Other Services
ARTIST AND COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Planning for equity
Listening for the community's wisdom
Building diverse and strong organizations and communities PLANNING
PRODUCING
ORGANIZING ARTISTS' WORKSHOPS
MEETING FACILITATION
STAFF AND BOARD RETREATS
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACC is a not-for- profit organization under the direction of Theresa Holden, recent winner of the Ford Foundation's "Leadership for a Changing World Award." ACC's clients have included, among others: university and community arts presenters; artists; youth, Native American, housing, immigrant, and health organizations; public schools; and university academic departments. A team of exceptional and experienced artists, organizers, and educators is gathered to customize ACC's involvement in each project. ACC's approach invites diverse participation and seeks to equalize all partners' voices in the planning, development and outcome of each project.
About Us
Holden & Arts Associates is a booking and management company serving performing artists and performing arts presenters. Founded in 1983 by Michael and Theresa Holden, HAA’s clients and projects are national and international in scope. Each booking year, performances for a select group of theater, dance, and musical artists are arranged through our office. These artists range from some of the largest touring dance and theater companies to mid-sized musical attractions to solo performers. Their work also represents a wide breadth of cultural experience and aesthetic approach. HAA’s roster offers a special emphasis on programs for youth and families.
Our artistic partners are among the leaders in touring theater, music and dance. Each creates work with a unique and authentic voice developed from distinct experience, radiant technique, and a passionate sense of place.
Our presenting partners are among the leaders in enacting artistic missions in their communities. Many undertake projects to explore the power of diverse audiences and educational programming for both young and adult participants.
We seek partners for innovative and artistically excellent projects that illuminate a meaningful, challenging and celebratory perspective on life.
A note from us about touring and presenting:
As we begin producing and booking a new season, it is interesting to think that from very ancient times to the present, touring artists have been a defining influence on communities around the world. In the 4th Century BCE, the Athenians believed that the person in charge of funding and organizing play festivals, the Choregus, directly served the gods. The work of producing the plays was a sacred act and an honor. Evidence points to the fact that in Renaissance England, the alderman of Stratford, including Shakespeare’s father, were in part responsible for presenting traveling theatrical companies when Shakespeare was a boy. This suggests that touring artists may have had an influence on one of the formative figures in Western History. The 19th and 20th Centuries witnessed the proliferation of magnificent theaters, as central contributors to the urban life and the identities of great cities around the world.
Throughout time, traveling from place to place, delighting audiences with skill and stories, artists have shaped the communities they have visited. This history contributes to the very essence of how we see ourselves. The names of most of those who supported the work of performing artists throughout the millennia have largely been forgotten. Unlike art that relies on an individual patron, collector, or curator, the energy of the performing arts reaches beyond the influence of any one individual. Created, presented, and experienced in collaboration, the performing arts lead us to an understanding of how our talents, and who we are, fit within a community dedicated to a common purpose.
This year, artists, managers and presenters begin again to plan and nurture the process of bringing performances to audiences. This work often calls us to serve the act of making art above our own gain or personal recognition. It requires us to take risks. Often for the artists and for all involved, it requires financial and personal sacrifice. But it is work that we undertake because it is important. And though we each have an individual purpose and task to fulfill in the process, the results of the process are more important than each of us individually. But we do this work because it is important. It is important because what we are actually doing is telling the story and at the same time creating the story of who we all are. When audiences see themselves in what we create, they are moved to new images of what is possible. So how we see ourselves, and how the future will view us, depends upon the performances that we create together this year. We hope that we can join with you to make ours a story told with skill and imagination, one worthy to be remembered for many generations to come.
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