Photo Courtesy of Hartford Stage
Michael Stotts
Michael Stotts, managing director of the Hartford Stage, has been awarded the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism’s 2011 Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship. A press release issued by the commission on Tuesday reads, in part: “The annual Fellowship of $2,500, to be used for professional development activities, acknowledges the important role that arts administrators play in the state’s arts industry.”
Stotts served as managing director of Long Wharf Theatre from 2003 to 2006, at which point he assumed that role at the Hartford Stage. He sits on the board of the Connecticut Arts Alliance, which he helped co-found in 2005.
That year, Stotts was recognized by the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism with a “Distinguished Advocate Award.”
The above-mentioned press release explains: “Selection criteria in selecting Stotts included his record of accomplishment in the field of arts administration, the positive impact he has had on the Hartford Stage, and his potential for continued career achievement.”
Reached by telephone on Thursday, An-Ming Truxes, director of the commission’s arts division, said, “Michael is the type of leader that’s always looking to make theater relevant and exciting.”
Among the challenges facing theaters and other arts-related nonprofit organizations are changing audience trends and patterns of consumer demand, Truxes said.
“How do you engage people meaningfully in theater?” Truxes asked rhetorically, offering an example of the types of questions being asked in and around performing arts organizations and with regard to all artistic disciplines.
Audience engagement is the subject of much conversation across the country, she said.
Truxes said that the Hartford Stage has done innovative educational work, particularly in schools and with low- and moderate-income populations in the Greater Hartford region. And Stotts, Truxes said, has been open to experimentation and risk-taking.
Asked what sorts of “professional development activities” an Arts Administration Fellowship recipient might take advantage of, Truxes mentioned conferences, seminars, and other kinds of leadership programs — forums, for example and with Stotts in mind, that look at “different ways of making theater sustainable.”
Also reached by phone on Thursday, Stotts said there are conversations being had around the country about, among other things, the nonprofit performing arts business model’s dependence on contributed revenue and the challenge of developing new audiences.
Stotts, who has a home in Guilford and an apartment in Hartford, said there’s a lot going on in the performing arts industry right now — with regard, for example, to the economy and our changing culture — and that pertinent conferences and seminars offer opportunities to have “in-depth conversations with peers about some of the challenges we’re facing.”
While he’s “not sure, exactly, what is going to be applicable to what we’re doing at Hartford Stage,” Stotts said he’d like to find out what some other organizations are doing that might be applicable to his.
“There has to be … a new way to continue our missions and … deliver the service,” Stotts said.