At this year’s National Conference, against the backdrop of Miami’s plurality of global cultures and artistic disciplines, we will focus intently, but not exclusively, on three programmatic areas: Audience and Community Engagement, Theatre Journalism and Well-being and Wellness. As part of and in parallel to these areas, we will also address our field’s most pressing issues, from the evolving landscape of fundraising, to organizational culture, to leadership development, all while nurturing our field’s growing commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
For the most up-to-date programming, visit our complete agenda in our Conference app (or the desktop version here).
Audience & Community Engagement
Audience (R)Evolution is a multi-year program designed by TCG and funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to study, promote, and support successful audience engagement and community development models for the U.S. not-for-profit theatre. For more information on the Audience (R)Evolution program, click here.
Evolving from the Audience (R)Evolutions convenings in Philadelphia (2013) and Kansas City (2015) as well as the Intersections Summit at Milwaukee Rep (2018), TCG's Miami Conference will foster conversations meant to not only address pressing questions of audience engagement (ie. changing audience behaviors, the future of the subscription model, and developing loyalty programs among single ticket buyers), but also to address related issues of community development work within the field (ie. deepening organizational commitment to community, creating authentic and reciprocal community partnerships, and codifying best practices for conducting this work with integrity throughout an institution).
This track will also encompass our Conference Field Trips, or experiential excursions into various Miami neighborhoods to gain a fuller understanding of the local community whose cultural life has shaped this year’s Conference programming. Field trips have been a Conference mainstay since 2016, and were inspired by similar excursions that were part of the Audience (R)Evolution Convening in Kansas City in 2015.
Similarly, this track will encompass a plenary session devoted to a sampling of current theatrical projects underway in the Miami area, including a discussion with the creators and producers of this work about their experiences of making theatre in this part of the country.
For a complete selection of programming on this track, please click here.
Theatre Journalism
As the national service organization for the professional theatre, TCG’s publishing arm also produces the country’s preeminent theatre trade publication, American Theatre Magazine. With this role, TCG is unique in both theatre and journalism, bridging theatre-makers with our responsibilities as a source of valuable theatre analysis and reporting. This particular role in the field has offered us a vantage point on the transformation of arts journalism around the U.S. that is unparalleled by any other arts service organization. With the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which invests in the arts, journalism and the communities where its founders once owned newspapers, TCG will shine a light on the state of theatre journalism at the National Conference in Miami.
This track will highlight:
- new funding opportunities for arts journalism outlets in non-profit partnerships,
- innovative models of arts journalism in the digital sphere and beyond, such as Miami’s own Artburst platform,
- the need for more diverse representation in the sector of theatre criticism,
- the booming world of arts podcasts and audio storytelling as a significant form of new media,
- a re-envisioning of the role that scholarship and training backgrounds play in the development of today’s arts journalists, and
- conversations around the changing role of the theatre critic in communities across the country.
Discussions on this track will feature American Theatre writers and editors, but also the voices of respected critics, culture writers, and other arts journalists from cities across the U.S.
For a complete selection of programming on this track, please click here.
Wellness and Well-being
In November of 2018, TCG hosted our annual Fall Forum on Governance in New York City -- an intimate convening of theatre leaders and trustees that examined one of our field’s most elusive and least examined challenges: organizational culture. A bulk of the discussions that arose out of that Forum centered largely on concerns for the health, well-being, and growth of the many individual administrators, artists, and production staff that make up the theatre field. TCG designed this Conference track with those discussions in mind, but also defines the terms of wellness and well-being more expansively, as they relate to organizational sustainability, community vibrancy, and the very health of our planet.
This track will include sessions on:
- developing robust practices of self-care for all theatre people,
- the renewed importance of intimacy directors and EDI advocates,
- accelerating work around theatre and environmental justice,
- rethinking employee policies and benefits at any size arts institution,
- best practices for inclusion of parents and other caregiver artists and administrators,
- new models of theatre for community care, being led by Black theatre-makers,
- the transformative power of theatre and the arts in cultivating a culture of health.
This track will also contain offerings outside the standard Conference programming, including an active and curated space for respite and retreat, including healing rituals, meditative sessions, and collective wellness practices.
For a complete selection of programming on this track, please click here.
For programming questions, please contact conference@tcg.org.