Hi folks,

I’m directing this primarily to our agency and artist members but would not mind hearing from our presenters as well.

The Board has been kicking around the idea to begin showcasing artists as part of ArtsConversation18 next year. The original concept was part of a proposal made by Matt Davenport Productions in June to host AC18 next year at their facility north of Nashville. While they officially pulled the plug on that proposal today, the board was intrigued enough by the showcase concept to come to you to see what you think of it.

The proposal was to have 10 showcases, open first to TNPR member artists and agencies. There would be no jury. If you’re an artist, you get one of the slots. If you’re an agency, we would ask you to select one artist you think would be a good fit for Tennessee and have that artist showcase. As usual, 15 minutes each showcase. We would hold the showcases on Sunday afternoon at the beginning of the conference and go straight through to dinner. Artists and agencies would each pay a fee equal to 1/10 of the production costs plus (if desired) an amount equal to the cost of dinner that evening for each person in the artist’s organization who would want to join us. Now without MDP running the operation, we will be considering adding a fee to the amortized showcase production costs to help cover the expense of contracting and managing the showcase process. If the costs turn out to be really high, we’d try to keep any additional charge to a minimum.

So I want to ask our agency and artist members: does the opportunity to showcase yourself or a roster artist add enough value to the AC experience that the additional expense would be worth it to you? If so, how much would you be willing to pay to offset the production costs involved? To our presenters, does the idea of hosting showcases as part of ArtsConversation add anything of interest to you? Our (the board’s) original thoughts were positive; showcases would add a new and exciting element to our formula and could certainly be beneficial for everyone involved. Given the ease of showcasing at MDP’s facility, it was a pretty easy decision to get behind. Now that we will be doing all of the work ourselves, it is considerably more difficult but we still think worth considering enough that we’re asking for your input.

We need to hear from you quickly; tomorrow would be nice. We are now quite a bit behind in planning this conference as the original outlook for MDP hosting next fall was so positive that we held off looking for other venues, or booking Montgomery Bell State Park again. That leaves us with little time to find some dates or venues that can work for us. The sooner the board can hear your thoughts and we can take action, the better.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Regards,

Bob

Robert Boyer
Executive Director
Tennessee Presenters
www.tn-presenters.org