Calling All Venues

Barbara “Mother” Hubbard’s quest to teach young, inquiring minds about the business side of the music industry has reached critical mass: plenty of interested students, but not enough venues to put them to work in.

Hubbard is looking for facilities willing to accept summer interns from her American Collegiate Talent Showcase (ACTS) scholarship program, which gives students hands-on training in areas including tour accounting, merchandising, marketing, hospitality services and production management.

ACTS started out as a precursor of “Star Search” or “American Idol” in the late 1970s, with Bob Hope lending a hand to give aspiring performers their shot at the big time. Since then, the program has become an outlet for college students around the nation to get practical experience outside of a classroom.

“We take young people that want to get into the business behind the stage now,” Hubbard told Pollstar. “It’s not that I don’t help [those who want to perform]. I’ve got tapes rolling in to me all the time [from people] trying to get into the business. But it’s not just performers. They’ve got to have a passion for it.

“If we’re going to offer more internships, we need to have more venues aware of the fact that these kids are out there ready to go to work.”

Those who have been to the Concert Industry Consortium may have noticed an army of student volunteers in various areas, which is the result of Hubbard’s vision. The main venue where interns are currently being placed is Magic Springs Theme Park in Hot Springs, Ark., where Hubbard books the concert season. Park officials are also pitching in to help scholarship funding through reserve seating.

“At the park, there are 1,006 seats and there’s a $5 reserve that we use to offset some of the costs of the kids,” Hubbard explained.

“Each venue that I book that lets me do interns, I would charge them 5 percent of the face value of the contract. That way, we put it into the scholarship fund. Part of my contract is that I travel three times to the park just to be sure the students are doing all right and everything’s fine.

“If they need or have a position they can put an intern in, I guarantee I can probably find them one.”

Hubbard can be reached by phone at 505-524-4418 and by e-mail at motherhubbard@zianet.com.

— Tina Amendola