Arts commission fosters partnerships

BOULDER – Blending art and business may seem an abstract concept to some, but a grant launched last year by The Boulder Arts Commission hopes to unite the city’s vibrant art community with Boulder’s broad palette of business know-how.

The commission awarded three Arts and Business Collaborative grants last year to area arts organizations, said Janet Salmons, chairwoman of the Boulder Arts Commission. The Colorado Shakespeare Festival received one.

“It’s a wonderful program, and I was so excited to hear they started something like this,´ said Philip Sneed, producing artistic director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. The University of Colorado-based Shakespeare Festival used the grant as seed money to begin a Shakespeare a la Carte program, Sneed said.

Shakespeare al la Carte – a business begun in England – teams actors with restaurants then serves bite-size portions of The Bard to diners.

“This is a chance to reach some new audiences who might be afraid of Shakespeare,” Sneed said. The Colorado Shakespeare Festival group partnered with the Millennium Harvest House for its first Shakespeare a la Carte effort. The restaurant offered a brunch menu along with the actors’ menu of Shakespeare. The actors perform among the diners and sometimes interact with them. The performance includes different selections from a range of Shakespearean comedies, tragedies and dramas.

Shakespeare a la Carte performances cater to Shakespearean newbies and families with enough twists and turns to be engaging to a dedicated fan, Sneed said. In addition, the program can create a new revenue stream for both the theater company and the restaurant, Sneed said. Performances are scheduled during off-peak hours for the restaurant and often during off-peak seasons for the actors. This helps the restaurant by drawing customers on what might otherwise be a slow day, provides waiters and cooks with additional hours and benefits area actors.

“It is very hard for actors to make a living here, and we often lose good actors who move to a larger market,” Sneed said. The theater company and the restaurant agree to a split of the revenue.

The second run of Shakespeare a la Carte should begin this spring once the group connects with another local restaurant. The programs helps keep the Colorado Shakespeare Festival marketing engines revved in the off-season, too, by reminding the community about the plays that typically run in the summer.

This combination of public accessibility, education and community business and arts exposure is exactly what the grant is intended to do, said the Boulder Arts Commissioner Salmons.

“If you go to the movies … those actors and those directors are somewhere else, but if you go to see one of these productions you might spend the same money but be supporting local organizations,” Salmons said.

The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art used its Arts and Business Collaborative grant to create two in-house scavenger hunts – one for adults and one for children – with prizes from downtown Boulder businesses, said Jordan Robbins, manager of museum marketing for the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

“We definitely see people walking around the galleries filling the scavenger hunt out, especially families,” Robbins said. The scavenger hunt is available at the museum or through a smartphone app. The museum, located in downtown Boulder on 13th Street drew more than 26,000 visitors last year, including school groups. Robbins said the scavenger hunt engages people, especially children, in contemporary art and provides talking points for patrons.

People collect a prize at the museum after completing the scavenger hunt. The prizes come from downtown businesses, including gift certificates and discount coupons, which Robbins hopes encourages visitors to spend some time shopping downtown.

“It would be easy for people to say, ‘Oh, I just went to the museum, now I can go get some tea or go shopping on Pearl Street, ‘ ” Robbins said. The next exhibit features food, Robbins said, and the museum hopes to partner with downtown restaurants for the next scavenger hunt.

The Boulder International Film Festival, now in its eighth year, shows films, hosts speakers and holds seminars led by industry professionals in a four-day event, said Kathy Beeck, director of the Boulder International Film Festival. Last year more than 7,000 people attended. It used the Arts and Business Collaborative grant to enhance the film festival’s concurrent digital media conference known as the DiMe. The conference showcases the creative, entertainment-based digital work by the industry. This year speakers will include industry great and Pixar co-founder Alvy Ray Smith and will be held Feb. 17. The conference can connect creative types sporting a good idea to businesses interesting getting those ideas out.

“Arts groups find new methods of delivery for their products through their collaboration with businesses and for that reason we think it’s the perfect collaboration,” Beeck said.

The Boulder Arts Commission will offer the grant again this year for arts organizations interested in applying. Grants are awarded in November, Salmons said. They also offer question and answers sessions for local artists interested in taking their work to a new level.

In the future the Boulder Arts Commission hopes to pair Boulder-based business organizations with artists to give them important tips on how to manage the business and marketing side of their artwork. All of which can boost Boulder’s national reputation as a quality place to live, Salmons said.

“We really see the whole range of arts and cultural activities as critical to the economic vitality of Boulder.”

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