Programming Post-Pandemic

How has programming a season and/or festival changed, if at all, during these past 2,5 years? What variations are we seeing between different regions of the globe? Three ISPA members share their experiences, new curatorial models implemented during the pandemic, and what they are considering for the future.

If you are interested in exploring more about programming post-pandemic and the digital debate, join us at the New York 2023 ISPA Congress! We have a special session on the urgency of digital programming. We hope you will register to join us!

Quicklinks:

• David Howse, ArtsEmerson
• Govin Ruben, TerryandTheCuz
• Fiona Winning, Sydney Opera House

Please tell us about your organization and your role in it.

I am David Howse Executive Director for ArtsEmerson. Since 2010, ArtsEmerson has been a leader in the Boston arts community, working at the intersection of artistic excellence, racial, social, and environmental justice, and civic engagement.

ArtsEmerson is Boston’s leading presenter of contemporary world theater dedicated to connecting us more deeply to ourselves and to each other. In my role as Vice President of the Office of the Arts at Emerson College, I am fiscally, administratively, and programmatically responsible for seven cultural venues in Boston’s Downtown Theater District, from a black box theater to a 1,186-seat auditorium - the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

How do you balance between highlighting local talent and showcasing international artists?

We are unapologetic about our commitment to international artists - it is what both endears us to our community and distinguishes us from our local colleagues. In addition to balancing international and local, we also program in six core areas, also referred to as “tent poles.”

Embedded in our DNA is a robust community engagement component that springs from our commitment to developing strong community partnerships.

Through our “curation by listening" processes, developed in dialogue with these partners, we created initiatives that are free and open to the public with multiple authentic points of entry to ArtsEmerson for communities that are traditionally under-represented in Boston's cultural institutions. ArtsEmerson has a strong history of modeling civic leadership through our community-based initiatives, partnerships, and collaborations.

When naming ArtsEmerson “Boston’s Best Theater” again in 2015, Boston Magazine wrote, “Most impressive, ArtsEmerson realizes its global vision while remaining audience-focused and community centric.”

We engage the stories of our international artists as a lens through which we can better understand our local issues.

How do you envision future curatorial strategy for your organization?

By being more inclusive and community-centered, and more reflective we can present more dynamic content. I am really inspired by the response of our audience --we are looking for works that speak to topics our audience is interested in. That’s what keeps us going. When that line of communication stops, our purpose is stunted. We have to listen deeply to the things that we are learning from the audience, particularly to those who have not always felt welcomed in these spaces.

What suggestions do you have for projects looking to tour right now?

First, relationships, relevance, and artistic rigor really matter. I may not have suggestions, but I have questions: Who are you engaging on the team? Are they reflective of the audience that you seek to engage? Whose narratives are being privileged in the story? Are the questions that your work is asking similar to questions being asked in society? Whose voices are on the table definitely matters, and at the same time artistic rigor still matters. This is what distinguishes a good project.

For many organizations broadcasting events presented a real growth opportunity in terms of reaching larger and more diversified audiences. Can you tell us how your audience changed during the pandemic? Is it possible to keep virtual attendees involved, once we return to in-person events?

ArtsEmerson is not unique in terms of how we experienced the pandemic. We still remember the day in March, 2020 when the lock down happened. Certainly, the sadness of that transition was shocking to all of us, but our programming very quickly pivoted and emerged through digital programming. Our digital events were full of activity, motion, movement, and even included a donor gala!

Though we are not seeing the same response to digital programming now, I see it as an opportunity to engage those who have not always felt welcomed in in theater spaces because people who traditionally were never coming to the theater joined us virtually. Though not a replacement for the live, in-person experience, where we are in proximity with others, the online viewing audience is really interesting to us because we know that many of those online viewers have never actually stepped foot into the theaters that they are viewing online. Communities of color are strongly represented there, and the cultural and financial barriers are lower.

Therefore, we are trying to find balance. We’ve invested in digital equipment to make sure the quality of our virtual programs is top of game. While we prefer people to be in the theater, we recognize that conversation can happen even if theater is experienced in the solitude of one’s home. We are keeping our “additional venue,” which is the digital platform. Not only are there more audiences across the world we’re able to reach, but audiences of color are actually viewing at much higher rates.

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Govin Ruben, Director
TerryandTheCuz

Please tell us a little bit about the upcoming Congress and your role in it.

I’m Govin Ruben and I am the Co-Chair of the New York 2023 ISPA Congress; which will be the first fully in-person congress since January, 2020, where we will be gathering under very different circumstances. It's both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, but that's a good thing, I think.

What do you think is the most exciting thing that you could share about this upcoming Congress?

I think there's a sense of anxiousness that things aren't going to be the same, or that things shouldn't be the same. Most of the delegates attending the Congress will try to predict what people want, need or like NOW -- because we've all been impacted by this big thing but have experienced it in very different ways, and we've all come out of it wanting, needing or hoping for different things.

Being part of the programming committee has been great. We have been guided by the key question on how to appeal to a delegation who are desperate to come together and participate in vigorous discussions given the circumstances and urgency of our times.

On the one hand, I am nervous because we don’t want to disappoint, but on the other hand, how can one disappoint? After two and a half years nobody knows what to expect. That unknown is what's going to be the most exciting thing about this Congress.

What would you say is the biggest difference between this upcoming Congress and the previous Congresses you have attended?

I think the biggest difference is people are going to be more open to new ideas and willing to do things a bit differently. I'm not saying they're hungry for change, but they might be willing to flirt with it just to see what happens.

The recent elections in Italy is a good example. For the first time in a long time, Italy has gone far right. I think this is a direct result of the pandemic and people going, “well, we've been voting for these guys for years, let's just try something else.” These choices may not always be right, but they're different and evidence that people are willing to change the way they do things.

So to conclude, we are going to have over 400 people in a room who might be willing to try new things or explore new ideas. Some may still want things to be the same way, but even then, they must surely know that their audiences have changed and that things have shifted.

How do you balance regional specific voices and broader international industry issues in curating the upcoming Congress?

Our membership is affected by and are experiencing very different things depending on where they come from. A bigger membership means more representation and the need for more voices to be heard. I think the planning committee represents that, and the committee has had lots of conversations about what topics to include and, more importantly, who is best to talk about them.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there are global concerns that affect us all. Topics on leadership and economic models that need to shift, sustainability and the environment, and the continuing trend of violence and war give urgency to question the role of the performing arts during and for these times.

Whilst many of us are plagued by these issues, how we discuss and approach them in the context of the various regions represented by the membership may be different. My hope is that by engaging speakers and panelist from different parts of the world, walks of life, cultural backgrounds and identities; the Congress will bring diverse perspectives and solutions to the similar issues faced by all of us.

For those coming to the ISPA conference for the first time or after a hiatus, what do you think they can expect or what do you want them to expect?

Every time I think of coming to an ISPA Congress, I feel like an athlete going to the Olympics. You get excited about sharing your projects or ideas and the January New York Congress is the pantheon where everybody who is anybody from around the world comes for that exact same reason.

For three days, you are in a room with the greatest theatre minds, presenters and producers of their time and place. After two and a half years of being virtual and meeting people over zoom, the idea of being able to shake someone’s hand, to sit down and have a cup of coffee or whiskey, to feel the winter chill of New York in January whist engaging in dynamic conversations, being inspired by talks and watching live performances in the city that never sleeps, these are the moments that remind you that we live and breathe for the arts.

It will be exciting to hear really smart people share new ideas, amazing artists pitch wonderful works and old friends and colleagues’ yarn about their experiences over the last two years. I have always looked at ISPA’s congresses as an emotional and mental spa where one gets creatively rejuvenated! It’s definitely helped me broaden my horizons and has significantly affected my work and practice.

What are some burning topics you want to discuss at this Congress?

I think we are at a point where talk of change is very real and there is a sense that people are willing to give it a proper go. Thus the interesting discussions, in my opinion, are the ones around deconstructing leadership and systemic change in a room full of people who are in leadership roles and working within traditional systems.

It'll be very fascinating to see how much or how far they're going to be willing to have or seriously consider this discussion, because considering it may actually mean that they step aside or shift how they do things; which may literally make themselves redundant to create space for others.

From an artist’s perspective, this will be intriguing. Are people going to just keep talking? Or will they finally act? In Malaysia there is an age old saying that people who talk about change the most are those who change the least. So, I am looking forward to see how things pan out with this particular ‘Burning’ topic.

How do you envision future curatorial strategy for ISPA’s Congresses?

I think when it comes to curating, one can go down two paths. One is having the membership shape the programming, which means you are looking at who is in the room and trying to curate or steer the congress towards something that will make them happy. Or the second path, where you take a chance and try something different; and let the program curation take the lead, where you have the membership try things that are new to them.

I believe in the Congresses before 2020, the first type of curatorial strategy was used a bit more. Whereas now, I think we have the chance to adopt the second. I don't know if it will work or not, but it may be the best time to give it a shot because the collective membership may be willing to try new things and consider fresh perspectives.

And I think given the circumstances and times; this particular Congress will be able to push the envelope a bit more, to be curious and dabble with that unknown. As I said earlier, I don't think people are necessarily hungry for change, but are definitely very, very willing to at least flirt with it.

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Please tell us a little bit about your organization and your role in it.

I am Fiona Winning, the Head of Programming at Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House sits on the unceded aboriginal land of Dubbagullee, or what’s commonly known as the Bennelong Point. It is truly an extraordinary venue in terms of architecture and engineering. And the interdisciplinary collaboration during the construction of this venue, in a way, informs how we work in presenting ambitious arts projects.

Our programming has two main components, the resident companies working here year-round and other programs that my department curates annually. The curated program from my department composes about 45% of the overall programming and breaks into six distinct areas led by different producing teams: performance, music, talks and ideas, kids and families, digital, and First Nations programming. Pre-COVID, we had around 1.4 million people who attended our performances and there is a gap between the visitors who come to see this beautiful site and the people who come into the building, buy tickets and see the work. 

How have you balanced highlighting local talent and showcasing international artists during the past 2.5 years? 

I want to take a moment first to talk a little bit about our venues, because we have really different kinds of venues. We have an extraordinary concert hall which seats 2500, Joan Sutherland Theatre, which seats 1500, four other smaller venues, and a function center. The diversity of our venues gave us room to present diverse art works and form different kinds of relationships with artists - engaging with smaller local new works in the smaller studio theater and staging major contemporary music artists in the grand concert hall. 

During COVID, Australia’s borders were closed for a long time and we went through some back and forth with traveling policy, so it had been tricky and there was still a distrust to organize everything since everyone is tired of canceling, rescheduling and canceling again. We are just seeing a recovery - a blast of activity happening and the audiences are not quite back.

The closed period meant working closer with local artists and we actually loved it. It was one of the upsides of this whole period. Before COVID, we didn’t really have a commissioning budget, and we were very much focused on presentation. 

But during COVID, we were able to convince our donors to invest their donations in local artists so they have new works to present when we reopen. We raised a million dollars from our family of donors and it was really meaningful for us to be able to invest in local arts organizations and independent artists, to deepen our relationships and show their work. So the donor focus really shifted during the pandemic.

For instance, we typically have a lot of international headliners at the Vivid LIVE contemporary music festival, but our last festival in June, curated by Ben Marshall, had a higher percentage of local artists. And we still have a higher percentage of local artists across the whole program. 

The difficulty for us is, how do we sustain such a shift when we reopen? We did reprioritize and pivot, so to speak, during the pandemic, and we’re really delighted with the outcomes of that. The hardest bit is sustaining those changes we have achieved.

For many organizations broadcasting events presented a real growth opportunity in terms of reaching larger and more diversified audiences. Can you tell us how your audience changed during the pandemic?  Is it possible to keep virtual attendees involved once we are back to in-person events?

It’s definitely something we’re really struggling with and don’t really have the answers to yet.

We have done digital programming at the Opera House for around 15 years but it didn’t have its own programming department. We had a record and broadcast studio which historically supported our digital output and the digital programs came out of the existing programs.

Six months before the pandemic, we did a restructure and we appointed Stuart Buchanan as the head of digital programming. We wanted to look at digital programming as its own thing and talked about making a clear strategy and building a separate team. He delivered the strategy in February 2020, so we actually had a plan that reflects our aspirations for our digital programs, though the pandemic wasn’t necessarily part of it. 

The strategy included plans to amplify what we do through digital platforms, to create new digital work, and to incorporate a digital creative learning program working with schools and education institutions. When the pandemic hit, Stuart had a team ready to record and broadcast content. So we decided to present work with artists performing in the empty Joan Sutherland Theatre, which was evocative in and of itself. We turned the theater into a digital studio, and four nights a week, we programmed work that people could tune in to watch - cabaret, music, dance, talks and kids and families work. So we really tried to talk to different audiences and build a body of work that people could actually sit down with their families to watch. After that, we made them available on demand, which gave us an even bigger audience. I think we had over 7 million views and downloads during the first seven-month lockdown period here. Almost 90% of people who engaged with the digital series said they would attend Opera House events in the future as a result.

It was so great that we kept our connections with our audience, and build a bigger audience during this period. Internally, these digital programs also gave the technical, production, programming, and marketing teams meaningful work when we couldn’t open our venue. It prepared our team at the Opera House for reopening in terms of figuring out the health and safety policy and precautions. This allowed us to both remain relevant to our audiences and engaged amongst our staff and team.

There are two really big challenges for us now:

1. We are committed to generating a better level of digital output that’s more accessible to people with disabilities. How do we keep producing accessible content?

2. And how do we navigate the different licensing negotiations for digital content? There isn’t a universal standard and the labor-intensive negotiation is massively different from project to project.

What suggestions do you have for projects looking to tour right now?

Availability of venues is a really massive issue. I would suggest projects work with a group of presenters from the outset. There is a loose network between the major performing arts centers here, the PAC, where we collaborate to bring touring work here. It’s always better for the producers or touring managers to find these networks to work with.

How do you envision a future curatorial strategy for your organization?

Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary will be October 20th next year and we are presenting a series of events from the evening of our 49th birthday through to our 50th. Coming out of COVID, this has been a great opportunity.

Leading up to the 50th anniversary, we just came out of a decade of renewal for our infrastructure. We actually closed our concert hall right before COVID for refurbishment and continued the renovation process through the pandemic. Apart from refurbishing the two bigger spaces, we also created a function center and the center for creativity. These are public participatory spaces running year-round where we host workshops, performances, and lifelong learning programs. 

The 50th anniversary indicates fundamental changes about what the audiences expect and the diverse ways of presenting arts. Part of our challenge with a building called the Sydney Opera House is to communicate the breadth of what we do.

Like I mentioned a lot of people come to visit the site and marvel at the architecture but many of them think the only thing happening inside is just opera. There is a misconception about the diversity of art we present and a misunderstanding of this being an elite-exclusive space. The message we want to send is that the Opera House is for everyone and the 50th anniversary is a great chance for us to send this message. 

We received special support from our state government to do ambitious programs otherwise impossible coming out of the pandemic. For example, we are presenting free Forecourt concerts featuring First Nation work Wanha! Journey to Arnhem from North of Australia; we’ve commissioned Sydney Symphony Orchestra to collaborate with Ngaiire, an extraordinary contemporary artist; we’ve also commissioned artists to design a lighting show for the sales to tell the history of the design and our performances.

What we hope to show with some of these events is an invitation to diversity, giving people the opportunity to experience what happens inside the house in different ways. And of course, layered on top of all that is a continuous desire to work with great artists across art forms.

The 50th anniversary allowed us to come out of COVID with a bigger ambition than we might have been able to do because of the extra support. I hope this lays the ground for the next decade of programming that responds to both the artistic trends and audiences’ desires and expectations.

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