The most comprehensive annual celebration of the performing arts around the globe, encompassing a convergence of 14major performing arts industry forums and public festivals, is about to take place once again in New York City with the 2019 edition of JanArtsNYC. With the broad menu of cultural events including American Realness (Jan. 4-13; americanrelaness.com), Chamber Music of America Conference (Jan. 17-20 chamber-music.org), Drama League DirectorFest (Jan. 11-28; directorfest.org), National Sawdust’s FERUS Festival (Jan. 4-8; nationalsawdust.org/festivals-and-series/ferus), globalFEST (Jan. 6; globalfest.org), ISPA Congress (Jan. 8-10; ispa.org), Jazz Congress (Jan. 7-8; jazzcongress.org), NYC Winter Jazzfest (Jan. 4-12; winterjazzfest.com), The Joyce Theater’s American Dance Platform (Jan. 3-7; joyce.org), Performance Space New York (Jan. 5-31; performancespacenewyork.org), PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now (Jan. 5-13; prototypefestival.org), and The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival (Jan. 3-13; undertheradarfestival.com), perhaps the most important of these will be the 62ndannual Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) Conference. Taking place at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel from January 4-8, the APAP Conference in 2019 will host more than 3,600 performing arts professionals (including persons who represent leading performing arts centers, municipal and university performing arts facilities, culturally specific organizations, foreign governments, artist agencies, managers, touring companies, consultants and self-represented artists) as they experience some 1,000 performance showcases, network at a 370-booth EXPO Hall, and attend professional development and plenary sessions addressing issues impacting their industry.
This year APAP is set to recognize the collective impact of the industry and performing arts as a positive force in communities with the theme of “The Power of WE” – designed to demonstrate how the industry can work and drive change by generating the energy, ideas, inspiration and collective power that fuels both movements and individual performing arts professionals. President and CEO of APAP Mario Garcia Durham says “APAP|NYC 2019 will be an important moment for our leaders and those aspiring to lead to dive into areas that will affect the outcome of the health of our industry in these turbulent times. This moment will also serve as a call to action for our industry to identify how we can positively impact the outcomes of our contributions to our communities and the field.”The conference will kick off with an opening plenary session on Friday, January 4, where PBS Arts Advisor and Former Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts Jane Chu will give a presentation on “The Power of Art”, emphasizing a multi-dimensional perspective on the creative marketplace. Also, noteworthy speakers throughout the conference will be 2018 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows Vijay Gupta and Okwui Okpokwasili.
On January 3 & 4 APAP/NYC 2019 will hold a Pre-Conference, which features many professional development sessions and networking forums, most of which are free and open to the public. The pre-conference will also include Wavelengths, the largest gathering of world music professionals in North America, produced by globalFEST and PR firm rock paper scissors. Topics covered at these sessions are set to include Politics and Social Justice in Classical Music; Diversity and Inclusion in Rural Presenting; Going Multilingual: Expanding Your Reach and Impact; Reconsidering the Glass Ceiling; Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the Era of #MeToo;HR Bootcamp: Handling Harassment in the Performing Arts Workplace: Backstage, On Stage, Front of House and in the Office, among other areas of focus. These topics, and others, will be addressed by a wide range of
industry notables throughout the entire conference, including Lulani Arquette, President and CEO, Native Arts and Culture Foundation; Terence Blanchard, Trumpeter and Composer; Donald Byrd, Artistic Director, Spectrum Dance Theater; Gena Buhler, Executive Director, Wheeler Opera House and Wasteless at the Wheeler; Oliver DelGado, Director of Marketing and Communications, Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles; David Dorfman, Artistic Director, David Dorfman Dance/Pentacle; Sean Dorsey, Artistic Director, Sean Dorsey Dance; Charlie Deull, Co-Chair, Broadway Green Alliance; Dan Froot, Performance Artist, Treasurer, 501 (see three) ARTS; Chanon Judson, Associate Artistic Director, Urban Bush Women; Maurine Knighton, Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Janet Newcomb, Executive Director, National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER); Claudia Norman, Director, Mexico Now Festival; Jane Preston, Deputy Director, New England Foundation for the Arts; Lois Weaver, Founding Artist, Split Britches; Heather Vaughan, Director of Sales, PlayStation Theater. The closing keynote will be delivered by Emmy and Tony-Award Winning Actress, Singer and Author Kristin Chenoweth.
For aficionados of the performing arts, the best thing about APAP is that the many of the showcase performances, both at the NY Hilton Hotel conference hub and at venues across the city, are free and open to the public; moreover, most of those performances which are not free – at venues such as Joe’s Pub, Birdland, Drom and the like – are nonetheless open to the ticket-buying public. The best way for the general public to find out about what all is taking place throughout the dates of the conference, as well as the entire JanArtsNYC slate of events is to go online. In depthinformation about programming can be found at: APAPNYC.org, @APAP365, #APAPNYC and facebook.com/APAPNYC. APAP membership information can be found at APAP365.org. JanArtsNYC information can be found at JanArtsNYC.org.