Who We Are

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals is the national service, advocacy and membership organization for the live performing arts field. APAP is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting, booking and touring industry and the professionals who work within it.

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals is the national service, advocacy and membership organization for the live performing arts field. APAP is dedicated to developing and supporting a robust performing arts presenting, booking and touring industry and the professionals who work within it.

The APAP board of directors and staff incorporate Race, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility and Inclusion (READI) as one of APAP's top priorities, woven into all its organizational activities and strategic directions. We commit to the work of READI with openness and deep institutional commitment, realizing that READI is a sustained practice that rejects tokenism and instead embeds equity across the performing arts field. Recognizing that all peoples, cultures, abilities, genders and their performing arts contribute meaning to and understanding of our humanity, we promote the collective power of multiple voices. We are dedicated to support READI work that has purpose for APAP membership and leads to meaningful, sustainable action in advancing access, equity and inclusion in every part of our field. Through READI efforts with our members, allies, and partners, we strive together to create a more just performing arts community.

APAP pledges to eliminate barriers to leadership for Black, Native/Indigenous, People of Color, women, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ persons in performing arts organizations and in our field; to steward their work responsibly and ethically and to support cultural workers who identify as such. While our focus is racial equity and gender justice, we understand and value the importance of work being done to address numerous discriminations intersecting with racial and gender identity, including, but not limited to age, disability, immigration status, and religion.

Our support of Black artists and cultural workers, now and in the future, honors the role of Black artists in our cultural life, centers Black cultural narratives, and advances the recognition of our shared humanity valuing Black lives. We recognize that support for Native/Indigenous artists and culture bearers respects the value and cultural contributions of the multiplicity of Native Americans and Indigenous peoples who have resided in their homelands since time immemorial. What we decide, act upon, and actually do---in this moment---will help us mobilize a performing arts industry that works for all artists and communities.

We pledge to address the uncomfortable history of racism and the settler-colonial foundations of our institutional practices. We understand anti-racism and decolonizing work are a long-term commitment. We acknowledge that our budgets function as values-based documents and commit to accountable and equitable processes to better serve Black, Native/Indigenous, and People of Color communities, as well as women, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ persons, which will ultimately benefit all organizations and the communities they serve.

In this spirit, we carry our field forward, rooted in universal values of courage, responsibility, reconciliation and truth, and advance The APAP 10/20/30 Pledge---a commitment to racial equity, diversity and inclusion for the performing arts---for our members and the field-at-large to take. The 10/20/30 Pledge is bound by time, programming, budget, and a commitment to racial equity and gender justice. We see the 10/20/30 Pledge as a start and defined, first step towards actualizing the changes towards equity in the field that remains elusive and ill-defined.

We acknowledge and celebrate those who are already leading the field in racial equity, diversity, and inclusion work and for whom these are intrinsic bedrock values. We invite you to sign the pledge as partners in this work.

APAP supports the rights, integrity and dignity of all individuals who comprise our audiences, our staffs and the artists and attractions that we represent and present on our stages across the world, regardless of one’s age, ability, gender identity, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, economic status and/or sexual orientation. We affirm the efforts of our members and colleagues in promoting these values on the ground in their communities.

As demonstrated by the unique talents, temperaments and convictions of those in our field, the values of both individuality and community in our society and culture make the performing arts stronger.

APAP is the national service and membership organization for the performing arts presenting, booking and touring field and the convener of the world’s leading gathering of performing arts professionals, held every January in New York City. Through professional development programs and member services, APAP provides opportunities for artists, agents and managers, presenters and producers to make the connections and gain the information, skills and resources they need to make the arts a vibrant, valuable and sustainable part of everyday life. APAP supports and educates today’s and tomorrow’s performing arts leaders.

APAP members know the impact of live performance – the power of a collectively shared moment between artists and audiences. APAP fuels the collaboration, creation and presentation of the performing arts. Across the U.S. and around the world, members work with artists from all genres (dance, drama, music and multi-disciplinary arts) and from a diversity of cultures to present work that addresses social issues, broadens perspectives and literally brings people together.

APAP members are deeply invested in the well-being and the economic health of their local communities. Artists, presenters, agents and managers learn from each other and from the audiences they serve how to best curate and present arts programs that address the unique needs of communities, feeding and preserving the soul of the places we call home. APAP supports this work through grants to arts organizations, dissemination of information and resources, and advocacy activities aimed at making the arts accessible for all.