Engage 2020 Innovation Grants Program

In April 2010, the Cultural Alliance and The Philadelphia Foundation proudly announced the 10 recipients of the Engage 2020 Innovation Grants Program. This exciting program offered organizations the opportunity to apply for one-time grants of up to $75,000 for the design and implementation of projects that connect audiences to new experiences and embrace key findings from the Cultural Alliance's most research report, Research into Action: Pathways to New Oppportunities.

Art Sanctuary $75,000
Art Sanctuary is being awarded a grant for the program “Hip H’Opera,” which will use students’ creativity to inspire an original work that fuses hip-hop with opera and other musical genres.

Curtis Institute of Music $75,000
Curtis plans to increase participation through their “Marketing to the Buyer Type” program, which seeks to create a uniquely tailored “experience” for patrons of Curtis’s performances.

Fairmount Park Art Association $75,000
Fairmount Park Art Association’s program, “Re-messaging Public Art/Recruiting Cultural Audiences,” is a marketing campaign for summer 2011 that will promote the unique accessibility of Philadelphia’s public art.

First Person Arts $75,000
First Person Arts earned an Engage 2020 Innovation Grant for “First Person Storytorium,” a citywide community engagement project that invites people to share objects, stories and memories they hold dear to create a compelling multimedia project to premiere at the 2010 First Person Arts Festival.

Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia $50,265
Mendelssohn Club’s, “The Audience InCHOIRing” is a marketing and audience-engagement project, as well as a choral/orchestral performance involving audience participation.

Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates $75,000
Philadelphia Mural Arts is taking advantage of the city’s rich African-American heritage, specifically in terms of murals, in the “African American Heritage Collection.” The program will share murals’ stories, renewing their relevance as a cultural resource for the public, and will include cell phone/podcast audio tours, among others.

New Paradise Laboratories $65,218
New Paradise Laboratories’ “Direct Engagement Through Online Performance” will use Web-based techniques to break down traditional barriers between the artist and audience, and will integrate live and cyber performance into a cohesive whole.

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) $75,000
PAFA will use their program, “Family Arts Academy at PAFA,” in concert with the Philadelphia School District, to offer art workshops, classes and exhibitions, free of charge to school district families.

People’s Light & Theatre $75,000
People’s Light will administer “Circles of Engagement at People’s Light,” which will attempt to engage today’s teens and adults through theater workshops, while also reconnecting with and engaging adults who have taken part in People’s Light plays in the past.

Walnut Street Theatre $75,000
Walnut Street Theatre’s “Engaging Intergenerational Audiences” program will, in association with the Philadelphia Inquirer, work with 100 local high school students and their parents to create a series of interactive activities that focus on critical thought, journalistic writing and social connections. Select students’ writings will be published in the Inquirer after each production.