Across the Board (festival consortium)

Across the Board (festival consortium)
Name	Across the Board

Across the Board (festival consortium) is a collaborative consortium of performing-arts festivals, cultural institutions, and presenting organizations that coordinates touring, commissioning, and curatorial exchange across regions. Founded to increase resource-sharing among festivals, the consortium connects artists, presenters, funders, and audiences across international circuits and seasonal calendars.

Overview

Across the Board operates as a networked platform linking contemporary music, dance, theatre, and multimedia festivals to streamline programming, co-commissions, and artist residencies. Member organizations collaborate on joint production cycles involving touring agreements with institutions such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Sadler's Wells, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Festival d'Avignon. The consortium engages funders and patrons including Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Arts Council England, and private donors associated with venues like Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House.

History and Formation

Across the Board emerged from conversations among programmers linked to Dublin Theatre Festival, Venice Biennale, Berlin Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA following bilateral co-productions in the early 2010s. Discussions involved artistic directors with prior affiliations to Royal Shakespeare Company, La Scala, Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, and Museum of Modern Art. Formal incorporation drew on models used by European Festivals Association and governance practices from British Council cultural exchange programs and multinational consortia like International Society for the Performing Arts.

Member Festivals and Partners

Membership spans long-established and emerging festivals and partners such as Glastonbury Festival, Ravinia Festival, Auckland Arts Festival, Bergen International Festival, Hot Docs, Biennale de Lyon, Helsinki Festival, Chicago Humanities Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Perth Festival, Viennale, and São Paulo Art Biennial. Institutional partners include NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Opera House, National Theatre, Teatro Real, Bolshoi Theatre, Paley Center for Media, and academic collaborators at Juilliard School, Royal College of Music, Yale School of Drama, and University of California, Berkeley. Touring partners feature presenters like Carnegie Hall Presents, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Southbank Centre, and Sydney Festival.

Governance and Funding

The consortium is governed by a board drawn from artistic directors and chief executives associated with Edinburgh International Festival, Venice Biennale, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Aix-en-Provence Festival, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Operational models borrow from nonprofit structures used by Arts Council England and endowment frameworks exemplified by Guggenheim Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. Funding combines public grants from agencies like Canada Council for the Arts, Creative Europe, and Australia Council, private philanthropy tied to foundations such as Rockefeller Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ticketing revenues processed through partners including Eventbrite and Ticketmaster, and in-kind contributions from venues like Royal Festival Hall and broadcasting partners including BBC and NPR.

Programming and Impact

Programming emphasizes cross-disciplinary commissions, touring ensembles, artist residencies, and co-created works that have debuted at sites including Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou, Palace of Versailles, Lincoln Center Festival, and South by Southwest. Co-commissions have involved contemporary figures associated with Philip Glass, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Pina Bausch, Bjork, and collectives linked to Wooster Group. Educational partnerships have connected to conservatories and universities including Curtis Institute of Music, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Columbia University, and Goldsmiths, University of London. The consortium’s touring frameworks coordinate logistics with agencies like IETM and align programming calendars with major events such as Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, Venice Film Festival, and Munich Biennale to maximize international exposure.

Reception and Criticism

Advocates praise Across the Board for increasing audience access, reducing production duplication, and fostering international collaboration among institutions such as Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and San Francisco Symphony. Critics raise concerns cited in commentary from journalists at The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Washington Post, and Der Spiegel about centralization of programming power, potential homogenization reminiscent of debates around festivalization and consolidation seen in cultural sectors linked to conglomerates like Live Nation Entertainment. Other critiques focus on equity issues highlighted by activists associated with Decolonize This Place and scholars at SOAS, University of London and University of Cape Town, urging more transparent allocation of co-commission budgets and increased representation of artists from regions such as Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Category:Performing arts festivals