IMG Artists has been an innovator in the arts and entertainment business over the last decade. With Barrett Wissman at the helm as its Chairman, the Company has transformed itself from its roots as a traditional management and agency business. Wissman bought a controlling interest in IMG Artists from IMG, the global entertainment powerhouse that has most recently joined forces with WME. IMG continues to own a minority stake in IMG Artists. The powerful international investor Alexander Shustorovich recently invested in IMG Artists, buying a major stake in the Company. Under Wissman’s and Shustorovich’s leadership, the Company has developed a global platform that has toured everything from Japanese drummers, global opera companies and dance troupes to the famed music producer David Foster and Friends.
Perhaps its strongest calling card however has been the development by Wissman of its unique festivals and events business. The Company has spawned a network of arts, entertainment and lifestyle festivals and events from the Napa Valley in California to Tuscany in Europe, Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and Singapore in Asia. These festivals have combined music, art, theater, film and food and wine into a unique expression of what the modern-day aesthetic of “the art of life” should be. Most recently, IMG Artists launched the Palm Springs Life Festival, which combined the classical arts with food and wine and fashion. Tying fashion into the equation was a first for Wissman and IMG Artists. They partnered with Palm Springs Life Magazine to further develop Fashion Week El Paseo and the overall Palm Springs Life offering into a multi-faceted month long event. Fashion Week El Paseo is already the largest fashion week on the West Coast and Wissman plans to help Palm Springs Life transform it into a real consumer-based alternative to the powerful fashion weeks in NY, Paris and Milan.