PRECONFERENCES

We offer two in-depth learning opportunities. Both sessions arm participants with strategies and tactics to make change happen in their communities.

Accessibility is the Key to Successful Inclusion

Accessibility begins with policies and organizational buy-in from every department – from the Board of Directions to the house staff and ushers.  Without a comprehensive plan, true accessibility is disjointed and difficult to achieve. This session will ask participants to look at each department of their organization and how those departments impact the access efforts of the organization.  Sample plans will be provided, these will serve as framework and outline for developing a comprehensive plan. Participants will have the opportunity to understand the need for and how to develop a comprehensive ADA/Accessibility plan.  

Is it Time to Write Arts Journalism's Obituary

Since the invention of the printing press and the birth of the all-powerful media mogul (Pulitzer, Hearst, Turner, Murdoch…), the news became a constant in daily life, with Arts and Culture coverage a pillar news section.  While journalism survived the Great Depression and wavering economies; competition and evolution within media, including radio, television and cable; conglomeration and shareholder driven stock values; and even, to a degree, the internet, blogs and the giving away and aggregating of content, the “fake news” attacks on journalism of the past few years have come closest to signaling the death knell of the free press, a tenant of transparency, integrity and democracy.  Arts and Culture journalism is a front-line casualty of these trends, with respected writers who have covered the field for decades forced into buy-outs or transitions to sections believed to stimulate reader interest, such as real estate, recipes and regime change. But across the globe, communities unwilling to let coverage of their local arts communities die or be peddled off to centralized news agencies without any local flavor found creative means to keep their arts writers writing, keeping their arts communities thriving.