Renegade Ventures Fund


Photo: Maxine and Stuart Frankel.

“As Daniel Pink said, “In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are specialties of the [brain’s] right hemisphere – artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.”

Stuart and I believe the arts are fundamental in educating the leaders of tomorrow. We established the Renegade Ventures Fund to ensure that UMS, through programming, has the flexibility to consider the new, the different, the innovative, and the cutting-edge. Some performances are beautiful and awe-inspiring; others are challenging, provocative, or controversial. Yet all engage the mind and the imagination.

The University of Michigan is the ideal incubator for nurturing and fostering creative thinking and collaboration.”

—Maxine Frankel

Supporting innovative and cutting-edge artistic work is a passion of Maxine and Stuart Frankel, who recognize that a national leader in the presentation of the performing arts must push the boundaries of knowledge forward by supporting new works, remounting important past works, and providing a venue and funding for artists to create.

To encourage innovative and cutting edge work, the Frankels established the Renegade Ventures Fund with a multi-year challenge grant of $500,000. In its first year, the Fund supported all events in Pure Michigan Renegade, a 10-week series of performances and educational events focused on game-changing artists and artistic works that included the remounting of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s groundbreaking opera, Einstein on the Beach, and the San Francisco Symphony’s four-day American Mavericks residency.

In Season 2012/2013 the following will make up the Renegade performances.

   Crystal Pite/Kidd Pivot—The Tempest Replica
   Théâtre de la Ville—Ionesco’s Rhinocéros
   Mariinsky Orchestra—Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
   Gilberto Gil—Tropicalia
   Martha Graham Dance Company
   Alison Balsom and the Scottish Ensemble

We invite you to engage in this exciting adventure by partnering with UMS to meet the Renegade Ventures Fund challenge. Please send your matching gift to:

   Renegade Ventures Fund
   UMS
   University of Michigan
   Burton Memorial Tower
   881 North University Avenue
   Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1011

For more information, contact:

Margaret McKinley: 734-647-1177 or margiem@umich.edu