The Eisemann Edge Initiative ("Eisemann Edge") at Communities Foundation of Texas (“CFT”) uplifts nonprofits and projects that explore the intersection of technology with performing and visual arts. Launched in 2019 through support from Charles and the late Ann Eisemann, the Eisemann Edge encourages the growth of tech-based arts internationally. In 2022, CFT began partnering with the Eisemanns to manage and support its grantmaking process.
The 2026 recipient of the Eisemann Edge Initiative grant is the multidisciplinary performance entity, slowdanger, founded in Pittsburgh by Anna Thompson and Taylor Knight, for a project titled STORY BALLET.
STORY BALLET is a surreal dance theater quintet re-interpolating Hector Berlioz’s historic 1830 composition, Symphonie Fantastique. This re-contextualization queers the original tale into an 75-minute contemporary performance exploring the intersection of mental health de-stigmatization and perception. The work engages technology to externalize the internal experience of the lived realities of performers navigating fragmentation, physical labor, and identity.
Berlioz’s original narrative objectifies “the/a woman” as an obsession that haunts him throughout the program music’s narrative. STORY BALLET subverts this concept, redefining the symphony’s story as “dancing with the ghost of one’s self” and uses the symphony’s five movements as dramaturgical frameworks for examination. The cast of five embodies different facets of the central character, each grappling with their own obsessions and past selves. Noir lighting, holographic projections akin to 1800’s Pepper’s Ghost illusions, motion capture, sculptural laser walls and live sound sampling reinforce the performers’ descent into a phantasmagoric nightmare.
History of the Eisemann Edge
In 2019, the City of Richardson and the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts partnered with The Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities and Technology at UT Dallas to create the Eisemann Edge Endowment Fund. This innovative program empowered Richardson residents and students to explore how technology can enhance arts experiences.
Early projects supported by the Eisemann Edge include MotherBoard, a modular sculptural installation that celebrated the City of Richardson’s history and pioneering embrace of innovative technology, and 20 Years in 20 Minutes, a projection experience that highlighted the Eisemann Center’s first 20 years and impact on the arts landscape.
In 2023, Eisemann Edge awarded a $100,000 grant to SciArt Exchange, to support its upcoming Sensing Deep Space: Pandora's Cluster exhibit. The installation interacted with visitors’ senses, creating an immersive and engaging experience that explored the deep space galaxy cluster. Projections and sounds were generated using data from the Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, and James Webb space telescopes, which could be manipulated using a touch panel in the center of the room.
OutLoud was the 2024 recipient of the Eisemann Edge Initiative grant and was awarded $100,000 for the development and premiere of See Me. In collaboration with Chicago-based artist Ruben Carrazana, a series of workshops at schools across North Texas guided high school and college students through exercises in personal identity exploration using writing, spoken word poetry, and theater to create an original script. Paired with original music, choreography, lighting, holograms, and projections fabricated with the help of professional artists, this piece is one-of-a-kind. This groundbreaking project challenges audiences to ask why stories are important to us, and how technology has changed the way we share our stories. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, See Me immerses audiences in the diverse stories of community members, focusing primarily on youth voice.
Verdigris Ensemble was the 2025 recipient of the Eisemann Edge Initiative grant and was awarded $100,000 for the development and premiere of Betty's Notebook, The Immersive Experience & RE:Transmit. The piece previously gained international recognition as the first classical music NFT ever sold, acquired by Metapurse in 2021 for $375,000. It was transformed in 2025 into Verdigris’s first semi-permanent visual and aural installation featuring immersive projection design by Courtney Ware and Lightware Labs. Betty's Notebook tells the story of Betty Klenck, the 15-year-old radio enthusiast who may have heard and written down the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Decades later, her notebook becomes the starting point for this immersive, goosebump-inducing performance.
Now housed at CFT, the Eisemann Edge continues to offer grant funding to nonprofits and projects that:
- Apply innovative technology to the presentation and experience of performing and/or visual arts. Examples of technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality, digital media, immersive installation, and more.
- Apply innovative technology to the presentation and experience of performing and/or visual arts. Examples of technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality, digital media, immersive installation, and more.
- Demonstrate a track record of creating innovative projects that merge arts and technology.
- Share detailed plans for marketing and publicly presenting the project at the Eisemann Center for Performing Arts.
- Challenge the stereotypes and siloing that are characteristic of technology institutions and the performing/visual arts.
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