Past investment: 1999-2006
The issue…
Arts and cultural organizations are reaching out to greater numbers of people to participate in their programs and offerings. However they often lack access to the most promising practices and models used by successful institutions in building participation. As a result, they can spend scarce human and financial resources on programs that don't work well. These arts groups need a way of understanding what motivates and prompts participation, and examples of proven strategies and practices that can diversify, broaden and deepen relationships with their communities.
The response…
The Wallace Foundation's Leadership and Excellence in Arts Participation (LEAP) program built on a decade of Foundation experience in Identifying and supporting exemplary arts and cultural institutions that put people at the center of their work. In committing equally to the quality of the art and to audience needs and interests, LEAP grantees discovered that visitors become more fully engaged in the arts institutions' programs and work.
The strategies…
Wallace provided multi-year grants to arts and cultural groups that best exemplified how to build participation in their communities and that, as a result, provided knowledge and leadership for others. The organizations encouraged cultural participation by expanding public programs, marketing efforts and outreach activities, and by sharing knowledge to encourage an appreciation among peer institutions of people-centered work.
The accomplishments...
The Wallace Foundation invested nearly $44 million in direct grants to 60 organizations in different regions of the country. As a result, museums, performing arts organizations, literary groups and community arts centers developed and tested a range of strategies to bring the arts to more people, pioneering changes in everything from programming to ticket pricing and methods of engaging young people:
- Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. refined its ticket research to restructure prices, and, in a move similar to how airlines use varying pricing to attract different groups of travelers, it decided to adjust ticket prices to attract varying theater-goers. The result was that Arena increased ticket income by more than $750,000 during the 2000/2001 season, allowing it to reduce prices for seniors.
- In Minneapolis, Walker Art Center's Teen Arts Council, which was refined during the LEAP initiative, selects, organizes and promotes programs, thereby influencing museum areas ranging from visual and performing arts to film and new media. This body was so useful to the museum that when galleries were closed for a major renovation and the museum wanted to continue offering arts experiences for museum-goers, the Teen Council worked with nine Minnesota artists to create interactive installations in the Walker's Sculpture Garden.
- Because most of its events are free and open to the public, Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles has always operated under severe cash flow constraints. With $150,000 of a 1999 Wallace grant, the group was able to create its first cash reserve. The theater went on to grow its cash reserve to more than $270,000, plus amass an endowment fund of more than $675,000, a significant accomplishment for a community-minded theater with an annual operating budget of just over $1.5 million.
While it is difficult to say which of their participation-building strategies worked best, grantees succeeded in widening participation in their cultural endeavors: overall, their audiences grew larger, in many cases outpacing audience gains for theaters and museums nationally.
Publications
The following Wallace publications describe some of the innovations in participation-building developed by LEAP grantees:
- Redefining the Asia Society: Working in partnership with local and grassroots organizations, the Asia Society offers artistic, cultural and political events as a way to bring diverse communities together.
- AS220: The Art Community in Providence Where All Are Welcome: AS220 is an egalitarian enterprise where art, music, food and community building go hand in hand.
- Pittsburgh Ballet Theater: New Work, New Audiences, New Expectations: Pittsburgh Ballet Theater's innovative production, Indigo in Motion, attracts new audiences with a blend of Pittsburgh's jazz heritage and classical ballet.
- The Loft Literary Center: Developing Audiences for Literature: The Loft, in Minneapolis, offers creative writing, spoken word events, residencies, music, book clubs, screenwriting, mentoring, readings and more to develop and sustain audiences for literature.
- Going Toward the Light: Philadelphia's Village of Arts and Humanities offers a unique blend of neighborhood development, creative arts, festivals and more to help rebuild a North Philadelphia community.
- A Place of Their Own: Teens Make Programs Come Alive at the Walker Art Center: Through an outreach program that serves as a model for America's cultural institutions, Walker Art Center provides Minneapolis-area teens with creative opportunities.
- Something Old, Something New: In galleries filled with masterpieces and parks brightened by children's murals, Houston's Museum of Fine Arts brings art to the people - and people to the arts.
- Bringing Back Life to the Lady: Curators, staff and leaders at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston are meeting the unique challenge of keeping new life flowing through a world-renowned, historic collection that can never be altered.
- From Bethlehem Steelworkers to LA's Finest, Involving the Community Takes a Dramatic Turn: Using original works and contemporary adaptations of classics, the Los Angeles-based Cornerstone Theater Company reaches and engages non-traditional theater audiences around the nation.
- "Kickin' It with the Old Masters" at the Baltimore Museum of Art: A year-long, multi-layered project transforms a venerable museum's traditional way of presenting exhibitions.
- The Cleveland Museum Of Art: Mummies, Knights and a Cleveland Indian: Enlisting former Cleveland Indians Manager Mike Hargrove to host a video tour of its permanent collection is only one of a number of ways that the Cleveland Museum of Art seeks to bring in new audiences.
- Dance That Matters: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange: Choreographer Lerman's remarkable Dance Exchange has brought new vision to towns and cities across America, through participatory events that move all kinds of people - from shipyard workers to museum tour guides - to dance.