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Organizations of all types are increasingly forming partnerships—including with organizations outside their fields—to help them carry out their missions. The arts are no exception. Many are working with agencies not primarily devoted to the arts—educational, health, religious, youth development, human services, recreational, and community development organizations—to accomplish both artistic and community service goals that might otherwise be far more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Such partnerships are not easy to forge or maintain, however. Success depends on each partner's willingness and ability to live up to its part of the bargain. Partnerships involve risks, because arts and non-arts organizations differ in many ways. At stake are reputations, constituent relations, organizational missions, and investments of time, money, and expertise if a project does not go well.
Fortunately, important practical lessons are emerging from the experiences of arts and non-arts collaborators that can help organizations identify and reduce these risks. This brief draws on the experience of partnerships supported by the Community Partnerships for Cultural Participation
Initiative, funded by The Wallace Foundation,1 between 1998 and 2002, to offer lessons on:
- Assessing the benefits arts/non-arts partnerships can bring to both parties
- Diagnosing potential partnership problems in advance
- Choosing partnerships that have a good chance of succeeding
- Developing strategies to maximize the chances of success2
Mutual Benefits of Partnerships between Arts and Non-arts Groups
The major benefits arts groups in our study sought from collaborating with non-arts groups were greater public credit for community involvement, connections to new communities of potential participants, and wider opportunities to carry out creative work. The benefits non-arts groups sought were better programs and a reputation for being more effective in their community work.
Example: A partnership between five small theater companies and a public library system's central office involved a series of plays performed in branch libraries. The project deliberately placed theater performances in neighborhoods with different populations from those usually served by the theaters. The library earned the reputation of presenting high-quality theater performances. The theaters received the benefit of exposing their work to audiences that had little prior experience with live drama.
Example: A partnership between a large art museum and a major community development organization involved the creation in a poor neighborhood of a visual art gallery that engages youth in all aspects of gallery operation. The community development organization benefited from introducing youth to a variety of careers in the arts—everything from making art to managing the business. The art museum gained a new audience and public credit for helping train disadvantaged youth.
The Connections of Non-arts Organizations to the Arts
Arts groups can also take advantage of the already high involvement of non-arts organizations in the arts. More than half (53 percent) of our survey respondents "present, support, or otherwise participate in" arts and cultural activities; one in five (20 percent) do so frequently over the course of a year—at least once every two months on average.
Involvement by non-arts groups in the arts takes many forms, meaning that arts groups can choose their own best way to attract, increase, and deepen others' involvements in the programs and events they offer. Most frequently, non-arts groups organize group participation in arts programs; nearly a third of groups (31 percent) participate in this way (see exhibit 1). Other ways include providing venues for events (24 percent), helping organize programs or supply volunteers (21 percent), contributing to funding or sponsorship (20 percent), and advocating for the arts (11 percent). Two-thirds of all organizations that participate in the arts are involved in more than one way, and 18 percent are involved in four or five ways.
Involvement rates are greater for some types of non-arts groups than for others (exhibit 2), but all are involved in arts and culture activity to a relatively high degree. For even the least involved group—health-related organizations—almost half (46 percent) are involved in some way. For youth development, community development, educational, and recreational organizations, about two-thirds (anywhere from 63 to 67 percent) are involved with the arts. This diversity of groups affords multiple opportunities for potentially productive arts/non-arts relationships.
The partnerships we studied reflect the diversity of organizations and activities. As exhibit 3 shows, non-arts partners came from educational, religious, youth development, human services, and community development sectors. All of these organizations helped with the production of programs or events, principally by supplying students, volunteers, and other amateur participants, and also by arranging group attendance, developing programs, and providing spaces where exhibits or performances could take place.
Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Notes from this section
1 In 2003, the foundation changed its name from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds to The Wallace Foundation.
2 Supporting data come from two one-page mail surveys conducted in 2000 in five communities—three metropolitan areas (Boston, Detroit, Kansas City) and two California counties (Santa Clara, Humboldt). The arts survey was mailed to almost 6,500 organizations of which more than 1,300 responded, the non-arts survey to over 2,200 organizations of which more than 550 responded. In addition, in 2001 we interviewed staff of arts and non-arts organizations involving 28 community foundation-funded partnerships in nine communities to learn in much greater detail about the benefits and challenges of partnership projects.
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