MARKET POWER: Rules, Capital, and Gatekeeping in the Global Performing Arts

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Is the international performing arts market a neutral space of exchange, or a system shaped by hierarchy and exclusion — and where does real power actually sit: with festivals, markets, networks, funders, or artists? This panel maps the unwritten rules of global touring that newcomers discover only through failure, and asks whether the system has truly opened up or merely grown more complex to navigate. Who gains access to international circuits, and who is consistently left out? Has gatekeeping shifted from individuals to systems — applications, fees, language, relationships — and does funding quietly entrench Global North dominance?

The conversation follows what circulates and why: artistic merit, market logic, scale, or simply reputation and familiarity. It asks where risk really sits and who carries it — increasingly downloaded onto artists and smaller organizations — and how much success still depends on networks over quality. It turns to the artist caught in a market that rewards exportable, “tour-ready” work over locally rooted practice, and to the responsibility markets bear for artists’ long-term sustainability. Finally, it presses on accountability: pay-to-play models, transparency, and whether the system could shift from competition to cooperation. What would a genuinely just and equitable performing arts market actually look like?

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PANELISTS

CEO, ISPA (USA)

Executive Director, CINARS (Canada)

President and CEO, APAP (USA)

Executive Director Emeritus, HKPAX (Hong Kong)

Director of Industry Programme, SIPAM (Romania)

Journalist and Host of 'Zebra,' RFI Romania 

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Event in English , with translation into Romanian
Duration: 1h 15min

FREE ACCESS,  WITHIN AVAILABLE PLACES