APAP|NYC 2020 Highlights

At APAP|NYC 2020, as we embarked upon a new decade, we embraced the theme of “Risk and Resilience”. As arts professionals, we understand that risk is inherent in the creation and discovery of art-making and arts-presenting. As arts workers, we embody the resilience that is intrinsic to being part of and responding to the world around us. We must take risks and gain resilience in order to survive. 

APAP|NYC 2020 by the Numbers

• Over 3,600 attendees, with 658 new colleagues and more than 200 international colleauges
• 30 countries and 49 U.S. states represented
• More than 50 professional development sessions and 262 speakers
• 34 networking and forum meetings
• 1,100+ showcase performances
• 370 EXPO Hall booths

Each year our plenary speakers help us learn, connect and engage in discussions around pressing current cultural, artistic and professional issues. You can watch all of the plenary sessions and the Awards Ceremony for continued inspiration about future of the industry.

APAP|NYC 2020 Opening Plenary Session - The Power of Risk-Taking

The official kick-off to APAP|NYC, the opening plenary promises to inspire and invigorate, powered by artist voices. As the ultimate risk-takers and models of resiliency, artists will share their stories, challenge us to embrace risk in our individual and collective work, and remind us of how discovery and failure can lead to resilience and strength. What better way to launch the conference than with artists leading the way? Join us for this not-to-miss session, and be reminded why you do what you do!

Sponsored by Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group

APAP|NYC 2020 Saturday Plenary Session - Risk and Resilience: Responses from the Field

In a world of ceaseless change, what are the real-time risks worth taking that are compelling arts leaders of the present and the future? In a lively and interactive format, the fourth Cohort of the APAP Leadership Fellows Program shares their insights about emergent ideas as they chart an intentional path on which the arts and humanity can flourish. Whether taking on internal challenges like organizational systems and ideologies or taking leaps of faith and courage to address societal issues like racism, the climate crisis, the overwhelming presence of technology or our human desire to build belonging in our communities, the cohort shares their ideas, experiments, successes, failures and lessons learned. Come prepared to listen, learn, and share your own stories with colleagues about the complexities of working in the professional arts field.

Sponsored by ICM Partners.

APAP|NYC 2020 Sunday Plenary Session - Resilience and Sustainability: The Long Conversation

As arts workers, we may appear to be superheroes, but when the cape comes off, we are only human underneath. Following our calling to make the world better through the performing arts can take its toll, so learning how to sustain ourselves and be resilient is key. In this unique and intimate format, individuals from inside and outside the performing arts interview each other in a relay of one-on-one conversations about personal experiences and approaches to overcoming obstacles and nurturing personal vision and practice. Toronto’s Choir! Choir! Choir! will open the Sunday Plenary.

APAP|NYC Annual Awards Ceremony and Luncheon 2020

This not-to-miss special event honors achievement, service, excellence and advocacy in the performing arts field. Tickets are required and must be purchased in advance when you register or at the APAP|NYC registration desk at the conference. Sponsor a table at the luncheon and help support the William Dawson Endowment Fund supporting field-based research and leadership training for performing arts professionals and arts adminstration students. For more info, visit specialevents.apapnyc.org.

APAP|NYC 2020 Closing Plenary Session: Ben Folds on Art, Life and Music

Regarded as a major music influencer, the multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter has created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums and numerous collaborations. Folds has performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, and currently serves as the first ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. A champion of arts education and music therapy, he is a member of the Artist Committee of Americans For The Arts (AFTA) and the chairman of AFTA’s Arts Action Fund ArtsVote2020 initiative and hosts a podcast on arts policy with 2020 presidential candidates. In this closing plenary conversation, Folds shares messages on risk, resilience and creativity as highlighted in his critically acclaimed memoir and New York Times Best Seller “A Dream About Lightning Bugs”, a collection of essays, anecdotes and lessons about art, life and music.

APAP|NYC 2020 was a whirlwind of networking, professional development sessions, the always-bustling EXPO Hall and more than 1,000 showcases. We captured some of the highlights from conference in our photo archive on Facebook. View it here.

January 8-12, 2021
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