FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fund for the Arts Evolving to Broaden Impact of Local Arts Community
Increasing equity, diversity and inclusivity in the arts throughout Greater Louisville
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fund for The Arts is beginning a process to redefine its role in the community that will transform how it supports the Greater Louisville area’s growing and diverse arts community. This evolution will help ensure all Louisvillians from every age group, neighborhood, and income level can access and engage with the arts.
The Fund’s Board of Directors has approved a plan, based on extensive research and modeled on best practices in peer cities, that will transition the organization from a united arts fund to a local arts agency conducting a unified campaign for the arts. The Fund for the Arts is evolving to offer expanded services and support to a broader range of arts and culture organizations and individual artists. Attracting new funding for the arts ecosystem continues locally with greater attention to national opportunities, such as the development of the Jennifer Lawrence Arts Fund. The Board is committed to continuing to support and will go to great efforts to insure the stability of the long-time cultural partners.
“This is a critical evolution that will allow us to more broadly serve the growing arts community and deliver support tailored specifically to Louisville’s needs and priorities,” said Fund for the Arts President and CEO Christen Boone. “In response to a major shift in donor and community expectations, the Fund has been evolving in this direction for several years with the goal of delivering greater impact, promoting increased access to the arts and better achieving our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusivity.”
This transition will deliver greater collective impact, promote more participation in the arts and culture sector across the Greater Louisville area, address larger community goals, and strengthen partnerships with other sectors, from business to tourism, and from education to community development.
This is an evolution for the organization as it grows into an information and resource hub for the entire community to engage with the arts. It will elevate The Fund’s mission beyond just the fundraising and granting organization it is today, allowing it to serve as a convener, advocate, promoter, leader and a driver of collective action and impact throughout the community.
“We believe this transition will grow The Fund’s annual donor campaign in both the number of donors and size of gifts, attract new national funding, and develop new avenues of public support as well. Moving forward, the Fund will invest in capacity building initiatives to help individual organizations grow their own contributed and earned revenue as well. This is not only about the growth of the Fund’s annual campaign, but about the growth and health of the entire arts ecosystem,” said Tammy York Day, 2018 Fund for the Arts Campaign Chair, and COO of Delta Dental Kentucky.
“As Greater Louisville and our arts community grow and evolve, so must The Fund,” said Todd Lowe, Fund for the Arts Board Chair and Parthenon President. “This new path honors our commitment to legacy cultural partners while also enhancing our ability to cultivate more of our area’s diverse artistic talent and put new arts organizations on a path to success.”
Imagine Greater Lousiville 2020, with its extensive research into the needs of the community, was the basis for the Fund’s new strategic plan. Imagine 2020 lays out a blueprint for advancing a more competitive, educated, vibrant and healthy arts community in Greater Louisville. The Fund for the Arts adopted the five priorities of Imagine 2020 as the strategic aspirations for the organization. The Board met with numerous stakeholders and spent the past year studying the success of peer cities, including Charlotte, Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Denver, and Nashville.
“Our city and the arts community that supports it have grown and changed so much since The Fund was founded in 1949,” said Matt Wallace, Producing Artistic Director, Kentucky Shakespeare. “We support this new, necessary effort of The Fund to be more inclusive and offer more opportunities for the diverse arts organizations and artists in our great city.”
The Fund will implement this new model carefully and strategically over the next three years while gathering input from various stakeholders. Throughout this process, The Fund will continue supporting and helping advance the missions of its current cultural partners.
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About Fund for The Arts
Fund for the Arts is a regional nonprofit with the mission to maximize the arts to drive economic development, education, and quality of life in our community. The Fund conducts one of the oldest united arts campaigns in the country and supports world-class institutions, community organizations, and arts in education. Fund for the Arts leads collective action across the arts and cultural sector to deliver greater impact in our community. For more information, visit www.fundforthearts.org.
