Bill Bragin
Bill Bragin is the founding Executive Artistic Director of The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, a “game-changer” (The National) since it began its programmes in 2015. Under his leadership, The Arts Center is a winner of the 2018 and 2019 Pride of Abu Dhabi Award, and Bill has been a finalist twice for Abu Dhabi AmCham's Falcon Individual Award for Excellence.
He is a co-founder of globalFEST, 2018 winner of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence. Previous activities include serving as Director of Public Programming of NY’s Lincoln Center, Director of Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, as well as roles at Symphony Space, NYNO Records, Central Park SummerStage, and George Wein's Festival Productions, Inc.
Bill Bragin serves as a curatorial advisor for the Spark & Fire podcast and previously as music advisor for the TED Conferences. He has served as a jury member, advisor, or speaker for acclaimed conferences and organizations including the International Society of the Performing Arts, WOMEX, CenterStage US, Pan African Creative Exchange, Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, MAP Fund, Arts International, National Endowment for the Arts, Performing Arts Market Seoul, and Porto Musical, among others. As “Acidophilus”, he has DJed internationally as part of GlobeSonic Sound System.
@NYUADArtsCenter
Q&A
Q: When did you know that working in the creative sector was going to be the right fit for you?
I always trace my tendency to impose my taste on my friends back to middle school. I'd have friends over, play a new record I just heard and make them listen to it. Then, before it was done, I'd pick another record I wanted to share. I basically do this for a living now, but with strangers, and more kinds of arts. Sharing performing arts which move me, with fandom at the base. My father is a professional musician and music educator, and my mother an amateur musician, so thankfully, they have always supported this passion, since it came from them.
Q: Did you go to university, and if so what did you study?
I went to Haverford College, a small liberal arts college not so different from NYU Abu Dhabi. I studied sociology, which I think deeply influences how I think about my work, and co-ran the concert series, and worked on the campus radio station, which I see as my professional training, alongside key summer internships.
Q: What was your first ever job?
I repackaged chocolate bars that were sold by school bands and sports teams for fundraising, to put it in clean new boxes, and helped the business owner transfer cartons of inventory to his son who lived in another city. We'd meet in a parking lot and I was very good at fitting as many cartons as possible in the trunk.
Q: Do you have any quirky habits that have proved relevant to your work?
I am self-defined ADHD - which means I multi-task relentlessly, consume a lot of information, think laterally and synthesize - I don't think of it as a limitation, but the key to my creativity and my ability to programme a lot of different kinds of works. It really came in handy when I booked about 500 shows a year at a nightclub. I work with people who are much more methodical than me, and who are good with the details that I don't focus on, as my coping mechanism, rather than medicating.
Q: Most inspiring moment in your career, or person you have worked with?
I have so so so so many. I had a styrofoam Elvis Costello centerpiece at my bar mitzvah. So when I started presenting shows with him, and then he once called me personally on the phone to invite me to a show, that was mind-blowing. I've presented some shows with Pete Townshend from The Who, including the first (and I think only) time he and Lou Reed ever collaborated. That was another mindblower. I was talking to him backstage once, and he called David Bowie over to join a conversation. These were all artists whose posters were on my bedroom wall growing up.
Q: Any tips for submitting an application or succeeding in an interview?
Authenticity is key. Try to really know the place you're applying to, and make a personal case for why you want to specifically be a part of the team. And never talk about it as a step to the job after. Long term 5-10 year plans are fine, but I want to know why you want to work with us, and stay with us, and not how we're just a launching pad to the next role.
Q: Most underappreciated role in the creative sector?
The curator / programmer (smile)
Q: What are the unique selling points about living and working in the UAE?
We come with diversity as a starting point, not something to be afraid of. You are always with people whose lived experience is different from yours. It's an incredibly rich way to live in the world.
