Our Philosophy

A.O. PRO(+ductions) is dedicated to providing NYC’s artists, individuals, and organizations with high-quality media, management, consulting, and design. PRO is a one-stop-shop for all your arts-business needs. PRO consultants are knowledgeable about what’s working and what’s not in today’s arts economy and will holistically support your non-commercial creative process with a business-savvy and digital-native approach.

Here at PRO, we have four key ideas that support our model:

• Holistic Approach
  Though many argue that art and business are two different ends of the earth, we understand that they coexist and support each other. We work with you to figure out the best business model to fit your art,. We’re artists too, so we have seen how a well-thought out business approach can help your artistic vision and vice versa. When we work with you on a project, part of our job is to get you thinking that way too!

• Radical Business
  Radical business asks what might be possible if we removed ourselves from the current model of resigning to burnout and debt. Instead of fitting your art into an existing system, radical business creates a system in which your work is guaranteed to flourish. Radical business embraces new technologies, sustainability, grass roots invention, and anti-ephemeralism. It supports the artist’s ability to create work and to advance the form as a whole and pioneers sustainable systems that holistically support the entire ecology of the work and workers.

• Sustainability is Key
  We have no interest in quick fixes that will cost you more money down the line and we’ll never advise you to do something because it’s what you “should” be doing.  Instead, we start with the question of how to best support your specific work, in the present and the future. Sustainability is a governing principle across the work of A.O. PRO, the Urgent Artist, and the A.O. Movement Collective. We pride ourselves on forging new systems and experimental practices that make sense.

• Share the Knowledge
  PRO posts resources, templates, and discussions on our sister blog Urgent Artist so that we can share as much information as possible. We believe that a generosity with our knowledge and resources can only make the community stronger, smarter, and more evolved – we invite you to jump in and participate! Additionally, PRO hopes to offer both live and online classes and workshops – stay tuned for more info in 2013!

the PRO story

Director Sarah A.O. Rosner launched freelancing collective A.O. PRO(+ductions) in early 2009 as one third of her experimental A.O. Entity (A.O.³), a new model for dancemaking attempting to support the work, workers, and broader community.

Through the early stages of PRO, Rosner was able to generate income for herself, provide work to her performers in need of employment, and seek mentorship from select artists in exchange for bartered administrative work.

By 2010, PRO had transitioned away from the barter system and had drawn a growing group of freelancers to its expanding client list. After Rosner left her position as Manager of Engagement at New York Live Arts in 2012, PRO became a full-time endeavor, transitioning into its current model as a sustainability-focused small business serving NYC area artists and organizations.

Rosner currently runs PRO out of her Brooklyn home, working with her fantastic team of PRO freelancers to make the arts a more radically sustainable ecology. To learn more about Rosner and her other two entities, Urgent Artist and the A.O. Movement Collective, please click here.