International Presenting Commons Convening

New York, New York 9 January 2023

The 2023 International Presenting Commons (IPC) convening brought together members of the IPC steering committee for a morning of planning and ideation, and a public event, International Presenting Now: Collaborative Models, Practices, and Pathways Toward a Sustainable Future, in the afternoon.

• Janice Paran's report on the event
• Attendee list
• Afternoon event program

The afternoon roundtable conversation amongst national arts leaders aimed to reimagine international presenting for a new age. While acknowledging the steep challenges faced—particularly post-COVID—this invited, participatory gathering looked ahead, exploring inspiring new pathways for sustaining and furthering global exchange and international touring in the United States. Organized by the IPC with HowlRound Theatre Commons, the meeting brought together artists, presenters, creative producers, and funders to uplift innovative models and explore new collaborative practices that emerged during COVID that can contribute to building a sustainable and robust ecosystem for the presentation of international work in the United States.

Today’s discussion and the work of the IPC writ large is premised on the belief that global live art exchange remains essential to the world, in particular to the cultural health of the United States as a whole and to diverse individual communities that presenters and artists serve across the country.—Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, convening co-champion

This conversation was moderated by Emil Kang, program director for Arts and Culture at the Mellon Foundation, and made use of a "long table" format. The conversation began with a small group including Roya Amirsoleymani (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art), Rika Iino (SOZO Media), Mara Isaacs (Octopus Theatricals), Edgar Miramontes (REDCAT), Michael Orlove (National Endowment for the Arts), Ronee Penoi (ArtsEmerson), Samora Pinderhughes (musician, filmmaker, and multi-disciplinary artist), Zeyba Rahman (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for Islamic Art), Meiyin Wang (Perelman Performing Arts Center), and Du Yun (composer and performer). After the first hour, the conversation expanded to include feedback, ideas, and provocations from a larger group of sixty artists, creative producers, presenters, and funders. Watch the video archive:

About the IPC:

Mission

The International Presenting Commons (IPC) is an emergent, evolving, volunteer group of United States–based performing arts presenters and creative independent producers who have joined forces to keep international cultural exchange and engagement alive and vibrant now and into the future. IPC does this through advocacy, active learning, resource sharing, and collaboration among performing arts presenters, artists, producers, and funders, who work together to build more sustainable policies and funding models for the exchange of work around the world. The group’s mission is in service of its increasingly diverse communities throughout the country. IPC celebrates its role as part of a global cultural ecosystem and by partnering with artists and presenters from all over the world.

IPC does its work through a commons-based approach and is currently organizing with the support and thought partnership of HowlRound.

Steering Committee

Alicia Adams (vice president of international programming of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Mary Lou Aleskie (director of Hopkins Center for Arts), Roya Amirsoleymani (artistic director and director of public engagement of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art), Ron Berry (co–artistic director of Fusebox Festival), Philip Bither(senior curator of performing arts of Walker Arts Center), Linda Brumbach (founder and director of Pomegranate Arts), Rachel Cooper (director, Culture as Diplomacy of Asia Society), Lane Czaplinski(director of performing arts of Wexner Center for the Arts), Jacqueline Davis (independent consultant), David Dower (executive producer, US Operations of Les 7 Doigts/the 7 Fingers), Kristy Edmunds (executive director of MassMOCA), Susan Feldman (artistic director of St. Ann’s Warehouse), Ashley Ferro-Murray(senior curator for theater and dance at EMPAC), Alison Friedman (executive and artistic director of Carolina Performing Arts), Olga Garay-English (principal of OMGArtsplus), David Howse (executive director of ArtsEmerson), Mara Isaacs (founder and executive/creative producer of Octopus Theatricals), Colleen Jennings-Roggensack (executive director of ASU Gammage), Greg Kastelman (president and founder of Unbound Artists), Michael Kondziolka (vice president of programming and production of University of Michigan’s University Musical Society), Chris Lorway (executive director of Stanford Live), Edgar Miramontes (deputy executive director and curator of REDCAT), Mark Murphy (artistic director of OZ Arts), Michael Mushalla (founder of Double M Arts & Events), Claudia Norman (director and founder of Celebrate Mexico Now Festival), Ronee Penoi (director of artistic programming at ArtsEmerson), Diane Ragsdale(independent arts consultant), Mark Russell (artistic director and producer of Under the Radar at the Public Theater), Pamela Tatge (executive and artistic director of Jacob’s Pillow), Meiyin Wang (producing director of Perelman Performing Arts Center), Jay Wegman (executive director of NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts), Miranda Wright (executive director and producer of Los Angeles Performance Practice, executive director of Center for the Arts at Kayenta), Ichun Yeh (vice president and director of sales of Sozo Media), and Cathy Zimmerman (independent producer and creative consultant).