Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi: Gulf States Presenters Network

The Gulf States Presenters Network (GSPN) is a collaborative effort of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the Mississippi Arts Commission to cultivate performance opportunities—and the creative economy—for presenting artists and arts organizations. The three state arts agencies each offer grants to presenters in their own state to import artists from the touring-artist rosters of the other two states. The consortium regularly has convened presenters from throughout the region in effort to facilitate networking as well as to coordinate block booking and other business partnerships benefiting artists and presenters alike. Building on this, the state arts agencies are now developing a tristate peer-to-peer network, and each agency is working currently to locate and create data profiles of all presenting organizations and venues in its state. As of May, GSPN has more than 100 members from both rural and urban communities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. For more information on GSPN, contact Alabama Performing Arts Program Manager Yvette Jones-Smedley, Louisiana Director of Grants and Community Programs Paula White and Mississippi Arts Industry Director Turry Flucker.