Arts Access
ACHF Arts Access
Arts organizations build relationships with members of, or organizations that serve, groups that have traditionally been underserved by the arts or by the applicant organization. Real or perceived barriers to participation are identified and addressed.
Children's Theatre Company built relationships with members of the Twin Cities Latino community and organizations serving the Latino community through six Latino Family Night events at Children's Theatre Company, including free tickets, transportation, dinner, and backstage tours. We also participated in the annual CLUES Book Fiesta. In response to demand from families attending our events, Children's Theatre Company also held one open house for our Theatre Arts Training program, including bilingual demonstration classes and information on how to register for Theatre Arts Training classes. In total, we build relationships with more than 1,300 members of the Latino community through these events and built or strengthening partnerships with nearly twenty Latino-serving organizations. We evaluated our outcomes by recording attendance at all events and by partnering with Wilder Research to administer post-show surveys to measure the degree to which participants felt welcome and their likelihood to return to Children's Theatre Company. 100% of survey respondents said they would return to Children's Theatre Company. 2: Our target group was Latino families in the Twin Cities area. While the Latino population of the Twin Cities is rapidly growing, Latino families continue to be underrepresented at Children's Theatre Company public performances and in our Theatre Arts Training classes. The results of our surveys during the grant period confirmed this need to build relationships within this growing community: only 18% of participants had come to Children's Theatre Company before attending one of our events. Based on our attendance rates, the proposed activities were a good match for the intended participants. Overall, 75% of those who registered for an event attended. Building relationships with members of the Latino community through our events and the work of our Cultural Liaisons also led us to develop additional activities as a result of this grant, including the Theatre Arts Training open house, a Spanish-language phone line, a Spanish-language section of our website, and new translations of production and education materials.