Welcome to Spotlights, APAP's bi-weekly newsletter featuring updates and resources to help performing arts professionals and the field recover and thrive.  

We look forward to seeing everyone at APAP|NYC+ 2023.

The deadline to register is January 6.

In this issue:

• Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to open APAP|NYC+ 2023! 

• Join us at APAP's ArtsForward in Practice conference session.

• APAP Members: Deadline to vote is January 9!

• Congrats to Arts Advocates on the Passage of the Omnibus Funding Bill!

Plus, find member news, opportunities and job postings below!

Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to open APAP|NYC+ 2023!

The official opening of the APAP|NYC+ 2023 conference will be a welcome, a reunion, and a celebration rolled into one.

Celebrated star of stage and screen Brian Stokes Mitchell will be an opening plenary speaker.

Dubbed “the last leading man” by The New York Times, the two-time Tony Award winner has enjoyed a career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras.

Stokes has received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime. Other notable Broadway shows include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly’s Last Jam, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Shuffle Along. In 2016 he was awarded his second Tony Award, the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Tony for his Charitable work with The Entertainment Community Fund (formerly known as The Actors’ Fund) where he currently serves as the board chair. He is also a founding member of the Black Theatre United, a coalition of Black members of the theatre community launched early in the pandemic to inspire industry-wide reform and to combat industry-wide systemic racism.

Also joining the Opening Plenary is U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Schumer's leadership for the state of New York and in helping Save Our Stages nationally was instrumental in the recovery of the field.

The Opening Plenary Session is Friday, January 13 from 4:45-6:00 p.m. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind celebration of APAP's return to New York City where we will be joined by additional special guests including Charlotte St. Martin of The Broadway League and a surprise guest who will help us usher in the rebirth of the performing arts!

You must be registered for the APAP|NYC+ 2023 conference to attend the opening plenary session, deadline to register is January 6.

Join us at APAP's ArtsForward in Practice conference session

APAP's ArtsForward initiative has been instrumental in the equitable recovery of performing arts presenting! Hear insights drawn from ArtsForward's successes, lessons and lingering challenges, partners' experiences and discoveries in this complicated year. Panelists will include ArtsForward grantees Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis, Wideman Davis Dance; Leah Keith, Rhythm of the Arts; Amy Dupain Vashaw, Center for the Performing Arts at Pennsylvania State University.

Join us at APAP|NYC+ for ArtsForward in Practice: Learnings and Stories from Partnering During the Pandemic, Saturday January 14 from 9:00-10:50 a.m. (EST). The APAP ArtsForward initiative is made possible with the generous support from the Mellon Foundation.

APAP Members: Deadline to vote is January 9!

Voting is open for new and renewing board slate and meeting minutes. Each APAP member organization and each individual member may cast one vote. Please review the following items up for membership vote and submit your ballot here.

The APAP Annual Membership Meeting, followed by a Town Hall on Monday, January 16, 2023 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (EST) in person at the APAP|NYC+ 2023 conference. Live streaming will be available for members who are not attending the conference.

Congrats to Arts Advocates on the Passage of the Omnibus Funding Bill!

Late last week, the U.S. Congress passed an omnibus funding package that is now headed to President Biden’s desk for approval. After weeks of negotiations and months of collective advocacy by arts advocates, the bill includes a 15% funding increase to the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, bringing them both up to an all-time budget high of $207 million. The bill also includes support for visionary arts programs and favorable tax policy. Learn more.

While the bill has already passed Congress, if you haven’t already, take a few minutes to thank your Congressional members for their support for the arts. Find your Congress members here.

Native Launchpad 2023 Applications are Open

Native Launchpad is the cornerstone program of Advancing Indigenous Performance (AIP), Western Arts Alliance’s national initiative to create new touring and presentation opportunities for US-based Indigenous performing artists. 

The program helps create opportunity and sustainability for Indigenous artists through financial support, strategic promotion, networking, and career development. Applications for Native Launchpad 2023 are open through 5:00 p.m. (PT) on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. To learn more, click here.

Are you young-er? Tell your story to ARTS. WORK. LIFE.

In addition to hosting the "Stop Talking, Start Listening" session Monday at the conference, ARTS. WORK. LIFE. podcast host Claire Caulfield will be gathering stories during the APAP|NYC+ conference and is particularly interested in speaking with arts professionals who identify as Gen Z or younger millennials.

Are you a young-er arts professional who will be attending APAP|NYC+ 2023? Do you have a personal story to tell? If so, she wants to meet you! Submit your interest form here.

Memorialize APAP members and colleagues at APAP|NYC+

Above all, APAP is a community, so we want to recognize our members and colleagues who have passed since the 2022 conference. Do you know a field leader, fellow colleague, touring artist or other performing arts luminary who lost their life this year?  Please submit their name on this form by January 11, so we can memorialize them at the conference.

This is your one-stop shop for jobs in performing arts presenting, booking and touring.

Image Captions: APAP|NYC+ 2023 logo; APAP's ArtsForward logo