For More Information:

Matthew W. Bryant

973.295.6530; mwbryant@artsba.com

For Immediate Release

New Venture Formed to Help Performing Arts Companies and Venues Optimize Earned Revenue

Luna Stage is First Client for Front of House Services for the Performing Arts

Madison NJ (October 26, 2009) --- National arts promoter and manager Richard T. Bryant today announced the formation of Front of House Services for the Performing Arts, a new venture designed to help presenters and companies optimize earned revenue while sharing research and other services.

In addition to management consulting and planning, Front of House offers branding, marketing, communications, web development, social networking, and other services designed to build brands and grow audiences. Front of House also features advanced tools that clients can share including market-area research, data collection and analysis, customer relationship management systems, and more. Also in development are programs to provide promotional support for touring artists and help presenting organizations attract risk partners and rentals. For Full details, please visit fohservices.com.

“With charitable giving continuing to decline nationwide, nothing is more urgent for performing arts organizations than to strengthen their ability to earn more revenue from tickets, memberships, and other activities,” Bryant said. “Many arts organizations lack the time, expertise, and systems to undertake the intensive day-to-day work necessary to build audiences and increase earned revenue. By outsourcing planning, marketing, communications, and other services, arts organizations can focus more on making and presenting art, and the ever-present demand to raise funds.”

Front of House Services is now developing a transition plan to help New Jersey-based Luna Stage prepare for its 2010 move to 555 Valley Street in West Orange as an anchor for the new Valley Arts District. “Front of House is just the right fit for Luna Stage,” said managing director Mona Hennessy. “Not only does the company bring years of experience helping arts organizations during times of change, it is also well equipped to help with everyday execution of marketing, communications, and online needs.”

The wide range of companies and venues that Richard Bryant has promoted around the United States includes such icons as The Kennedy Center and American Ballet Theater at the MET. He was the first vice president of marketing for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and served for ten years as director of marketing for California’s Orange County Performing Arts Center. He has also worked with Arena Stage and Milwaukee Repertory Theater; advised on the development of Two River Theater Company and New Orleans Jazz Orchestra; and served as an officer of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. He was a founding member of the board and first president of Washington DC’s Helen Hayes Awards.

Advising on the development of Front of House Services have been Andrew Chiang, executive director of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company of Fort Lee, NJ; John X. Fernandez, president of Hawley Morton Productions, Norfolk, CT; Stephen Fredericks, executive director of Growing Stage in Netcong, NJ; Mary Platt, Public Relations Director for Chapman University, Orange, CA: and John Pietrowski, executive director of Playwrights Theatre, Madison, NJ.

Front of House Services is an offshoot of ArtsBA Group/Bryant Associates LLC, the national consulting practice founded in 1998 that specializes in start-ups and transitions in performing and visual arts venues and companies. ArtsBA Group helped to develop launch plans used to prepare for the openings of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, California’s Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and New York’s Dance Theater Workshop, among others. ArtsBA Group also led the workout and sale of Pennsylvania’s Mountain Laurel Center, and helped to develop project plans for museums such as Yale University’s Peabody Museum, The Morris Museum, Queens Museum of Arts, and El Museo del Barrio. ArtsBA Group will continue as before.

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