Presenting 101

Alternate ROOTS and the Southern Arts Federation collaborated to bring Nick Slie and Hope Clark together to lead two workshops on Presenting 101; one at the ROOTS Annual Meeting in August, and another in September at the Performing Arts Exchange (PAE) Conference in Norfolk, VA. Given a curriculum developed by David Rowell, a Professor of Theatre Management and Communications Manager for the School of Theatre at Florida State University, we used his business-based Presenting 101 course outline to create what we thought would be helpful to emerging presenters and artists at ROOTS interested in conversations about different presenting models. At PAE we focused on presenting community-arts and used the ROOTS Resources for Social Change program principles that refer to Power, Dialogue, Partnership, Aesthetics and Transformation to discuss social justice and cultural equity.

Both ROOTS and PAE are network gathering events. At ROOTS we listened to a range of artists who wanted to talk about some of what Rowell’s curriculum offered: how to book themselves, how to organize places and spaces for their work (and others) to be seen, and models for getting that done. Some questions were: What are the differences between non-profit, commercial, and barter approaches to presenting? What are the transformational experiences of art that makes us want to present it? Is our own definition of presenting a way to determine what our mission is as a presenter?

At PAE we had three presenters in the room, two from smaller rural communities with formal theaters to book and one with a library, a funder, a manager of a performing company and an artist with a show to book. Surrounded by a conference of people operating within a more competitive commercial market than ROOTS, we started by defining community-arts. Check out some examples and what the Community Arts Network has to say. http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/overview_essays_all2/index.php

We identified the power structures in our communities and the fields we work in. We questioned whether we are willing or able to facilitate difficult dialogues about specific issues that come up in the work we do. We talked about how to deal with cultural differences in partnerships, and how our choices influence what perspectives are being heard and how that translates into an aesthetic. Some other questions: If transformation is a goal, how do we measure our success? How can we make resources accessible and acknowledge individual/group visions and initiatives within our communities? Who are we presenting and how are they being represented? How are events organized? Do we want to support artists to set up verbal and non-verbal dialogues about community issues? How do we support open dialogue about the ‘content’ of events and how events are organized before, during, and after the events? What are the cultural logistics of working with people different than ourselves? Can we see them as educational? Can we continue this conversation?

We can…on a ROOTS website forum!
Thanks - Hope Clark