A New York state of mind
While we ready ourselves to launch the new PCA blog, I am finalizing my schedule for the annual, national conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. This conference brings more than four thousand delegates from around the world to New York City for a long weekend of showcases, full-length performances, festivals, seminars, workshops, and meetings with agents, artists and colleagues. It’s a heady and wonderfully exhausting experience!
With numerous showcases programmed for the conference and the cultural mecca of NYC as the setting, it’s an unparalled opportunity to see work that PCA might one day bring to Portland. While there I will get to see some of the events under discussion for 2008–09, preview a number of the early considerations for 2009–10, and discuss projects that are brewing for 2010 and beyond.
I will visit the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater studios, Baryshnikov Arts Center, choreographer Elizabeth Streb’s studio SLAM, City Center, and the Japan Society to see dance performances. Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall will host an evening of young classical artists – a wonderful chance to see the rising stars of tomorrow. PCA has a highly regarded reputation for identifying young virtuosos. (I am always excited to remind people that Yo-Yo Ma was 27 years old the first time PCA brought him to Portland!) The Under the Radar Festival, which annually promises provocative theater, is hosted by The Public Theater, the famed venue founded by Joseph Papp, who brought “Shakespeare to the people? with the annual, free Shakespeare in the Park festival. The Public Theater is credited with launching forty-nine Broadway shows. Other events I’ll take in happen at Joe’s Pub – the live music venue at The Public – as well as at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Jazz Standard, and Nuyorican Poets Café.
In addition to all of these performances and connecting with colleagues, I’m also looking forward to hearing a new report in advance of a soon-to-be released, much anticipated book co-edited by Bill Ivey (former chair of National Endowment for the Arts) and policy scholar Steven Tepper. Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America’s Cultural Life brings together social scientists and arts professionals to explore the driving forces that are affecting art and art-making in America – challenging old ways of thinking, raising probing questions, and examining how our communities engage with arts and culture today.
I look forward to sharing with you my discoveries when I return.
“The morning light on the veranda is rich, gaudy and generous. Face the day, pumpkins! Crack the shell the way the chicks do.? – Merce Cunningham
Andrew Shuttleworth says:
Bon voyage, Aimée!