Forest, IL. This prestigious opportunity, which we're proud to fund, continues our commitment to nurturing visionary dance artists. Described by the…
Announcing the Morrison-Shearer Foundation and 3Arts Partnership: Celebrating Dance Excellence
We at the Morrison-Shearer Foundation are thrilled to announce a new funding partnership with 3Arts for this year's Dance Award. The recipient is Robby Lee Williams, who embodies the spirit of innovation and dedication that both our organizations seek to foster. “The partnership between Morrison-Shearer Foundation and 3Arts is a…
Exploring Opportunities for Media Artsits and Their Collaborators
Earlier this year, members of the Morrison-Shearer Foundation’s Board of Trustees visited the Chicago Film Archives and the studio of noted photographer, Judy Natal. Through these visits and others, the Foundation is establishing the basis for its future support of the creative processes of media artists and their collaborators, set to launch…
Without Wings The Way Is Steep Volumes I, II & III Soon Available in Digital Formats
Plans are underway for the digitization and wider distribution of Sybil Shearer’s three-volume autobiography: Without Wings The Way Is Steep. In addition to providing a fascinating view of an insider’s history of modern dance in America, the volumes offer intimate views into Shearer’s thoughts about leaving New York City and…
AYAKO KATO – Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale: 2024
During her residency fellowship at Ragdale, Ayako Kato will be working on ETHOS IV: Degrowth/Cycle/Rebirth, an evening-length piece created to shift focus from human-centered, capitalistic ways of being to a more symbiotic, nature-centered way of being. It will be premiered at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago on April 19 and 20,…
Stephanie Martinez Named 2023 Sybil Shearer Fellow at Ragdale
Award winning choreographer, Stephanie Martinez, has been selected as the second recipient of the Sybil Shearer Fellowship for an artist's residency in the new Sybil Shearer Studio at Ragdale. Stephanie is the Founder and Artistic Director of PARA.MAR Dance Theatre in Chicago. Through this fellowship, Stephanie will explore the work…
Through the Morrison-Shearer Foundation, dance maverick Sybil Shearer continues to enrich Chicago dance
Chicagoland’s dance community has an important and enduring friend in dance maverick Sybil Shearer and the Morrison-Shearer Foundation. The Foundation, established in 1991, perpetuates the legacy of dancer/choreographer Shearer and collaborator/photographer Helen Balfour Morrison as an inspiration for new creativity in the arts by providing grants, the Sybil Shearer Fellowship…