Collaborative work organizations: How organizations with a focus on the arts, entrepreneurship, and creativity join forces toward more productive ends for all; Creative campuses: New models for thinking about higher education at the intersection of creativity and entrepreneurship; and New funding models: Innovative ways of funding arts-based businesses. Each of these themes reflects current research and practice at the intersection of the arts and business and is part of a larger movement toward thinking about deep connections across fields.

Artful.ly has allowed the group more control over its box office, rather than relying on a third-party to manage it, and offers a more detailed picture of its fans, which comes in handy when a patron inquires about buying up seats to an entire show for a private event. Now, she said, when she speaks to patrons, she knows if they have already donated to Third Rail Projects, or have come to see a show four times.

Just the description alone – “an experimental performance by Jessica Earley featuring hyperbole, puppetry, dance, awkwardness, honesty and video projections to tell a story about heartbreak and healing” – was enough to conjure images of the kind of experimental performance art that was all the rage 40-plus years ago, but too often earns eye-rolls from today’s cynical audiences. “Hyperbolic” seems like the last adjective one might apply to the demure Earley, who I previously knew mostly through her visual art and past collaborations with performance artist Brian Feldman.

FTA has also donated thousands of tickets to charities, underprivileged children and theater students, as well as more than $1.5 million in scholarships to theater students in the State of Florida. Most recently FTA has invested in a community spaces downtown called The Abbey and The Mezz, donating its use to charities and local arts groups, resulting in these groups raising more than $2 million for their respective organizations.

EIGHTY PERCENT OF ALL PROCEEDS GENERATED BY FTA STAYED WITHIN AND HELPED THE ORLANDO COMMUNITY.

Join me in helping make it happen for Pinocchio's Marionette Theatre - A Steampunk Beauty and the Beast on @indiegogo http://t.co/GOwZBJqw