Folk Alliance International (FIA) will host its 37th annual Conference in Montreal from Feb. 19-23.
FIA is a non-profit organization based in Kansas City, MO. It produces an annual conference with changing locations across North America.
Every six years, it is held in Canada.
FAI directs advocacy, professional development, and networking activities.
It has a membership base of over 3,000 that includes record companies, publishers, presenters, agents, managers, music support services, manufacturers, and artists.
With the conference just around the corner, I thought it would be an appropriate time to speak to Jennifer Roe, current executive director of the organization.
She was appointed to the role in April 2024.
Started her career as as a political staffer
Jennifer began her career in Washington, D.C. where she worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and also in other roles in the public service.
She even spent time working on a presidential campaign. After returning to her roots in Kansas City, she worked with individuals with disabilities, then established an administrative services business, which included work for FAI.
Jennifer joined the FAI team full-time in 2013.
For over 10 years she led FAI staff and contractors in overseeing the day-to-day operations.
The first question I had for Jennifer was about how she come to the organization and what her background and interests had previously been in folk music.
Didn’t start out as a folkie
Though now clearly an old-hand and passionate advocate for
the folk music community, she very honestly admitted that prior to walking in the door, she didn’t really know what folk music was, and that she was most likely to think of it as protest music from the 1960s.
But she quickly added that it didn’t take her very long to fall in love with the community because, as she said, “it’s an amazing group of individuals who are passionate about the music.”
Her job as she sees it is to help the community with their passion and to help it grow.
I then asked her to dig a little bit deeper on what the job entails, what the day-to-day is like. She laughed and said that that morning she had spent time rummaging around their storage unit searching for banners and then took a trip to the recycling bin.
More seriously, she said that much of her role and the focus of the organization is finding and nurturing connections both within our community and outside of it, especially in the preforming
arts.
Networking with other arts organizations
For example, she recently attended a meeting in New York City hosted by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. There she spoke to other executive directors of arts organizations to learn more about how they navigate their world, and how they most effectively work with staff and address the needs of their memberships. Put differently, although the art forms may differ, many of the challenges are the same.
On the issue of navigating the concerns of the membership, she pointed to the importance of listening to what people are saying, even if it’s impossible to please everyone all the time.
With over 3,000 members, opinions abound about the direction of the organization; making sure people feel heard is an essential task of an executive director.
One area in which there is no shortage of input from the membership is on programming for the conference. As much as it is essential that artists have ample opportunity to showcase their talent and that talent buyers have a chance to hear new music, other activities that engage the interests of all sorts of attendees are also important.
Challenges facing the folk community
Along with 175 official showcase performances, FAI has confirmed 125 other events including the third annual Black American Music Summit, a Discussion of Music in Time of War, a panel on building music museums, and a Local 1,000 Town Hall.
As Jennifer points out, artists need to be supported but the membership wants to learn. FAI is aware of the need to strike that balance. She adds that input on the conference program is always coming in, and they try to be agile enough to respond.
On challenges ahead, FAI is still dealing with the after-effects of COVID and the instability that created. In addition, key public policy issues are always arising, but especially now, on concerns like immigration, border crossing, work visas, crossing international borders with product, and arts funding.
Though arts organizations can’t fully know what a changing landscape might look like, they can pool their knowledge to better prepare, something that FAI is always doing.
On the issues of arts funding, Jennifer notes that it is important to diversify revenue streams as the stability of government funding can’t be guaranteed.
Looking forward to the Montreal conference
On opportunities ahead, FAI has nine full-time positions, with seven staff in new positions. That means new perspectives, new energy, and the dynamism that can come with assuming new roles.
Here it should be said that FAI is more than just a conference as it has programs and activities year-round.
Jennifer also spoke about the excitement that comes with educating people about what folk music is, in particular when they might actually present or perform folk music but not realize they are a part of our community.
As she said, “I want artists to say, “I do folk music, and for artists and presenters to know what that really means, so we can really build up the brand.”
I asked her what about the Montreal FAI conference excited her.
She said that she gets joy out of seeing people enjoy the conference, seeing staff confident in what they are doing, and seeing attendees excited by programming.
With regard to Canada and its place in the Folk Alliance International, Jennifer notes that there has always been a significant Canadian membership and that Canada is a great partner for FAI.
She pointed to the recent transformation of Folk Music Ontario into Folk Music Canada and the belief that this will create exciting opportunities to work together.
Next week we’ll take a more detailed look at the programming for the FAI conference in Montreal.
