BOOM Concepts is proud to announce that we have been chosen, along with six other organizations, to join the National Performance Network as a new partner organization. This marks the 1st time since 2016 that the National Performance Network added new partners. BOOM Concepts will represent Pittsburgh alongside long-time NPN partner, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and Rainbow Serpent, who was also chosen as one of the six newest organizations to join.
The National Performance Network, based in New Orleans, operates as a hybrid regranter, service organization, and movement builder, believing culture is a fulcrum of social change. The National Performance Network offers community building, knowledge exchange, resource sharing, and monetary investment to its partner organizations. They also support collaborative efforts within the network that is dedicated to advancing racial justice, supporting artists, and advocating for systemic change.
About the new growth of the network:
“At a time of very real and systematic attacks on equity and on the arts, NPN is clear-eyed about our choice to expand rather than contract. Our network has grown smaller over the years, as we’ve been intentional about keeping it at a more intimate scale to prioritize trust and experimentation with organizations fiercely committed to liberatory practices. Now, we are choosing to grow with purpose,” says NPN’s President & CEO Caitlin Strokosch.
This partnership brings support to our ongoing in-house programming that strategically helps advance the personal and professional practices of artists, which includes the BOOM Universe Residency program, BOOM AP3: Activist Print, which supports our temporary public art installations, and our professional & business development programming such as “Artists Taking Care of Artists.”
As part of our first NPN partner duties, we attended the NPN Annual Conference held in New Orleans, October 6th-9th, 2025. In the past, Pittsburgh hosted a previous Annual Conference with Kelly Strayhorn Theater, then led by Janera Solomon, as the host partner in 2018.
