Colleen Jennings Roggensack Named APAP Arts Champion Award Recipient
On January 12, 2026, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, ASU Vice President for Cultural Affairs and Executive Director of ASU Gammage, was awarded the 2026 Association of Performing Arts Professions (APAP) Arts Champion Award.
This award honors an individual, family or foundation whose leadership, philanthropy and commitment have made a lasting impact on the performing arts field. Since the beginning of her career in the arts, Jennings-Roggensack has led with a clear sense of purpose, grounded in what she describes as a simple but powerful mission: Connecting Communities™. Under her leadership, ASU Gammage has emerged as a national model for innovation in arts presenting, community engagement and access. After receiving the award at the APAP conference in New York City, Jennings-Roggensack reflected on the theme of moving from scarcity to abundance, a concept she described as deeply personal and essential to the future of the arts. “We all know scarcity,” she said. “We feel its pain. But what is abundance? You are abundance. My tribe is abundance.”
She spoke of the performing arts community as a living ecosystem, abundant with artists who continue to create visionary work, with producers, managers, and agents who support those artists, and with presenters who connect art to the communities they serve. “This tribe,” she said, “is what will get us through, over, around, and under scarcity.”
Jennings-Roggensack also highlighted the importance of mentorship and community, acknowledging those who came before her and those just beginning their careers. She offered a special welcome to first time conference attendees, reminding them that belonging is a defining strength of the field. “You belong here,” she told them. “Not just today, but for the rest of your lives. We will be with you.”
Her remarks returned repeatedly to the idea of shared purpose. She described her lifelong practice of asking three questions: What do you want? What do I want? And what do we want together? “What we want together,” she expressed, “is the sweet spot. That is abundance.”
Jennings-Roggensack closed by offering her own definition of leadership, one rooted in service and trust. When a community faces a challenge, she explained, leadership begins when someone raises their hand and says, “I can help,” and the community responds, “We will let you.”
Jennings-Roggensack embodies the spirit of the APAP Arts Champion Award, through her visionary leadership, philanthropic advocacy and deep commitment to community. Her work affirms that the future of the performing arts is built not only through institutions and programming, but through people, generosity and the courage to lead together.
Congratulations to Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, 2026 APAP Arts Champion Award recipient.
