I’m finally back from four days in New York at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference, and still a bit hazy from the experience. With over 4000 registrants wandering around a single hotel, so many old friends and colleagues to chat with, and so many ”virtual” connections finally made ”actual” (I met many readers of my weblog, as well as blogger Doug Fox and AudienceBuzz co-founder Rolf Olsen, among others), it was everything I’ve come to expect from the mega-convening of performing arts professionals…that is, exhalirating and exhausting.
One of the highpoints of the event (admitting my bias) was the fabulous conference session researched, prepared, and presented by four of my MBA students in Arts Administration. They did an exceptional job exploring an emerging issue and challenge for professional performing arts presenting organizations, and teasing out the essential context and insights for those who want to take positive action.
The subject, as I’ve mentioned before, was the promise and challenge of building more meaningful connections between professional performing arts presenters and the amateur or non-professional creative artists that surround them in their communities.
A briefing paper summarizing the project will be coming in a month or so. But in the meanwhile, we’ve posted updates to the project home page with links to key literature on the subject, to organizations discussed during the session, and eventually to the session slides and the briefing paper itself.
Kudos to Leigh Henderson, Joanne Jacobson, Jara Kern, and Maggie Marquardt for their hard work and successful presentation. And thanks also to my other students who were attending the conference — Angie Han, Derek Kwan, Jennifer Post Tyler, Andrea Albrecht, Eric Harris, and Isaac Walters — who provided evaluation and documentation support to the event, and professional connections for the arts institutions they work for here in Wisconsin.
Now it’s nap time.
NOTE: Blogger Doug Fox offers an overview of the student’s conference session on his website.
I must agree. Like Mr. Taylor, I completely exhausted myself at APAP, but I really enjoyed hearing from the Madison students about the innovative ways that performing arts centers are connecting with non-professional artists in their communities. As the only cultural policy student at the University of Texas, it was a pleasure to meet a whole cadre of other students who are thinking about these issues. With so much worry in the field over the impending retirement of arts leaders, it is reassuring to meet other young people preparing themselves to take on these roles.
My sense is that performing arts centers have only scratched the surface of possibilities for programming activities with and for non-professional artists. As my pro-am loving generation comes of age, the lines between arts attendence and arts participation may become increasingly blurred, presenting both opportunities and challenges for presenters. I hope that this forum uncovers examples of both.
Best wishes to Leigh, Joanne, Jara, and Maggie as they wrap up their report. I look forward to reading the finished product.