In late 2011, a study titled Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change was released by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. The report cites statistics on the distribution of foundation funding nationally, explaining that 11 percent of all foundation funding—or $2.3 billion—goes to the arts, and that 55 percent of all foundation funding for the arts goes to just 50 organizations. It’s worth noting that there are an estimated 43,000 not-for-profit arts organizations in the country. From TCG’s research, we know that at least 1,800 of them are professional theatres.
While the study focuses primarily on foundation giving, it attempts to spotlight the unequal distribution of arts resources in a nation that is undergoing rapidly shifting demographics, and at the same time embracing emerging artistic traditions from Asia, Africa, Latin American and the Pacific Rim as well as an increasing range of hybrid forms.
What the numbers and this study don’t capture are the ways in which larger, well-supported organizations deploy financial, human and capital resources to benefit individual artists, smaller organizations and diverse communities—many of the ones defined as “marginalized” in the study.
These systems of mutual support often go unnoticed, but they are tremendously valuable. A new branch of this national conversation could well be one in which the relationships between larger, well-resourced institutions and their communities is explored. I think of the La Jolla Playhouse and its Resident Theatre Program, started under artistic director Christopher Ashley, through which a local company without a venue is selected for two productions each year in LJP’s performance space, rent free (see Strategies: “Biggies, Meet Smalls,” Nov. ’11). The selected companies—which have included the San Diego Asian American Repertory Theater, MOXIE Theatre, Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company and Eveoke Dance Theatre—receive sound and lighting support as well as marketing and fundraising advice. La Jolla Playhouse doesn’t receive any special grants in order to serve as home to those companies. It does it to share its bandwidth, and to support the larger cultural ecosystem.
There are also informal ways in which organizations bring resources to the wider community. The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, where I previously served as managing director, is an organization with a range of funding sources and a budget of more than $10 million—about 42 percent of that in contributed income annually. The theatre is fortunate to have a full-time music director, Victor Zupanc, who is constantly building relationships in the local and immigrant music communities. He regularly hires musicians from different backgrounds and traditions to compose music, make recordings and perform in productions. Victor once announced to me that “one of the world’s best Chinese pipa players lives in the Twin Cities, and no one knows it.” The next thing I knew, that pipa player was in the recording studio working on a composition for a production based on the story of the Monkey King.
Education directors in organizations of all sizes are often the greatest activists in supporting and engaging marginalized communities. TCG’s Theatre Facts 2010 report reveals that 2.5 million people are served by the 1,100 outreach and educational programs offered by 171 responding theatres. These programs include touring productions, artists-in-the-schools, teacher training, workshops and lectures in local community centers and libraries, internships for college students, special programs for at-risk children and lifelong learning opportunities.
Here at TCG, where diversity is a core value, the staff and board frequently discuss how to increase plurality in our field. For instance, there are only a few artistic directors of color at the helms of the nation’s largest theatre institutions. What is the right strategy to effect change in this area? We believe that at least one puzzle piece is the active development of a new generation of leaders of color, and finding ways to connect these talented individuals to the larger theatre community. Through funding partnerships with the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Joyce Foundation, TCG has launched such programs as its Young Leaders of Color initiative, which allows emerging practitioners to attend conferences, share ideas and network. Over time, this has also evolved to include an intergenerational leaders of color network.
Making change requires not only shared values but concrete strategies. We ought to be purposeful in encouraging interdependent relationships among diverse members of our expanding theatre landscape—relationships that allow a sharing of expertise, space, artists, audiences and other resources. Many of these relationships already exist on their own, but possibilities abound for even more to develop. It might also behoove the foundation community to be aware of the ways that connectivity can help different kinds of organizations to maximize their philanthropic dollars.
One outcome of a national conversation about philanthropic equity may be a shift toward more support going directly to groups currently defined as “marginalized.” But in a world where there is never enough funding, those who dispense the funds, as well as those who receive them, can also benefit by leveraging limited dollars in new and creative ways.
I’d be interested in learning of other examples, from TCG member theatres and from the performing arts community more generally, of this kind of institutional outreach and sharing of resources. In fact, perhaps we can share a 2012 resolution to nurture such relationships wherever they exist—and to create new ones. Happy New Year!
