Performing Arts Futures Online Conference

Despite the tremendous changes that COVID-19 has imposed on the performing arts industry, and the consequent explosion in creativity, there have been few opportunities to reflect on the current state of the industry nor to speculate towards the future. This gathering aims to provide a space of reflection,collaboration and to define and examine the major states of the field. The conference will take place on June 3,4,5, online. The gathering aims to be a site where artists, scholars and the members of the industry can meet and create a vision of the future. Rather than a traditional presentation of panels, this will be a conference that is open to participants to propose and collaborate on different sets of topics, along the lines of an Open Space conference or an unconference. In short, at the beginning and end of the day, there will be a presentation of an artistic provocation, a short performance or a short talk that would be designed to spark conversation. Participants will determine a list of topics, and those topics will become the headings for breakout rooms. Participants can move between breakout rooms as they desire. Within each breakout room, the convener will be strongly urged to ensure that a reasonable record of the discussion in the group is prepared. In this way, we hope to create an accessible forum that explores and documents that myriad issues that have come out of the past two years of innovation in performance, as well as point towards our future. If interested, folks can register here to attend the conference. No need to attend every day, feel free to come and go, and to attend when you can!