LMCC Partners with CIPA, a Recently-Formed Alliance of 50+ Independent Producers of Live Arts to Shore Up an Already Vulnerable Sector

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) has received a $150,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to embark on a year-long strategic planning process with Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA). CIPA is the collaboration between more than 50 independent producers of live arts to address the urgent needs of the contemporary performance community both during the COVID-19 pandemic and in a post-pandemic future. The alliance was brought together within our dramatically impacted cultural landscape to champion and catalyze rebuilding and sustainability; the advancement of cultural representation and resistance of historically oppressive institutional structures; and the creation of systems of support necessary to ensure a future for artist-driven contemporary performance.

LMCC has, for almost 50 years, advanced a vision to serve, connect, and make space for artists in New York City, at all stages in their career and from every discipline, with 360 degrees of support. A core tenet of LMCC’s strategic vision is to advocate for and strengthen producing and management support for independent artists that will, in turn, support and bolster an artist’s career. From this, they forged their connection with and support for CIPA, and will host the development of CIPA as they embark on a year of strategic planning, generously aided by the new grant.

The Mellon grant will fund a year-long facilitated strategic planning process aimed at developing systems and infrastructure to support the stability and growth of creative producers.

CIPA is also piloting several key initiatives, including mentorship programs; an online Producer Hub dedicated to the professional development and support of independent producers through shared business and educational resources and networking opportunities; a CIPA Producing Fellowship, an application-based opportunity for emerging and diverse producers to work alongside more established producers and companies; a New Work Development Network connecting producers and artists with major presenters across the country; and a program through which CIPA members provide free consultations to producers at varying career stages.

The producers comprising CIPA’s membership have played a significant role in the development of scores of performance projects over the past decade—including Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter’s upcoming Iphigenia; Mikhail Baryshnikov & Big Dance Theater’s Man In A Case; Andrea Thome, José Zayas, and Sinuhé Padilla’s Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes); and Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone,to name a few—and have provided services that are central to supporting artists. In many cases, they have acted as the entire infrastructure for emerging and established artists and companies, providing everything from accounting and general management services to essential creative partnerships in the development and realization of new work. CIPA members have been responsible for investing in and cultivating the work of artists who would not otherwise find support from more traditional institutions. They ensure artists’ work reaches opening night, especially when all other sources have run dry, and often honor artist fee payments when other organizations do not and advance their own funds when fee payments from funders and presenters are delayed, withdrawn, or inadequate. A list of members and artists supported can be found on CIPA’s website, cipausa.org.