WEA Engagement Projects

Six years ago, building on two decades of work on expanding audiences for the arts, The Wallace Foundation and a group of partners embarked on a series of experiments in audience-building. Over the course of three years the Foundation awarded grants to 54 arts institutions in six cities, each of whom were judged to demonstrate a high standard of artistic quality and interesting ideas for trying out ways to reach new audiences or deepen relationships with current audiences. Those projects in audience-building, which were accompanied by grants to technical advisers to help measure effects, happened at a critical time in the arts — a time when there are signs of audiences’ growing appetite for deeper engagement.

These projects and their experiments are the inspiration for this week’s Lead or Follow ArtsJournal debate, experiences that we hope will add texture and insight to a discussion that is happening all over the country.

Below are the original descriptions for the 54 projects. Many of them have changed during implementation. We have asked representatives of these organizations to join this week’s conversation, explain how the projects evolved, and, most importantly, share any emerging lessons. On another page, you will be able to delve in depth into four of these projects through a set of four case studies developed by an independent research team. These are the first of a set of research studies designed to make the lessons generated by Wallace’s partners accessible to a broad audience.

Boston (2006)

Boston Lyric Opera	Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum	Institute of Contemporary Art
Huntington Theatre	From the Top	Museum of Fine Arts
Boston Symphony

Chicago (2006)

Merit School of Music	Hyde Park Art Center	Music of the Baroque
Black Ensemble Theatre	Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance	Steppenwolf Theatre
Beverly Art Center	Chicago Sinfonietta	Victory Gardens Theater

Philadelphia (2007)

Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia	Fleisher Art Memorial	Wilma Theater
Philadelphia Orchestra	Philadelphia Theatre Company	Arden Theatre Company
Opera Company of Philadelphia	Clay Studio	Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

San Francisco (2007)

World Arts West	San Francisco Opera	SF Jazz
SFMoMA	San Francisco Girls Chorus	Yerba Buena Center
Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet	Center for Asian American Media	Contemporary Jewish Museum
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco	OCD/San Francisco

Minnesota (2007)

Mixed Blood Theatre	Minnesota Opera	Northern Clay Center
Minnesota Orchestra	Ordway Center	Contemporary Jewish Museum
Macphail Center for Music	St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

Seattle (2008)

Seattle Repertory Theatre	One Reel	Experience Music Project \| Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
Pacific Northwest Ballet	SIFF	Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras	Seattle Opera	On the Boards