TSP: Dr. Young, the Assisi Foundation likes to work on long term, systemic challenges facing the residents of Memphis with a focus on eliminating the root causes. Tell us about an Assisi grant that was effective because you used this strategic approach.
Assisi: Well, this is just one example, but a few years ago several arts organizations approached us for various types of grants including support for marketing and fund development. Separately, we were already partially funding a strategic plan for our local United Arts Fund which was in the process of exploring its branding and marketing possibilities. We thought there might be an opportunity to match the institutional and field interests to benefit everyone and the community.
TSP: So, you took advantage of an opportunity that matched a previous strategy of yours. How did you originally choose this specific problem to tackle?
Assisi: Initially we were only going to look at performing arts groups to see if we could help with their long term sustainability through an organized audience development effort. As it turned out, this was also a common thread among grant requests we received from several arts-related organizations. We met first with our United Arts Fund and asked what type of funding we might be able to provide that could have greater impact for the arts groups collectively. We wondered if it would be more helpful if we provided technical assistance or volume purchasing, or any number of other possibilities. In parallel, we were having discussions internally and with various arts leaders about the same issue of sustainability. We ended up hiring a facilitator and we helped convene a number of arts groups recommended by ArtsMemphis to discuss what we might collectively want to do in the area of audience development.
TSP: Once you knew that you wanted to help sustain and grow the arts market, how did you know which intervention would work?
Assisi: In the weeks that followed our first organizing meetings, we and the ArtsMemphis staff did a lot of research. For example, we looked at the work of the Wallace Foundation and others working in the arts. The Executive Director of ArtsMemphis met a specialist at a national conference who helped arts organizations reach new audiences. After more research, we reached a consensus to engage Decision Support Partners, Inc. (specifically, Ms. Surale Phillips) to provide the expertise and essential market research that would allow us to undertake the project. Their goal was to help the coalition to understand how arts organizations could better serve existing patrons. We also wanted to know what things cultural customers value most and what things keep potential patrons away. This research was time consuming but essential to designing a program that would ultimately be successful.
Read more about this case study in building a community collaborative and helping develop a large-scale sustainability model for the arts by downloading the rest of the interview (below).
