When not checking out arts festivals from Mexico City to Santiago de Chile, Chase Latino Cultural Festival artistic director Claudia Norman might be found in the melting pot of the Flushing-bound 7 train, chatting up fellow subway goers. “I’m like the Avon Lady,” Norman laughs. “I go up to folks and ask in Spanish who their favorite groups are and why. Then I see if the groups are a good fit for the Festival. It’s intuition.” Sometimes Norman—who produces the festival for the Queens Theatre in the Park—has gotten more than a hunch about who would be perfect for next year’s line up while riding the rails; she’s discovered promising unknown musicians.

Melding an anthropologist’s feel for cultural context and a marketer’s shrewd grasp on the arts world, a new generation of community-oriented curators has emerged on New York’s burgeoning global music scene. These pioneers are forging novel paths between established arts institutions and diverse ethnic communities. Using guerilla booking and marketing tactics alongside standard approaches to finding compelling artists, curators like Norman are developing cross-cultural audiences and bridging the gap for new global voices to enter the mainstream.

Norman, originally from Mexico, did not start out combing public transport for tips and acts. Trained in arts administration, what Norman calls “my introduction to the U.S. performing arts,” and taken under the wing of respected arts manager Sheldon Soffer, Norman soon learned the commercial and aesthetic ropes of the business. One day, while working for Soffer, Norman got a call from Queens Theatre in the Park’s Executive Director Jeff Rosenstock who was searching for Latin American performers for a new festival. Norman recommended artists both on and off her roster. Before long, Rosenstock was inviting Norman on board as Festival artistic director.

A foundation in the business of the professional arts is a common thread joining the new generation of community-oriented curators who cut their teeth at more mainstream organizations or firms. Another young curator working with Queens Theatre in the Park, Vivian Chiu, worked for Shen Wei Dance Arts for several years before becoming artistic director of the Theatre’s Asian Cultural Festival.

When Norman took the artistic reins of the Latino Festival, one of the central balances she had to strike was how to attract Latinos from the neighborhoods surrounding the Theatre while taking the Festival to the next artistic level. Norman went about forging a new way to reach out to the community. The Festival’s original advisory committee was very dedicated, but did not always agree or know which artists would be likely to sell tickets. “They all had their own favorites,” Norman explains, “but sometimes the groups would show up late or have no materials.” A change in artistic direction caused tension with some community leaders, but Norman stuck to her guns.

Norman and her fellow curators often play the delicate role of being both advocates of ethnic culture and arbiters of taste. Chiu faced just such a challenge in the Asian community. A young woman, she had to win the confidence of community leaders, predominantly older males, who were eager to support traditional artists rather than the younger, hipper acts Chiu had in mind. In the end, both Norman and Chiu won over community skeptics, in no small part thanks to the success of their programming and their unflagging diplomacy.

While carefully navigating community politics, Norman came up with a new vision for the Festival: inviting icons of Latin American performance who would appeal across cultural lines due to their talent and presence yet resonate with community members. Much of the potential audience was hardworking immigrants trying to make their way in the city who didn’t think of themselves as theatergoers. To Norman’s surprise, when she began handing out festival flyers right in front of Queens Theatre in the Park, the men and women sitting on a wall outside had no idea they were in the shadow of a theater, eager to attract them with targeted programming and reasonable ticket prices.

While Norman’s mainstream arts experience guided the creation of a high-quality festival, her ethnographer’s instincts led her to discover new ways to connect with the community beyond the advisory board. When Afro-Peruvian diva Susana Baca began wooing audiences worldwide, Norman was considering booking her. “I went to a meeting of the Peruvian Society and told them I had great news and that we were going to present Susana Baca,” Norman recalls. “They said ‘Susana who?’ They had never heard of her and insisted that if I really wanted someone special, I should get Eva Ayllón,” who had never performed outside the Peruvian community in the U.S. After a wildly successful Festival appearance, Ayllón was soon picked up by other presenters, much to Norman’s delight.

Norman has gone beyond providing a venue for established but unsung international artists from Latin America; she has helped cultivate new local talent and give them a professional leg up. “I saw a Norteño group from Mexico, putting on their hats and boots on the subway and getting ready to play. I approached them and asked them if they were going to perform. They said they were, but that they had to avoid the police as they didn’t have a permit,” Norman explains. “I advocated bringing these subway musicians to perform. We gave them a formal platform to develop their career, including press kits and photos. They have since been booked by Lincoln Center and Celebrate Brooklyn.”

Along with this grassroots approach, Norman and her fellow curators find inspiration in far-flung places where performers new to the U.S. can be fully appreciated on their home turf. For Norman, this is one of her favorite aspects of her job: sharing the thrill she gets from live performances and bringing them back to New York for others to savor. "I was in Bogotá watching this concert and seeing thousands of people singing and dancing and adoring this amazing woman, the Afro-Colombia singer Petrona Martinez. And I was adoring her in just the same way,” Norman smiles. “I knew I had to capture this and take it back home with me, by bringing this artist to Queens." Though Martinez was new to U.S. concert goers, including many Colombians, they packed the Theatre: “The Colombians who came loved it. It was something totally new for them, and that’s important.”

Audience response is vital to community-oriented curators like Norman and Chiu, which is why Norman happily gives her email out to audience members. And when something new works, they find ways to keep connecting with theatergoers. When Ayllón brought down the house, Norman enthusiastically found other Afro-Peruvian artists who continue or transform the tradition, such as Grupo Afroperuano Caracumbe and singer Corina Bartra , both featured at this year’s Festival. Petrona Martinez led Norman to another traditional, although radically different Afro-Colombian group, Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto. Or after a sold-out opening night Chiu put together of Asian-American Broadway performers, she made sure to feature a cabaret performance in a similar spirit the next year.

In an era of expanding horizons, community-oriented curators balance cultural gatekeeping with community dialoguing. At the heart of their work is sharing the inspiration and joy they feel at a good performance in new spaces and contexts, with new audiences. “By sharing you gain more. That’s my spirit,” Norman feels.

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