APASO Comes to Asbury Park 5/17-19

New Jersey will welcome arts service organizations from across the U.S. and Canada to the 35th annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations ("APASO") from May 17th to 19th. The Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park is the host hotel, and events will be held at various locations in Asbury Park, at Two River Theater and the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, and at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton.

New Jersey Theatre Alliance ("The Alliance"), a service organization for the state's professional, non-profit theatres, will welcome representatives from service organizations in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Franciso, and Toronto to discuss the sustainability of arts service organizations, the new world of arts journalism, and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts.

"We have been attending APASO since its founding, and are thrilled to host our colleagues this year," said John McEwen, Executive Director of the Alliance. "This gathering explores the unique challenges that face service organizations and provides wonderful peer-to-peer learning opportunities. It seeks ways to strengthen the arts community locally and nationally."

Arts service organizations work behind the scenes to deliver vital programming and services to artists and arts organizations, such as capacity building, marketing and promotion, research, consulting, re-granting, professional development, advocacy, and collaborative and educational programs.

"Arts service organizations are the unsung heroes of arts and culture," said Maud Lyon, President of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, who is chairing the planning committee. "APASO is our once-a-year opportunity to learn from and share with our peers from around the country. We are looking forward to gathering in Asbury Park in May."

On Wednesday, May 17th, at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, David Grant, former President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and author of The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting Goals, Assessing Outcomes, and Achieving Success for Mission-Driven Organizations, will deliver the keynote address. A panel discussion on service organizations and the changing landscape of arts funding will follow.

On Thursday, May 18th, at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, attendees will participate in a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workshop led by Ashley Walden Davis, managing director of Alternate ROOTS, an Atlanta-based arts service organization that champions social and economic justice in the arts, and Kaisha S. Johnson, co-founder and founding director of Women of Color in the Arts ("WOCA"), a New York-based national service organization dedicated to creating equity in the performing arts field.

On Friday, May 19th, at The Asbury Hotel in Asbury Park, attendees will participate in an Arts Journalism Working Session on how service organizations and journalists can work together to create and distribute effective promotional content. The session will include a panel discussion with Scott Heller, Deputy Editor of Arts & Leisure and Theater Editor at The New York Times; Steven Leigh Morris, Executive Director of LA Stage Alliance; Howie Shapiro, Philadelphia theatre critic; Christopher Kelly, Managing Producer for Entertainment at NJ Advance Media (The Star Ledger/nj.com); Diep Tran, Associate Editor at American Theatre; Molly de Aguiar, Program Director of Informed Communities at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; Zachary Stewart, chief critic and features reporter at TheaterMania; and (as moderator) Stephanie Simon, arts and culture reporter at NY1.

Conference sponsors include New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; ArtPride New Jersey; The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; TheaterMania; McCarter Theatre Center; Two River Theater; Count Basie Theatre; and Grounds For Sculpture. For more information, visit: apaso.wordpress.com/2017-conference/

About New Jersey Theatre Alliance

New Jersey Theatre Alliance unites, promotes, strengthens, and cultivates New Jersey's professional theatres. It advances the theatre community by developing innovative, collaborative, and engaging programs and services for member theatres and their diverse audiences. It also produces public programs such as the annual Stages Festival and NJArtsTix, an online discount ticket service. Its member theatres are both large and small with a wide variety of repertoires, each a fully functioning business that pays its staff and artists (designers, technicians, directors, and actors). Through their programming, these theatres inspire, challenge, and entertain about one million theatre-goers annually, and enrich communities through outreach programs and arts education. For more information, visit njtheatrealliance.org.

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