History

The Hemispheric Institute came into existence 20 years ago with an innovative vision: to bring together scholars, artists, and activists from throughout the Americas to create and research performance and culture across borders, languages, and disciplines. Founded by NYU Professor Diana Taylor with colleagues from Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, Hemi forged diverse spaces for dialogue, creativity, and exchange—from face-to-face gatherings, workshops, and forums, to online team-taught courses, digital archives, and publications.

Hemi sought to break the divisions between artistic practice, scholarly thinking, and political engagement. Practice and inquiry, knowing and acting—Hemi leaders insisted—are always critical and always creative. In its first two decades, Hemi developed new models for engagement between ‘north’ and ‘south’ by promoting multi-site, multilingual collaborations and creating a collective space for performance and research in Hemi Encuentros. The Hemispheric Institute today honors its founding practices, in which artists, scholars, cultural leaders, and event participants are all recognized as producers of knowledge.

Sponsors

Hemi has received support from the Ford, Henry Luce, Andrew W. Mellon, Nathan Cummings, Rockefeller, Rockefeller Brothers, and Open Society Foundations, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, among others. At NYU, it became a Provostial Institute in 2007, establishing an endowment to sustain its creative inquiry and critical practice into the future.

Land Acknowledgement

The Hemispheric Institute at New York University acknowledges with respect the Lenape nation, whose traditional homelands NYU now occupies. We recognize the longstanding significance of these territories for Lenape nations past and present. We acknowledge that we work in a city with the largest urban Native population in the United States. Even as we work to increase the historical awareness of Indigenous exclusion and erasure, we acknowledge the effect of that legacy in educational institutions, at NYU, and across the hemisphere. We are committed to work revealing Indigenous history and life-worlds and to the inclusion of Indigenous voices and participation, in allyship with Indigenous makers and communities across the Americas.

About Us

The Hemispheric Institute works with artists, scholars, and community leaders to study and preserve culture and performance from across the Americas.

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Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics New York University
20 Cooper Square Fifth Floor New York, NY 10003, USA