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The Performing Arts Industry: An Overview




Performing arts are a type of art form that is created and presented through live performance. This can include music, dance, theater, opera, spoken word, and other types of performances.


Performing arts have been a part of human culture for centuries, with ancient civilizations such as the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians creating their own forms of performance. Today, performing arts are a vital part of many cultures around the world and provide entertainment, artistic expression, and social commentary.It also involves a wide range of skills, including acting, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, and creating and designing costumes and sets. These skills are often honed through years of training and practice, and many performers dedicate their lives to perfecting their craft.


Performing arts can be enjoyed in a variety of settings, from small community theaters to grand opera houses and concert halls. They are also increasingly available through digital platforms, allowing audiences to enjoy performances from anywhere in the world.


Famous Performance Artists

For some examples of famous performing artists, there are many various performing artists working actively, but here are some popular and impressive artists in this field who have performed actively and hard around the world.


Marina Abramovic


Marina Abramovic is a conceptual and performance artist known for works that dramatically tested the endurance and limitations of her own body and mind. She was born in Yugoslavia in 1946 and explored body art, endurance art, feminist art, and the relationship between the performer and audience, including the possibilities of the mind.




Nick Cave


Nick Cave is an American sculptor and performance artist, and he is best known for his Soundsuit series: wearable assemblage fabric sculptures that are bright and other-worldly, made with found objects. Realizing that costuming and physical visual alteration has been an integral part of performance art throughout the history, Nick has taken this aspect to new heights through his sound suits, which stood alone as ingenious sculptural marvels or came to life through mass dance spectacle. Besides, Nick tried to show the very essence of versatility and multidisciplinary qualities that are native to the craft of performance, utilizing various sources such as fashion, textile art, dance, and large scale conceptual exhibiting.



Laurie Anderson


Laurie Anderson is an American performance artist, and writer, exploring a tremendous range of media and subject matter, including not only performance art, but also pop music and multimedia projects. Pursuing a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, Laurie focused on language, technology, and visual imagery, and she became widely known outside the art world when her single "O Superman" ranked number two on the UK singles chart in 1981.



Yoko Ono


Yoko Ono is a Japanese performing artist and musician who was an influential practitioner of conceptual and performance art, including film making in the 1960s. She became popular internationally as she got married to John Lennon, who was a leader of the Beatles and her artistic partner. After John’s death, Ono funded the Strawberry Fields memorial in Manhattan's Central Park to preserve his legacy and memory, including the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan. Besides, she has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, disaster relief in Japan and the Philippines in the past.


Talent Agencies in Minneapolis

Although we are not as big as Chicago or New York, Minneapolis is home to several talent agencies for aspiring performing artists. These agencies are wonderful ways for artists to gain support in booking jobs for themselves in an industry that tends to be competitive.The agencies that we will be highlighting in this list will be those focusing on modeling, acting, and voice acting.


Moore Creative Talent


Moore Creative Talent is an agency that specializes in modeling. It is also one of Minnesota’s oldest talent agencies. They connect models with jobs in several areas, ranging from on-camera work to lifestyle print. The agency also represents voice actors, fashion models and hand models.


Arquette Agency


Arquette Agency is based in Minneapolis and Chicago. This agency provides both placements as well as management for models. Arquette also places an emphasis on doing good in the world and spreading positivity.


Wehmann Models & Talent


Wehmann Models & Talent represents models, actors, voice actors, and even artists. Wehmann was founded in 1984 and prides itself on being committed to integrity and change. The agency has worked with over 100 companies including Medtronic and Xcel Energy.


Income and Compensation

As with every career, not only is enjoying what you’re doing important, but making a living is something to consider. The performing arts industry offers plenty of opportunities to be a part of the market share. Organizations in support of the performing arts generate nearly $13.6 billion annually. Outside of supporting organizations, admission revenue alone totaled $14.5 billion. Sporting event admissions is around $20 billion in comparison. With this audience, they’ve been known to spend on average about $30 per event. With this knowledge, we can see that there is plenty of money to pay out these performance arts careers. With all these considerations, it is estimated that the median for a career in the performing arts is about $53,997. This income obviously has high highs and low lows like any career does. This is helped determined by originality of content, market reach and exposure, location, community appreciation for arts, and many more variables. By finding a niche market and being able to provide a unique skill set pushed many artists into these income disbursements.


Making money in the performing arts industry is very achievable. A large way to generate income is from the fees for performing at events. By putting on your show and giving your product to the audience, artists can charge the fee for sharing their creations. Another route may be to look at the teaching and share their knowledge. This can be done at workshops, institutions, classes, and mentoring programs. Another very large way to generate income is by selling intellectual property. Selling DVDs, books, photographs can be very profitable for artists. Although these are just a few, in developing a creating marketing strategy to promote your brand will increase your audience and your income in turn.


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