MOST RECENT
The Howard Gilman Foundation is one of New York City’s most important performing arts funders. We talked with President and CEO Laura Aden Packer about her career path, the health of the city’s arts ecosystem, and more.
Like all the performing arts, theater has been hit hard by the pandemic, and funders are making moves to bolster the nonprofit theater world now and into the future. Here’s our rundown of who’s doing what.
A $150 million gift from David Geffen will make Yale University’s drama school tuition-free. We look at how free graduate school may be the next frontier for donors concerned about accessibility at elite schools.
Performance spaces have been closed for over a year now, and it remains unclear when reliable revenue from ticket sales will return. We check in with theater fundraisers on how they’ve adapted during COVID, and their plans for the future.
Over the summer, a coalition of BIPOC theater professionals published a list of demands to make the field more equitable, under the banner “We See You, White American Theatre.” Are grantmakers rising to the challenge?
An IP survey found that performing arts professionals were skeptical about grantmakers’ efforts at reform. But all hope is not lost. Foundations and regranting organizations share how they are fast-tracking democratization efforts.
The pandemic has devastated the nation’s school theater programs, which rely heavily on ticketed revenue. We check in with Educational Theatre Association’s Julie Cohen Theobald to discuss philanthropy’s role in the path forward.
A new report finds that giving to performing arts organizations fell precipitously in the first nine months of 2020. We explore the pandemic-related dynamics fueling the decline and ask professionals how fundraisers can reverse this trend.
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC created a COVID-19 relief fund for its actors using emergency grants and converted program funds. Executive Director Meggan Gomez tells us how they did it and how funders can advance equity.
Forced closures and reduced attendance mean museums and performing arts groups are losing the bulk of their income. They’ll need to lean heavily on fundraising to survive—and get creative about it.
As arts funders and nonprofits scramble to stem the impact of COVID-19, many are already looking beyond the pandemic to address glaring structural and operational weaknesses across the arts sector. What might the future hold?
Amid a historic wealth transfer, next-gen donors are poised to make their mark on the fast-changing world of arts philanthropy. But what, exactly, do they expect from institutions? And what will it really take to attract their funding?
Conventional wisdom suggests corporate funders aren’t all that interested in supporting the performing arts. So why did Bank of America provide an infusion of funding for an innovative theater grants program?
Five years ago, the Wallace Foundation began a $52 million initiative to help performing arts organizations attract and retain new audiences. We check in on one grantee’s efforts at rolling out engagement programs based on data.
Susan Medak has witnessed some profound changes across the theater funding landscape since assuming the role of Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s managing director in 1990. We talk with her about some of the sector’s biggest challenges.
As state governments cuts support for the arts, regional donors often try to fill the gap. For a particularly stark example of this phenomenon, we turn our attention to Florida, where private wealth is offsetting some cuts to public arts funding.
Many dance and theater groups continue to grapple with lower box office yields, a shrinking subscriber base, fickle millennials, and declines in public funding. The Schubert Foundation is one of the best friends these nonprofits have.
Funder interest in the intersection of art and social justice remains strong. A case in point is the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, which will soon make its first round of grants to back theater performances that “take on relevant social issues.”
Los Angeles-area lawyer David Gindler and his wife Kiki Ramos Gindler have emerged as top local arts funders in recent years. They are likely to play a hands-on role in the organizations that they support.
Stewart F. Lane and his wife Bonnie Comley have collectively produced over 40 Broadway shows, making a fortune along the way—wealth that underwrites philanthropy focused on the arts and their alma maters.
By increasing its payout to National Theater Project winners, the New England Foundation for the Arts is another institutional grantmaker providing critical support for traditionally underfunded arts fields.
Bruce Whitacre, who leads Theatre Forward, which recently rolled out a new national grants program aimed at boosting diversity and equity in theater, shares his thoughts with IP on key challenges facing this world.
We write often about the handful of national funders that support individual artists. But there are also some local and regional funders who operate in this space, including Artist Trust, which is based in Seattle.
Now in its 12th year and funded by the David Charles Horn Foundation, winners of the David Charles Horn Prize receive $10,000, a publishing deal, and a staged professional reading.
The Wallace Foundation's latest Building Audiences for Sustainability Story looks at a theater troupe's successful efforts to attract younger attendees by tapping into the power of market research.
The Educational Theatre Foundation was formed a year ago to raise money for what seems like a super niche area. But as its ED tells us, there's more potential donor support for school theater than you might think.
Patron support remains relatively scarce in a theater space dominated by institutional funders. Even more so when it comes to funding theater education programs for kids. Here's an exception.
Thanks to a $3.77 million infusion from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project is extending its scope beyond developing and staging new work.
News out of Chapel Hill points to another example of a loyal patron looking to transform a university performing arts program into a regional (and potentially national) powerhouse.
A $5 million fund from digital audiobook company Audible suggests that the next frontier of theater grantmaking may not be the stage, but the smart phone in your pocket.