Raising Arts … Serving the Arts Community

– Hank Knerr

As everyone knows in this business of touring performing arts presenting, it’s a busy time of year with three major regional conferences coming up starting next week through early October, then a list of state and smaller region meetings through November. And the finale is,the grandaddy of them all, Association of Performing Arts Professionals in New York, starting excruciatingly early this time on January 4. And there are others.

So, as a retired presenter but active consultant and volunteer, what am I up to? In addition to consulting on an artist video project, advising on marketing and management of an area arts organization, and VP of the Pennsylvania Rural Alliance, I will be involved in three upcoming conferences in various ways.

For Arts Midwest, a regional presenting conference targeting the middle of the U.S. to be held in Indianapolis, I will attend a couple days to participate in a board meeting of the North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, NAPAMA, for with I serve as secretary, will also host a reception and am glad to be able to attend that.

While in Indianapolis, I am excited to meet with Todd and Joanie Mosby. It’s been a year since we last met up. Since then, they have asked me to serve as a part-time agent representing Mosby Music Group and their fantastic roster. I just started that work and look forward to continuing with them and getting to strategize about booking their 5 acts to tour in the Eastern side of the U.S.

Then, at the Performing Arts Exchange (PAE) to be held in Orlando in early October, the organizers have invited me to lead their Presenting 101 pre-conference session. I am honored to so so and have asked Leslie Gordon of Atlanta’s Rialto Center to join me, guiding about 40 colleagues new to the profession. Also participating as a special guest will be Pam Green of PMG Arts Management based in North Carolina.

During PAE, I will also be sure to attend the NAPAMA- and PA Presenters-related meetings and activities. And although I will not have an exhibit booth, I am registered for the full conference and happy to meet with any presenters interested in talking about the Mosby Music Group roster. I will also be available as a consultant if any agents or artists wish to have me critique their showcase rehearsal or performance as well as discuss consultations with any other group or organization. One capping activity will be for me to organize our PAE get together for gAyPAP.

And finally for this fall, I will be wearing two hats for the Mid-Atlantic Performing Arts Market to be held in November in Lancaster. When I was a board member with the producing organization of MAPAM, PA Presenters, I was excited to be part of this ground-breaking conference format. This year, PA Presenters hired me as a consultant working to bring in sponsorships, increase membership, and advise on promoting attendance. It is shaping up to be a phenomenal event.

My second hat during MAPAM will be to staff a Marketplace table to provide information about the Mosby Music Group roster. The reason I took on this part-time assignment has everything to do with the knowledge that its 5 acts could fit very well into many performance seasons. I look forward to sharing that with my colleagues. And no, it’s not “the dark side” as some like to call artist agentry –it’s simply “another side.” So, stop on by!