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

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

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.

TICKETS: FREE & open to the public 

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

10–11 AM PT  

Online Zoom Meeting

Please register in advance for this meeting.

Volunteering on a committee is one of the most rewarding experiences at WAA. Not only can you contribute your time and expertise to a worthy cause, but you make new connects and forge lasting friendships with folks with colleagues across the Western United States and beyond. 

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.

Our parks and streets are transformed into festive landscapes filled with Juneteenth cookouts and Pride parades and we get to see what the United States is truly made of – people of all colors and backgrounds partying together. But underneath the veneer of block parties and family reunions…

Beginning today, we present to you Trying Times, a collection of resources that have helped our community navigate The Pandemic, The Great Recession, A Racial Reckoning, and more. Over the next five months, we will release past conference sessions, performances, articles, and other resources that offer important lessons for the present.