$6.9 million to grow arts audiences

News

The Wallace Foundation has announced a bunch of hefty four-year grants to help build audience participation in the arts across the Twin Cities. Mostly, it’s big grants ($750,000) to innovative, big organizations (M.I.A., MN Opera, MN Orchestra, Ordway, SPCO, MacPhail) planning trendy initiatives like “affinity group channels,” “social networking,” web 2.0,” “grassroots,” “media partnerships,” “Customer-Centered Approach,” etc. to chase “young audiences” with the definition for young varying from 20-39 for SPCO to 25-54 for MacPhail.

Interesting exceptions are Mixed Blood who received $300,000 to increase engagement with people from Latino and disabled communities, and Northern Clay Center who received $500,000 to actually target seniors 55 and older.

Trickle-down funding and benefits will come to the rest of us by way of $1.6 million given to the MN Community Foundation and Arts Midwest to create shared knowledge resources from collected data plus a small pool of project grant funds. Lastly, Minneapolis Public Schools got $750,00 for arts learning stuff.

The Wallace Foundation’s audience participation support is a city-based effort that focuses on different cities every year. This year the Twin Cities and Seattle join Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco who have received funding in the past.

Headshot of Leah Cooper
Leah Cooper

Leah Cooper is a freelance stage director, nonprofit administration consultant, co-founder of this here Web site, co-artistic director of Wonderlust Productions, and the Executive Director of the Minnesota Theater Alliance. She is also on the board of directors for Live Action Set and the California Institute of Contemporary Arts. From 2001 to 2006, she led the Minnesota Fringe Festival to annual attendance increases and financial stability. Up next, she is directing Shooting Star at Park Square Theatre and writing a play for Wonderlust's Adoption Play Project.