Arts Presenters, 2005: Towards Global Cultural Exchange

Highlights during the conference included a stimulating plenary speech by Dr. Oliver Sacks who has focused his career on creativity and the brain. His celebrated books, Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, have served as inspiration for many artists working in various disciplines. "One of the essential functions of performing arts professional," Sacks remarked, "is to support the performers. They need support before they are mature, before they are confident, before they are recognized and known, at this vulnerable period."

A beaming Sandra Gibson , Arts Presenters CEO and President, announced at the Awards Luncheon that New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg had proclaimed Monday, January 10th, as "Arts Presenters Day." She then welcomed onstage the Rev. Jesse Jackson , a surprise guest, to a standing ovation. He almost managed to upstage the Award Winners, including choreographer dancer Paul Taylor himself, but no one seemed to mind. A celebrity is a celebrity.

It's to the immense credit of the Arts Presenters organizational geniuses, Sandra Gibson , Vice President of Programming Kim Chan and Communications Director Melissa Schwartz that this year's conference was such a tremendous success, especially in an international sense and for the world music field.

Arts Presenters - Growing Global Profile

Congratulations are also in order for the National Council for the Traditional Arts, another newly announced member of commission. The NCTA will be presenting "Masters of Caribbean Music" this year in the U.S., and based on the music distributed on their CD sampler, it will be a fantastic program.

There was distinct evidence throughout the vast Conference Resource Rooms on three floors at the Hilton (over 350 booths of performing arts agents and organizations) that Arts Presenters is a singularly powerful, influential force as a national organization, "committed to increasing community participation, promoting global cultural exchange and fostering an environment for the performing arts to thrive." With more than 1,700 members worldwide, the organization attracted conference representation from Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Mexico and Japan to name just a few. Many booth signs carried blazing "World Music" references, whereas in earlier years this was not so.

In the middle of the Conversation Area on the third floor, two long tables were piled with several hundred brochures and flyers from performing arts centers in major cities; rural community-focus organizations; outdoor festivals; and academic institutions. Careful study of the selection leaves no doubt that cultural diversity through world music, dance and theater is very much a part of the 2005-programmed season ahead throughout the U.S..

The Conference theme, "Moving Forward on Shifting Ground," encompassed invaluable workshop tracks dealing with audience development, classical music, creative economics, dance, development and fundraising, international issues, marketing, programming, theater, working life and world music. Each year, conference attendees are faced with an overwhelming array of useful, simultaneously scheduled panel discussions covering up-to-the-minute topical interests in the Conference Program. Many industry discussions gave focus to challenges faced by touring artists from abroad coming to the U.S. Arts Presenters created last year a vitally important website artistsfromabroad.org that provides detailed information for presenters and artists regarding U.S. visa regulations.

The Conference Program stated: "Cultural diplomacy is the exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples to foster mutual understanding." Ms. Cooper's skilled introduction alluded to the media's imagery of the victims rather than the cultures involved in the terrible Tsunami crisis in Indonesia and other parts of Asia. She recalled the Asia Society Indonesian Festival 14 years ago: "What was so personally painful was that we knew people personally through the arts, and it was that power for the arts which made such an impact; we knew them through their arts and culture. We brought two groups of artists from Aceh. By knowing the artists -- gave Aceh and the Tsunami victims a face, voice and fuller connection -- and 14 years later, audience members and presenters who remembered them, called because they felt connected,. The point was the power of the arts to keep that connection and make a powerful impact." That effort of cultural diplomacy was successful because festivalgoers still recall today the art itself, and the energy generated by the festival's humanizing message. Ms. Cooper also mentioned records of a Burmese arts troupe that went to China 1000 years ago to explore shared cultural values. She cautioned that, "Cultural diplomacy today, from personal and public policy standpoints, has powerful potential, but dangers too... How will we be remembered 1000 years from now?"

Ms. Wikler and Ms. Coffin, both career diplomats, talked about their perceptions and frustrations with the growing cultural divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world, and the practical difficulties of building cultural bridges in their official positions. In the U.S. budgets are still a problem; Congress is interested only in quantifiable results; State Department officials do not like intangibles and so forth. Andras Szanto pointed out that cultural diplomacy is a problematic and-or issue where state interests and the goal of cultural exchange both conflict and overlap. Is it a matter of promotion and-or cultural ideology? And-or, who's going to pay in the private sector? Mr. Szanto has written a paper, "A New Mandate for Philanthropy," accessible on the Center for Arts and Culture website, where his statistics show that only a miniscule percent of foundation giving in the U.S. supports international exchange. "It's not a question of dollars; it's a question of leadership," he stated.

For the second consecutive year, a special pre-conference afternoon program focused exclusively on world music, These panels are now all but mandatory for any presenter, agent, manager, label, publicist, artist or journalist with an interest in the burgeoning world music field. In a clear sign of organizational passion, one overflowing World Music session featured a spirited Dance Working Group marketing discussion moderated by Maure Aronson, Director of Boston's World Music, with Barake Sele, New Jersey Performing Arts Center's (NJPAC) Programming Assistant Vice President, and Connie Chin, Marketing Director with Jacob's Pillow. The bottom line is that international dance companies are making impressive inroads into world music's arena. Speaking of racism in the arts, Ms. Sele urged, "Call 'mainstream audiences' what they are - 'white audiences' - and that the "politically incorrect" term 'multicultural' must be replaced by 'culturally or racially diverse.'

As Shawna Renee Oduor, Program Director with WorldZone XM 100 Satellite Radio, noted during one session, "No culture can be defined by music alone; we have to think of culture as a whole - it's music, dance, dress, food…." Highly recommended by Leigh Ann Hahn, Programming Director with Grand Performances in LA, Rachel Cohen, Director of Cadence Arts and Cathy Pruzan are two of the growing number of dance agents whose booths reflected their enthusiasm and devotion to great international dance companies. This is a trend to watch. Rachel Cohen also represents a fine stable of musicians, including Perla Batalla, whose new recording, "Bird On the Wire, The Songs of Leonard Cohen" is a beauty.

Afropop Worldwide's Sean Barlow and Marco Werman of Public Radio International's The World moderated two of the best world music panel sessions. With keen journalistic sensibilities, they are both gifted moderators who infused their sessions with a sense of levity and fun. (See Sean's summary of those panels.) Marco mentioned in his intro that in the world of food itself, we now have choices as far as bread goes: "Pita, rosemary rolls, foccaccia…" he intoned. "And bagels!" piped in Bill Bragin, Director of Joe's Pub. How right they are. The world music palate is a rich one these days, thanks in part to the activism by World Music Coalition members over the years. That organization is young, but its members are veterans of the world music trenches.

David Bury, founder of David Bury and Associates, gave a terrific entrepreneur presentation in the free workshop series for artists on the final conference day, where he drew careful distinctions between fundraising and development. His detailed research has yielded some interesting statistics: out of $250 billion Americans give away annually excluding country and government programs - individuals contribute 90%; corporations, 4%; and foundations, 6%. Furthermore, 7% goes to culture and the arts compared with 4% 35 years ago. That's an improvement to be sure, but with further advocacy from the World Music Coalition, the feeling at the conference was that we can do better.

World Music Showcases Around Town

World music cultural activists not only served up plenty of free agency showcases at the Hilton and other conference-related venues, but also worked for months prior to Arts Presenters to calibrate special showcase events in New York City's great clubs. Early on, the Globesonic DJ crew along with their IMN booking agents threw a great party at the K-Lounge in the Bombay Palace. Globesonic is New York's cutting-edge world music DJ collective that is changing dance floor sounds in the city, nationally and internationally forever. Vishal Vaid, the ghazal singer, gave a moving performance and colorfully clad dancers trouped and danced across the dance floor as if in a carnival parade.

GlobalFEST at the Public Theater, for the second year, was completely sold-out weeks in advance. (See Banning Eyre's globalFEST review.) Juxtaposition of different cultures on each of the three Public Theater stages this year was excellent, so much so that it almost made sense to stay put in one place to follow the progressions. But once again, crowds hoping to have a sampling of every act worked the elevator operators non-stop and stairwells were lined with queues. It was a true celebration, a moveable feast of some of world music's best.

This year's outstanding acts included the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Antibalas, Mory Kante, Rokia Traore, Paris Combo, Lokua Kanza, Juana Molina and the Warsaw Village Band. Although Olabelle seemed to be having an off night, there is still great promise in their music. It's always a pleasure to see Noche Flamenca and let's hope for more international dance performances next year. DJ Rekha topped off the world music festival in Joe's Pub with her famed energies at the mixing board, and the stage was filled with wiggling, bouncing happy dancers, catching all her musical nuances deep into the night.

At the Knitting Factory the following Sunday evening, Brice Rosenbloom programmed 3 floors with innovative jazz acts. This was the first annual Winter JazzFest at one of the city's great jazz venues and it was almost impossible to move through the rooms tightly packed with Arts Presenters participants and presenters. Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, Keren Ann, Vijay Iyer Quartet, Clogs, Claudia Quintet, Gretchen Parlato, Grazyna Auguscik Quintet and Erik Friedlander are all names to watch. There was the feeling throughout this festival event that many of the musicians listen to world music and that their improvisations draw upon world instrumentation sounds and references, languages and rhythms.

Quetzal presented one of the final showcases at Joe's Pub at the conference's end. Led by the vivacious, dimpled Martha Gonzalez, the young, emerging six-member Mexican band from LA had presenters dancing at the Hilton at another showcase, according to Bill Smith, Eye for Talent. With a rock edge, the band is very much at ease with son, bolero, mambo, Jarocho and cumbia tempos in their original compositions. David Lewis, trumpet player with Paris Combo, brought a sense of elation to the songs, as he stood in with the group. Martha's encore, "Cruz de Olvida," was a soulful, heart-wrenching ranchera that she learned from her grandmother.

Coda - Tastemakers in the Conference Crowds

A highlight of any Arts Presenters conference is running into friends and colleagues, old and new, exchanging ideas, comparing notes and impressions, and getting heads-up news. Dmitri Vietze, world music publicist, is now the newly elected President of the World Music Coalition. Dawn Elder has produced a new album by Algerian rai superstar Khaled and she played a beautiful new track dedicated to the Tsunami victims from his forthcoming album on her portable CD player. Santana is part of the mix and the some of the lyrics are in English, including a refrain, "Sing love the people… Love the children..." The production quality is high and the album promises to be a 2005 highlight.

Jon Kertzer, radio host for KEXP's "Best Ambiance" online streaming African music show, is now working with MSN Music--gathering music and other sounds for the online music service. "We are announcing a partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings this week," said Kertzer, "We have over 30,000 songs from their label and archive available for the first time on our site- at music.msn.com. It includes a lot of world and traditional music from around the world - but it is just a part of the work I am doing, creating a vast collection of music at MSN music, which very soon will be over 1.5 millions songs, all available for .99 cents each, to anyone in the world with access to our site."

Tom Pryor, Managing Editor with GlobalRhythm Magazine commented: "One thing that struck me about the "World Music: Building Bridges" panel at APAP was where we're looking to build bridges to. While I think it's important for the World Music community to reach out to the Classical Music community, I worry that nobody is reaching out to the pop music industry. I worry that the Classical, Jazz and World music industries are like drowning sailors passing one life preserver between them. Without reaching out to younger music consumers and concertgoers, all three are going to continue losing market share to the Ashley Simpsons of the world. There was talk of pairing world music acts with established classical performers; but where is the talk of placing world music acts on alternative rock and hip-hop stages? We need to be thinking about things like Daara J on MTV2 and Tinariwen on the Warped Tour. I applaud GlobalFEST for bringing Juana Molina into the mix. Tapping into the alternative Latin community is something that we need to do more of."

Tom continued, "I'm also glad that people were talking about XM Satellite Radio (and that they were in attendance), but I wish we were talking about building bridges to Clear Channel, too. I really worry that we're losing younger listeners/consumers/concertgoers while they're still young and adventurous. We need to pull in kids by their ears before it's too late."

Leigh Ann Hahn, a key presenter on the West Coast, pausing for a moment as she whirled through the conference events, spoke of her work in LA and the value of Arts Presenters: "Grand Performances has presented what has come to be known as 'world music' for the program's full 18 year history and we've attended the Arts Presenters Conference (and many other important regional and international conferences) for almost all of those years. It is encouraging for me, as GP's director of programming, a member of the North American World Music Coalition's founding Board of Directors, and a committed arts activist working through world arts and culture, to witness Arts Presenters' evolving focus on and support of this work.

"The unqualified successes I witnessed at the second GlobalFEST, The Knitting Factory's first Winter JazzFest and the Eye For Talent/Nancy Carlin showcases at the Hilton and the equally important panels sessions speak volumes about this community's growing understanding that: as the world is constantly changing, it is our responsibility to present and produce the work that will bring us together and help us each to share our humanity with our neighbors both next door and around the globe. It is not enough to teach our children and communities to merely tolerate our differences. I believe it is more critical each day, as our population grows and our earth's resources diminish, that we endeavor to make the myriad, wide-ranging forms of cultural expression accessible to as many as possible in order to actively illustrate that we as a human race are more alike than different."

What valiant hearts, all. The future for global cultural exchange is looking brighter than ever.

Contributed: Evangeline Kim