Leanne Tintori Wells, Director (212) 741-2227
Arian Blanco, Associate (212) 741-7824

The Presenting Program aims to develop, nurture, and strengthen presenters of the live professional performing arts through grants and services. There are four categories of support: Presentation, General Operating Support, General Program Support, and Services to the Field. 

The Program's goals: 

• Encourage the presentation of a rich range of innovative and culturally diverse performances of professional standards and artistic excellence.

• Encourage the understanding and appreciation of performing artists and their work by diverse audiences of all ages.

• Encourage the development of new presenters in regions of the state with a scarcity of professional performing arts activity or an absence of a particular art form.

• Advance the presenting field in areas of planning, programming, marketing, and management through dialogues, technical assistance, and use of new technologies.

The Presenting Program Eligibility Criteria and Priorities

Eligibility Criteria:

The Program considers for support only those organizations that engage, present, and promote professional performing artists and are committed to paying artists a contracted guaranteed fee. Guaranteed fees accompanied by share-of-gate arrangements are acceptable.

The following activities are not eligible:

• Single and two-day festivals (unless incorporated within a larger presenting season)

• Competitions, contests, talent showcases, parades

• Poetry readings (unless incorporated within a performance context) or staged readings

• Magic shows

• Lectures

• In-school classroom activity, master classes, or workshops not directly associated with presentations or public residency activity

• Presentations or events that include the presentation of the organization's own work or work of their staff or board members, even when the project includes guest artists

Priorities:

• Organizations that engage, present, pay, and promote professional performing artists.

• Programs or activities that present contemporary and new commissioned works.

• Work by American artists, particularly the presentation of lesser known artists, women artists, or artists of color, and programs that seek to develop better-informed, more diverse audiences.

• Projects that explore new directions involving performing artists, multi-media, and hybrid art forms.

• Co-presentation efforts in which two or more partners share in the expenses and income.

• Presenters that operate in economically depressed communities, as well as presenters that own and/or operate theatrical facilities.

Evaluative Criteria

Grant requests in this Program are evaluated in accordance with the relevant agency-wide criteria.

Eligibility for New or Returning Applicants

Artistic Evaluation/Artistic Audit Requirement

The Council must be able to evaluate the applicant's artistic quality on an ongoing basis. In addition to your written application, a NYSCA representative may attend and evaluate your events.  

Artistic audits are required for all new applicants and returning applications prior to the application deadline. All new applicants are required to have two artistic audits. Returning applicants must have one audit within twelve months prior to the application deadline. Audits are conducted by a Council consultant who is expert in the particular field and whose report of the event becomes part of the evaluation process.

To schedule an artistic audit, forward a request via email at least 4 weeks in advance to Program staff that includes the following information:

• Title of event

• Date and time

• Venue including address and phone

• Organizational contact including name, title, phone, and email information

Other NYSCA Opportunities for Presenters

Presenters of traditional folk arts performances are advised to review the Folk Arts Program guidelines for a comparison of eligibility and evaluative criteria. 

Presenters interested in commissioning new work by New York State artists should refer to the Individual Artists and Dance Program guidelines.

Presenters of media-based technology projects should refer to the Electronic Media and Film and Visual Arts Programs guidelines for a comparison of eligibility and evaluative criteria.