New York has launched a new council aimed at addressing the challenges facing the city’s live entertainment industry.
Mayor Eric Adams on Monday convened the opening meeting of the first-ever Live Performance Industry Council, with a mix of leaders representing the theater, music and dance industries from the city’s arenas, cultural institutions, unions, the nonprofit sector and the city government.
“Live performances have long been the heart and soul of this city,” Adams said in a statement. “By bringing together leaders from across the industry and city government, we are not only supporting the individuals who make the live performance industry great, but also ensuring that New York City will always be a global creative capital.”
The council, co-chaired by Ken Sunshine, founder of Sunshine Sachs, and Coco Killingsworth, vice president of social impact at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, focuses on developing measures to fuel growth within the city’s creative economy. support and encourage. continues to return to – and aims to expand beyond – pre-pandemic levels.
“This is a truly unique moment and the beginning of an important conversation about the vital ecosystem of the live performing arts sector – the live beating heart of New York City,” Killingsworth said in a statement. “We are the reason people come to New York City and, more importantly, we are why they stay, and this council will help us tackle some of the very real challenges but also allow us to think big about the next chapter for New York. City.”
“I commend Mayor Adams for convening one of the most distinguished gatherings of live entertainment leaders ever,” Sunshine added. “We look forward to both big and practical solutions to the challenges we all face in producing live shows in our great city.”
Several city departments were in attendance at the Gracie Manor meeting, including MOME’s newly announced Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman, and other leaders in housing, economic development and employment, and cultural affairs.
The council’s 52 members include representatives from venues such as The Public Theater, The Apollo, Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall; producers of Disney Theatrical, the Nederlander Organization and the Shubert Organization; sports and entertainment complexes such as Citi Field, the New York Yankees, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Barclay Center and Lincoln Center; guilds, unions and professional associations, including IASTE, Actor’s Equity, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, The Broadway League and Off-Broadway League; alliances, including Times Square Alliance, Asian American Arts Alliance and Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York; funds such as The Entertainment Community Fund and Theater Development Fund; as well as several non-profit organizations such as Bric Arts and the Black Theater Coalition.
The council comes four years after the New York mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment ordered one cultural and economic impact study, a report showing that nearly 750 locations and organizations generate $1.3 billion in economic output, more than 8,400 full-time jobs and $512 million in wages.
The live performance group follows a growing series of councils established to address and support issues surrounding the city’s entertainment community. That includes TV, film and digital gaming boards, the Broadway Musicians Equity Partnership, an expansion of the NYC Women’s Fund in Media, Music and Theater and more.
