Uniquely American Artists

Meet the WAA Delegation in Hong Kong and Busan, Korea

The delegation will travel to the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo (HKPAX), October 9 - 13 and also attend the Busan Performing Arts Market (BPAM) in South Korea, September 29 – October 7.

Meet This Year’s Presenter Development Program Cohort!

• Daniel Bondi, The Faight

• Gus Denard, Early Music Seattle

• Stacy Horne, Stern Grove Music Festival

• Carolyn Jackson, Lesher Center

• Roger Menell, Denver Botanic Gardens

• David Siegel, Ent Center for the Arts

• Clayton Shelvin, The Freight

Congratulations to the 2026 Marcelo Aviles Scholars!

• Amalyah Muñoz, Jesús Muñoz Flamenco

• Tenessa Ripple, Artown

• Nina Seul, Delirium Musicum

• Eric Shiring, Invertigo Dance Theatre

• Anna Stewart, Green Box

• Purna Venugopalan, UMass Amherst

Congratulations to the 2026 Inaugural Intersections Fellows!

• Bernard Brown, bbmoves

• Dóri Bosnyák, The Grand 1894 Opera House

• Antonio M. Gomez, Early Music Seattle

• Achinta McDaniel, Blue13 Dance Company

• Socks Whitmore, CIPA & 8TPS

Keeping Up with Inflation
Information about the proposed dues increase to maintain WAA’s current level of services in the face of ~10% cumulative inflation over three years.

WAA’s Board of Directors plays a vital role in our capacity to serve you — our members. Our board supports us in fulfilling our mission to advance excellence in the performing arts, through innovative thinking and ground-breaking initiatives, by anticipating the future needs of the field, and through sound governance and stewardship.

Congratulations to the recipients of the Emeritus, Leadership, Mentoring, and Vanguard Award Nominees, who will be honored at the WAA Annual Conference!

Ready to tour Asia? Apply by May 29!

Join WAA in Hong Kong and Busan, Korea

The delegation will travel to the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo (HKPAX), October 9 - 13. With an optional extension, delegates can also attend the Busan Performing Arts Market (BPAM) in South Korea, September 29 – October 7.

Early Bird registration is now open!

Kicking off the Conference is renowned Oakland native W. Kamau Bell. With his mantra, “Who’s With Me?”, and celebrated work across stages, screens, and streets advocating for justice and lifting up connection and community, we can’t think of a better way to root the week.

Join us in Oakland, September 8 - 11, 2026!

Earlier this year, we lost a dear friend and colleague in Marcelo Avilés. In his memory, WAA has established the Marcelo Avilés Scholarship Fund to support talented young arts professionals in attending the WAA Annual Conference. It is a fitting tribute because Marcelo’s career was shaped in part by this community. He was also a WAA scholarship recipient, which helped bring him to our 2022 conference in Calgary. Afterward, he wrote to us:

“Thank you for creating an event that brings the industry together in a thoughtful way that leaves us inspired to go out and make a better world.”

— Marcelo Avilés

Applications are NOW OPEN for Discovery and Peer Learning

This fall, we tried something new! A salon series to reflect about the state of the field to connect us and understand the current ground we’re standing on. Our conversations revealed a field at an inflection point, grappling with fundamental questions about risk, sustainability, and what it means to build an authentic performing arts ecosystem, not only beyond WAA, but nationally.

Applications are NOW OPEN for WAA OAK 2026!

We're doing what the performing arts community does best: gathering close, sharing resources, and building collective solutions together. Whether you're an artist ready to showcase your work, a producer wanting to provide more opportunities onsite, or an industry professional with insights to share, this is your moment!

Find out more about the field and what your colleagues are up to in NYC!

The performing arts field is a highly rhizomatic ecosystem supporting a wide array of convenings for presenters, artists, agents, managers, producers, and more. Each year, a high concentration of professionals (nearing 45,000, if not more) intersect in New York City for a wide array of convenings, independently sprouting around the anchor of the APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) conference in Midtown New York City.  

The recent government shutdown and current continuing resolution (funding the government only through year-end) have created significant uncertainty around our Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) Program funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

TICKETS: free
January 9, 2026
11:30am - 12:30pm ET
12:30 - 1:30pm ET

Ray’s Pizza
831 Seventh Avenue, New York, 10019
Space is limited, RSVP required

TICKETS: free
December 9
4:30 - 8pm PT

Portland, Oregon
RSVP required

TICKETS: free
November 4, 13, 18 & 20
11:30am - 1:00pm PT

Online via Zoom
RSVP required

TICKETS: free
Friday, October 13, 2025
12:00-2:00pm PT

Online via Zoom
RSVP required