NAPAMA’s (North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents), a national service, advocacy, and membership organization based in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to developing and supporting the performing arts field throughout the country, has named Memphis’ own Brett Batterson as 2017 Presenter of the Year.
Brett Batterson, president and CEO of Orpheum Theatre Group, will be accepting his award, presented by NAPAMA president David Wannen, at the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ (APAP) annual conference Monday, January 18th, at the New York Hilton Midtown.
In his short (one-year) tenure at the Orpheum Theatre, Batterson has overseen the renaming and branding of the organization, increased educational programming, and led a complete renovation of the Orpheum’s interior. Before joining the Orpheum’s team, Batterson spent 11 years as executive director of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago and 10 years as chief operating officer of Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit.
Batterson’s other numerous awards and achievements include a State Farm Insurance Company “Embrace Life” Award as the creator of Hands Together, Heart to Art (an arts camp for children who have experienced the death of a parent) and being recognized as one of the 50 most influential people in Chicago theatre by New City News in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015.
Other awards recipients include Carlton Turner, executive director of Alternate ROOTS (The Swidney R. Yates Award for Outstanding Advocacy on Behalf of the Performing Arts); Bill Bragin, Isabel Soffer and Shanta Thake, co-directors of globalFEST (The William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming); and Pamela M. Green, president and CEO of PMG Arts Management (NAPAMA Liz Silverstein Award for Agent-Manager of the Year).
