Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We're an artist management agency that takes a holistic, strategic approach to creative careers. In practice, that means we do the work that would typically require hiring a PR company, a booking agency, a design firm, and an artist representation firm. 

The traditional management model was built by gatekeeping, opaque "pay-to-play" tactics, and a systemic reliance on underpaid creative labor. Ballpark is a deliberate rejection of the exploitative norms that have historically governed the arts and music industries.

Our approach is built on a foundation of respect and transparency, guided by these three pillars:

• Systemic Equity: We’ve replaced the industry’s history of exploitation with a commitment to fair compensation. By valuing creative labor of our artists and our team, we make sure that success isn’t built on someone else’s loss.

• Radical Transparency: In a landscape of bribes and hidden incentives, we choose absolute clarity. Our flat-fee model removes the conflict of interest inherent in commission-based management; our advice is based on your career and not our bottom line. 

• Artist Advocacy: We aren't here to extract value from your work; we’re here to protect it. As a woman-owned business, we advocate for a future where fairness and respect are the standard, not the exception.

Beyond our ethics, we provide a unified infrastructure by bringing together traditionally siloed services under one roof. By integrating PR, booking, design, strategy, and social media into a single ecosystem, we eliminate the "middleman tax" and keep every effort synchronized. This approach transforms fragmented tasks into a unified strategy. The result is a clear path forward where your creative vision and business execution stay in total alignment.

It means we came up the same way most of our clients did: by building something from the ground up through a lot of trial, error, and persistence. We started by drawing our own flyers, booking shows with ten person turnouts, sending cold emails, and figuring it out on the fly. Today, that translates to a culture that is resourceful, efficient, and intentionally scrappy. We aren’t afraid of a steep learning curve or a new challenge; we move quickly and focus on what actually works rather than how things "should" be done.

We also advocate for fair compensation as a matter of principle, not just practice. In an industry where creative labor is often undervalued, we’ve built a model that prioritizes equity. Our flat fee pricing model is a deliberate rejection of industry exploitation. Paying our team of working creatives fairly is what allows us to provide the kind of dedicated, high-impact support that traditional agency structures cannot match.

For us, DIY isn't just about how we started; it’s about a direct, honest way of doing business that and prioritizes fair pay for labor.

Ballpark started as a DIY booking operation embedded in the Long Island music and arts scene. In 2024, we started booking shows, making posters, connecting artists with opportunities, and advocating for a scene that deserved better. Long before we were a management agency, we started as artists and organizers who were already doing the work, and built the business around that foundation.

Our team is made up of working musicians and artists who understand the industry from the inside. Ballpark founder, Basia Kurlender, has been booking shows since 2017, starting as General Manager of WPIR Pratt Radio and going on to work as a designer at Baby's All Right, one of Brooklyn's most beloved independent venues. She brings formal fine arts training, years of experience as a working artist, and a design studio trusted by brands like Nike, Snapchat, and Patreon. 

As an organization, we've produced more than thirty live events, earned a grant from Suffolk County, and built lasting partnerships with libraries, nature preserves, cultural nonprofits, and institutions including Museum of Contemporary Art Long Island, Sweetbriar Nature Center, Plaza Cinema & Media Arts Center, and the Village of Patchogue — as well as national brands like D'Addario and Bitchin' Sauce.

Our clients are musicians, bands, visual artists, and multidisciplinary creatives across genres and career stages. Despite the wide range of medium, what our artists have in common is a commitment to ethics, a seriousness about their work, a willingness to collaborate, and a readiness to invest in where their career is going.

For a full list of current clients, please see our Roster section.

Yes!!! We love working with visual artists and musicians.

We work with creatives making work across a wide range of genres, styles, and mediums. We've worked with heavy screamo bands and folk artists, illustrators and visual artists with wildly different aesthetics, and other practitioners who don't fit neatly into any category. Genre and medium matter less than the quality of the work and the character of the person behind it. If you're making something with a defined perspective and you want to grow, we want to hear from you.

Yes! If you make things and want to build a career around it, we're here to help.

Our systems are designed to flex across disciplines because the underlying work of pitching, strategy, and campaign-building translates. The way we approach a press campaign for a record isn't so different from how we approach one for an exhibition or a body of work. We love new challenges!

Yes! We're experienced with working with individuals and groups. For the groups, we work with whoever the designated point of contact is, or communicate with the full band or team, depending on what works best for everyone involved.

We have close relationships across press, radio, venues, labels, galleries, promoters, and playlist curators that have been built over years of showing up and doing good work. Once we're working together, we're happy to speak to what's relevant for your specific situation.

We can work within whatever team is already around you, coordinating with your publicist, your label, your booking agent, your gallery rep. We can also step in and do that work ourselves, which is significantly more affordable for many artists. We're not precious about which model works best. We figure out what actually serves the artist and go from there.

A booking agent gets you shows and exhibition opportunities. A publicist gets you press. An artist rep handles licensing, deals, and career-level negotiation. A manager* oversees all of those things. Managers operate at the strategy level. 

* Ballpark is different than traditional management. We are built on the strategizing core of the traditional manager, but we also offer many additional services (full list here). We also offer booking agent, publicist, and artists rep services!

Here's how we think about it:

You're walking your path. As you carve into the earth — your work, your vision, your future — we walk directly in front of you, clearing the sticks and rocks and pushing away the overgrown brush. We do not change the path, but we make it easier to walk. Basically, we take on the operational and organizational weight so you can stay focused on being creative and growing as an artist.

The other thing a manager provides is perspective. When you're inside your own career, seeing it clearly is hard. We zoom out, identify what's working, spot what's being missed, and help build a real roadmap instead of a to-do list.

You shape your path. We help make the road a little easier to walk.

A few honest indicators: 

• You're making work consistently and have a foundation to build upon.

• The business side of your career is starting to compete with the creative side for your attention.

• You have goals but aren't sure how to sequence them.

• You've hit a ceiling doing it alone and aren't totally sure why.

• You are excited about collaborating with a partner on next strategic steps

If this sounds like you, let's explore the next step! Check out our Artist Management Application.

Most artists are incredibly good at making work and incredibly under-supported when it comes to everything around it, like the positioning, the timing, the outreach, the decisions about where to focus energy and when. Without a clear strategy, even great work can go unnoticed, opportunities get missed, and careers stall not because the art isn't there but because the infrastructure isn't.

Ballpark provides the structural framework required to navigate both long-term career planning and the high-stakes execution of specific project milestones. Whether we build a phased roadmap for a major launch or identify which paths quietly drain your capacity, our focus is on sustainable growth. Our objective is to ensure that every action taken is a deliberate step toward a larger professional goal.

Because we believe that serious artists at every budget deserve access to services & support.

Our tiers are structured so that the scope of work scales with what an artist can invest, but the quality of attention and advocacy stays consistent across the board.

We also keep our rates as accessible as we can, because we know that hiring a management team is a real financial decision. More artists being able to access real help is something we care about deeply. The tier system is how we make that possible.

We're thoughtful about who we take on, so we've built a process that gives both sides the opportunity to evaluate the fit. Here's what to expect:

Application: A brief look at your work, your goals, and what you're looking for in a management relationship. Our application cycle opens a few times a year.

First Interview: A conversation to get to know each other and assess fit.

Second Interview: A deeper conversation about your work, your trajectory, and how we'd work together.

Acceptance: If we decide to move forward, we'll outline the scope of our engagement and send over an agreement.

Some body of work that represents where you are and where you want to go. A sense of your goals, even if they're not fully formed. A readiness to collaborate, to bring your vision, and to trust us to help shape the strategy around your practice.

You don't need everything figured out! Come with your vision and we'll help build the strategy around it.

Very, and we think that's a good thing for everyone. We work across career stages and disciplines, but what drives every decision is fit, genuine belief in the work, and confidence that we can make a real difference. We're looking for artists with a well-defined perspective and a real openness to collaboration.

What we look for are artists who bring us their vision and want a true thought partner helping shape the strategy around it. 

Our team reviews every application carefully and we're grateful for every submission. If you haven't heard from us, it's most likely a matter of timing or roster capacity rather than a reflection of your work. We're a small team with a selective roster, and fit is everything. Sometimes the timing just isn't right. We'd encourage you to reapply when you have a new project on the horizon.