Center Stage ran for 8 seasons, beginning in 2012 & concluding in 2025

This program concluded in November 2025. It was among the most successful programs to bring contemporary international performing artists into direct contact with people across a wide range of U.S. communities and to share these experiences globally. 

Center Stage was a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, produced by the New England Foundation for the Arts, with general management by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.

Since 2012, Center Stage toured 337 artists in 47 music, dance, and theater ensembles from coast to coast, hosted by colleges and universities, festivals, and music clubs. 33 of these ensembles made their U.S. debuts with Center Stage. 

Each independent, month-long tour included residencies in large cities and small towns, and a range of activities from performances, workshops, and discussions, to artist jams, master classes, and community gatherings.

Center Stage identified, prepared, and toured young, excellent, contemporary professional performing arts groups from abroad to professional American performing arts venues, and under the same conditions, and with the same expectations for engagement as the many other world-class performing arts groups that populate American stages.

Center Stage experiences in the U.S. were shared in the artists’ home countries through dynamic and social and traditional media components that included direct reporting by professional journalists from Center Stage countries.

The program’s significant impacts, and the sustained relationships it fostered, serve professional artists, journalists, participating embassies and their in-country constituents, and American audiences, students, professionals, and community members.

Center Stage was made possible in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, and with support from the Asian Cultural Council, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Luce Foundation, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Additional funding had been provided by the Embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Yerevan, Armenia; Cairo, Egypt; Rabat, Morocco; and Islamabad, Pakistan. General management was provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.