Episode 56: Kristy Edmunds

Hello everyone and welcome back to Speaking of the Arts. My guest today is Kristy Edmunds. Kristy currently serves as the Executive and Artistic Director for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance www.cap.ucla.edu . Prior to this, Edmunds was the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)www.pica.org and the TBA Festival (Time Based Art) in Portland, Oregon www.pica.org/tba . She was the Artistic Director for the Melbourne International Arts Festival from 2005 to 2008, and was the first to serve an unprecedented four-year term. Upon completion she was appointed as the Head of the School of Performing Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts/University of Melbourne, and after one year became the Deputy Dean for the College. Concurrently, Edmunds worked as the inaugural Consulting Artistic Director for the now critically heralded Park Avenue Armory in New York (2009–2012) www.armoryonpark.org .

Our conversation took place during mid May 2020. We talked about the unique relationship between artists, producers, managers and agents and how social distancing has completely changed this dynamic. Kristy also spoke about some of the scenarios she is exploring with her team at CAP UCLA www.cap.ucla.edu for future presentations as well as some very important resources that artists can take advantage of right now. These include Americans for the Arts and ArtistsRelief.org www.artistrelief.org . The latter is a fund which is currently awarding $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19. You can go do ArtistsRelief.org to learn more about this. I am grateful for Kristy’s time and I think you find find this conversation both very honest in terms of where the performing arts are currently at as well as inspiring. Thank you for listening everyone.