Continuing from my last post, there are many markets now available to entertainers. These include college performing arts centers and festivals.
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center @ University of Maryland College Park
If you have the passion and talent, I do believe you can find an audience. There is the college market…and there is the formal college arts center market. Two completely separate markets.
Universities and colleges have discovered that if they build a performing arts center, they not only attract the community (and make money), they can also attract a specific type of student — those that become innovators, risk takers and creatives — and the school builds a unique brand and differentiates itself.
The informed and willing college president or dean is aware they can advance their institution’s mission through the arts. This is something that is being deeply researched and explored; a few major research universities and leading art funders, including the Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, have joined together to form a national network “to support the integration of artists and arts practices…and have created taskforces to elevate and integrate the arts and creativity across campus.” So where do you, the entertainer, fit in?
