what is arts crush - Theatre Puget Sound

2010 Program Report
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Engaging Co
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Creating Acc
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Inspiring Crea
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WHAT IS
ARTS CRUSH
Arts Crush is a month-long festival connecting artists
and audiences with invigorating new experiences at
hundreds of events across the Puget Sound region.
Spotlighting a different discipline each week, the festival
features opportunities to participate in theatre, music,
literature, dance, visual art and more.
“I discovered more than
a dozen organizations, I
saw something almost
every night of October.
Best part? I’m so going
to attend them again!
(in fact, I haven’t
stopped going since I
found their calendars
and locations)”
- Arts Crush Patron
2010 marked the inaugural year of Theatre Puget Sound’s Arts Crush. The
festival represents a truly innovative and collaborative approach to audience
engagement by unifying the regional arts community around four overarching
goals: Engaging Community, Creating Access, Inspiring Creativity and
Building Audiences.
Arts Crush is a festival aimed at giving “the arts” back to the audience. At
its core, it is a collective investment in the vitality and creativity of our local
communities. We believe that the creativity and contributions of our audience
are just as valuable as those of our artists and arts institutions.
Therefore, Arts Crush functions as a collective invitation to participate in
the arts in entirely new ways, whatever that means to each individual or
organization. We encourage participating artists and arts organizations to
create programming with a focus on community, collaboration and innovation.
In turn, this programming allows audiences to engage in the arts in unique
ways; through hands-on participation, out-of-the-box collaborations, peeking
behind the scenes, or experiencing art in unexpected places.
In addition, Arts Crush extends an open invitation to sample the abundance
of arts and culture in our region by adopting discounted or free admission to
more traditional arts experiences. This access creates a risk-free atmosphere in
which patrons can discover and learn about particular artists, organizations or
artforms in an open and welcoming environment.
“...collecting all the arts in one place, so they worked together
instead of in competition was great!” - Arts Crush Patron
“Picasso and Hamlet! I have never been exposed
to either and I had a tremendous experience. I
don’t think I would have gone if not for the Arts
Crush offer. Thank you!” - Arts Crush Patron
Arts Crush features a plethora of free or discounted
performances, concerts, exhibits and readings, as well as
a variety of events aimed at engaging community:
Special Events: Through open rehearsals, participatory
workshops, meet-the-artist events, interactive events
and more, Arts Crush pulls back the curtain to reveal
the work and community behind the scenes.
Left - Crowd outside “Awesome”. Photo: Mike Hipple. Right - Caspar Babypants at Arts Crush Kick-Off Fair. Photo: Laurie Clark.
How Arts Crush Meets the Needs of Our Communities
•
Creates bridges between arts, community and business
Free Nights: Organizations offer free admissions to
already scheduled events, exhibits or performances.
•
Extends collective invitation to the arts that transcends cultural, social, racial
and economic barriers
Date Nights: Organizations offer two-for-one admission
to events on Tuesdays and Fridays.
•
Creates new points of entry for public participation in the arts through
unique, engaging and accessible programming
Family Days: Free programming and hands-on
activities aimed at engaging youth in the arts.
•
Moves beyond the traditional “transactional” interaction to provide unique
experiences that engage community and inspire creativity
•
Attracts a younger and more diverse audience to the arts
•
Increases awareness of regional arts and arts programming
•
Strengthens social bonds through communal and collaborative cultural
events focused on active participation
Public Art Works: People engage in the actual act of
making art through large community driven events that
culminate in the creation of a new work.
•
Serves as a highly visible and cost-effective marketing vehicle for arts
organizations
•
Highlights the value of our region’s artists and arts organizations
GeoCRUSH: An outstanding high-tech arts-themed
treasure hunt. Throughout the month, 20 art caches
were hidden at special arts-related sites throughout the
region. Participants had to find and interact with them
in ways ranging from writing poetry to creating origami
cranes to learning a dance and more.
•
Strengthens the infrastructure of our arts community through new
collaborations and relationship building
Site-Specific Work: Arts Crush stimulates organic
collaboration among creative disciplines and the
business community - bringing music to galleries and
vacant spaces, theatre to cafes and hotels, literature to
pubs, dance to the streets, etc.
All of this programming creates an inviting atmosphere
conducive to risk-taking, active arts participation and
relationship building, laying the groundwork for future
arts patronage.
Left: Libby Matthews in Rawk Stars at the Arts Crush Theatre Week Launch. Photo: Laurie Clark.
“I think it was a plus to be a part of Arts Crush and utilize the
festival as a means of encouraging new audiences to come
to the Frye and participate in very special programming not
regularly offered. I appreciate the time, energy, and enthusiasm
that Arts Crush people showed in getting the information
together, creatively packaging everything, and supporting the
arts in the area!” - Rebecca Garrity Putnam, Frye Art Museum
PATRON DEMOGRAPHICS
ARTS CRUSH 2010
Demograhpics were captured via required surveys for Free Night reservations and a
voluntary survey for Special Event RSVPs. Results reflect data on each individual who
secured reservations and not the sum total of attendees.
OVERVIEW
200+ arts groups
350+ events and/or offers
10,000+ patrons
Arts Attendance
Age
62% were new to their
selected arts organization
61% were under the age of 45
Arts Crush took place October 1 – 31, 2010 throughout the Puget Sound region.
It involved more than 200 arts organizations of all shapes and sizes spanning
the region from as far north as Bellingham to as far south as Olympia. There
were more than 350 Arts Crush events and/or offers throughout the month.
More than 10,000 patrons directly participated in the festival. In addition,
the broad marketing campaign reached a large swath of the public, providing
tremendous visibility and exposure to and raising the overall awareness of our
region’s arts organizations.
“The thing I enjoyed most about the production I saw was the
diversity in the audience on Arts Crush night. It was one of the
most ethnically diverse audiences I’ve ever been a part of. For
this, Arts Crush is truly to be applauded.” - Arts Crush Patron
Ethnicity
24% indicated ethnicity other
than White, non-Hispanic
Producing Arts Crush was a tremendous experience for Theatre Puget Sound
and our community. The impact of the festival cut across both our constituency
groups: the arts community and the general public. We created a program that
genuinely made the public feel more invited, informed and involved in the
arts. Just as important, Arts Crush brought the arts community together in
ways both practical and inspirational. We saw unprecedented collaboration
between arts organizations of different disciplines to achieve a common goal.
Collaborations took the form of everything from shared resources to creative
partnerships that culminated in the creation of new work.
Most importantly, the festival truly highlighted the arts in our communities in
a new, positive and engaging way that struck a chord with the public, attracting
both new arts-goers and current patrons to try something new. All of this
allowed us to lay the foundation for a truly innovative annual festival that has
the potential to cultivate new arts audiences, strengthen local communities
and foster a more vibrant, unique and collaborative arts ecology.
Income
36% had annual household
income under $50,000
PARTICIPATING
ORGANIZATIONS
Arts Crush brought the regional arts
community together in unprecedented
ways. Over 200 arts organizations,
arts agencies, small businesses and
innumerable artists were united in
an effort to engage community, create
access, inspire creativity and build
new audiences.
Arts Crush events spanned 20 cities
and 5 counties!
Cities: Bellevue, Bellingham, Burien,
Edmonds, Everett, Federal Way,
Issaquah, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park,
Lynnwood, Mercer Island, Mountlake
Terrace, Olympia, Redmond, Renton,
Sammamish,
Seattle,
Shoreline,
Tacoma & Woodinville.
Counties: King, Pierce, Snohomish,
Thurston & Whatcom.
Participation by discipline:
Multidisciplinary
Arts
Agencies
6%
7%
Literary
10%
Theatre
36%
Dance
11%
Visual
16%
Music
17%
253Collective
51 Strings Duo / Pacific Harp Institute
5th Avenue Theatre
6th Day Dance Company
826 Seattle
ACT - A Contemporary Theatre
Actors Theater of Orcas Island
Against the Grain/Men in Dance
Allied Arts of Renton
American Dance Institute
Annex Theatre
Art On The Ridge
Artist Trust
Arts Council of Snohomish County
ArtsWest Playhouse & Gallery
ArtXchange Gallery
Asia Pacific Cultural Center
Avanti Art & Design
AWESOME
B2 Fine Art Gallery/Studios
Ballet Bellevue
Bellevue Arts Museum
Bherd Studios Gallery
Blood Ensemble
Book-It Repertory Theatre
BQdanza
Brimstone Music
Brown Tones Productions
Burien Little Theatre
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Capital Playhouse
Cascade Symphony Orchestra
Catalyst Gallery
Cause It’s Art
Centerstage
Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas
Christy Fisher Dance
City of Bellevue-Northwest Arts Center
City of Burien
City of Shoreline
CityArtists
Classical Tuesdays in Old Tacoma
Cornish College of the Arts
Creative Activities/VSA Washington
D.A.S.H. Center for the Arts
Dance Theatre Northwest
DASSdance
Duo Savoir Faire
Dusty Strings
Dvorak Terzetto
Early Music Guild
Eastside Heritage Center
Eclectic Theater Company
Edmonds Arts Commission
Edmonds Public Library
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Emerald City Cloggers
Emerald City Scene
Events on the Edge Productions
eXit SPACE
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
Fantastic.Z Productions
Fathom
Federal Way Chorale
Flying House Productions
Freehold
Fremont Abbey Arts Center
Fremont Place Book Co
Frye Art Museum
Fulcrum Gallery
Gallery 110
Ghost Gallery
Ghost Light Theatricals
Gnostic Scribblers (Chamber Duo)
GreenStage
Harlequin Productions
Harmony Kings of Federal Way
Heartsparkle Players
Heavier Than Air Family Theatre
Henry Art Gallery
Humanities WA
Inside the Music
Intiman Theatre
Josephine’s Echopraxia
King’s Books
Kirkland Choral Society
Kirkland Performance Center
L Bo Designs
La Sala Seattle
Last Leaf Productions
Live Girls! Theater
Macha Monkey Productions
Mahogany Project
Medieval Women’s Choir
Mockingbird Books
New Amerikan Theatre
Northern: The Olympia All Ages Project
Northwest Film Forum
Northwest Girlchoir
Northwest Playwrights Alliance
Northwest Repertory Singers
Nu Black Arts West Theatre
Olympia Family Theater
Olympia Little Theatre
Olympic Ballet
On the Boards
Open Circle Theater
Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB)
Pilot Books
PLAYWORKS
PLOP! Olympia Theatre
Proctor Art Gallery
Puget Sound Revels
Queen Anne Books
quiet
Rainier Youth Choirs
ReAct Theatre
Renton Civic Theatre
Richard Hugo House
Seattle Art Museum
Samba Olywa
Sammamish Art Commission
Santoros Books
Seattle Arts & Lectures
Seattle Chamber Music Society
Seattle Children’s Theatre
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra
Seattle Musical Theatre
Seattle Opera
Seattle Playwrights Collective
Seattle Public Library
Seattle Public Theater
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Seattle Shakespeare Company
Seattle Symphony
Seattle Theatre Group
Seattle7Writers
Second Story Repertory
Secret Garden Bookstore
Shakespeare In the Parking Lot Theatre
Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council
Showtunes Theatre Company
SIS Productions
SketchFest Seattle
Soil Gallery
Spectrum Dance Theater
Splinter Dance Company
STAGEright Theatre
Stimulate Dance
Stone Soup Theatre
StoneDance Productions
Strawberry Theatre Workshop
Striped Water Poets
Studio Current & PROJECT: Space Available
Studio East/StoryBook Theater
Suyama Space
Tacoma Art Museum
Tacoma Art Place
Tacoma City Ballet
Tacoma Concert Band
Tacoma Metal Arts Center
Tacoma Youth Symphony Association
Taproot Theatre Company
Tasty
The Artery
the BareFoot Collective
The Bushwick Book Club
The Cabiri Performance Troupe
The Heroes
The Satori Group
The Tarantellas band
thepeguesproject
Third Place Books
Titanium Sporkestra
Town Hall Seattle
Unexpected Productions
University Bookstore
University of Puget Sound
UW Chamber Dance Company
Village Books
Village Theatre
Vis a Vis Society
Washington Ensemble Theatre
whizARTbang!
Wild Grace Arts
Wing Luke Museum
Wing-It Productions
Youth Theatre Northwest
The organizations listed directly participated in Arts Crush via events and/or
special offers. Other companies indirectly participated through venue donations,
collaborative services and more.
COMMUNICATIONS
Theatre Puget Sound supported Arts Crush with an extensive marketing and
public relations campaign throughout the region. Communications were
geared not only towards seeking out new audiences, but also encouraging
current audiences to try something new.
Primary Marketing Tactics
ARTS CRUSH 2010
FEATURED EVENTS
•
Extensive online ad campaign that included Facebook, SeattleTimes.com,
SeattlePI.com, The Stranger.com, SeattleWeekly.com, KOMOnews.com,
ParentMap.com and various other online ad networks
With more than 350 events and/or offers to choose from, it was hard to pick
only a handful to showcase. However, the events below truly represent the
heart and soul of Arts Crush: unique, collaborative events aimed at inspiring
creativity and engaging community.
•
Outdoor media including 25 billboards throughout the region and 28 bus
ads in the Seattle core
Arts Crush Theatre Week Launch Event
•
Radio presence via promotional partners KUOW and KING FM
•
Television presence on Q13 via Arts Around
•
Print advertising in The Stranger and Seattle Weekly
•
Collateral distribution throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond
(including 800 posters, 5,000 postcards, 120,000 festival guides)
•
Extensive social marketing via Facebook & Twitter presence
•
Constant Contact E-blast campaign
Media Coverage
Arts Crush benefited from extensive coverage across the mediums of print,
television and the internet. More than 20 articles were written about the festival
appearing in such outlets as The Seattle Times, The Olympian, Tacoma News
Tribune, Edmonds Beacon, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Metropolitan, Alaska
Airlines Magazine and more. Arts Crush also received editorial features on
KOMO News, Q13 News, KUOW and KING FM.
Strategic Partnerships
By encouraging and assisting participating organizations and businesses in
doing their own marketing for the festival we were able to leverage powerful
and persuasive complimentary campaigns that created enormous buzz.
Photo: Laurie Clark
Photo: Mike Hipple
Left - Photo: Laurie Clark; Right - Brian Claudio Smith and Graham Mills in Rawk Stars by Mallery Avidon. Photo: Mike Hipple.
A prime example of the spirit of Arts Crush: 2 service organizations, 3
theatre companies, 3 local playwrights and a local hotel all collaborating
to provide a unique experience that both highlighted local theatres and
artists, and provided a one-of-a-kind performance event for patrons.
The event was produced by Theatre Puget Sound in coordination with
NW Playwrights Alliance and The Maxwell Hotel. Three local playwrights
created new works written specifically for hotel rooms. Each room/play
was hosted by a local theatre company including Blood Ensemble, Seattle
Repertory Theatre and Strawberry Theatre Workshop. Attendees enjoyed
food, wine and musical entertainment in the lobby throughout the evening
while hourly performance tours led patrons on a dramatic journey through
the hotel, peeking in on the secret lives of its guests.
“A wonderful experience that turned me into a total fan. I
thought that the Theater Launch at the Maxwell was one of
the most creative and fun events anybody ever thought up
anywhere. ” - Arts Crush Patron
The Novel: Live
Arts Crush Kick-Off Fair
Left - Photo: Laurie Clark; Right - Garth Stein and Nancy Pearl. Photo: Laurie Clark.
A spark of an idea that came out of an Arts Crush community gathering
turned into a one-of-a-kind event that involved local authors, local
bookstores, several arts organizations, and the public all working together
on the creation of a new novel. Spearheaded by Seattle7Writers, The Novel:
Live was a stunning, never-before-attempted marathon of literary wonder
in which 36 Northwest authors wrote a complete novel in just six days
under the watchful eyes of Fairy God-author Nancy Pearl.
The event raised money for literacy, exposed the public to local authors and
created a genuine excitement about literature and the creative process.
AWESOME’s Savory Onyx Machine
Left - Titanium Sporkestra kicking off the festivities; Right - Audience enjoying the indoor performances. Photos: Laurie Clark.
Arts Crush launched on October 3 with a one-of-a-kind community
celebration. More than 1,000 people came out to Seattle Center’s Fisher
Pavilion to join in the excitement. Over 90 arts organizations and Arts
Crush sponsors tabled the event. Patrons were able to reserve Free Night
tickets, take advantage of amazing one-day-only special offers from
participating arts groups, enter to win raffles, play in the Arts Crush Photo
Booth, become an instant poet in AK Mimi Allin’s amazing Poetry Chair,
participate in a community art project and catch free performances by
Titanium Sporkestra, Caspar Babypants, Stimulate Dance and Split Second
Improv! It was an action-packed afternoon and the perfect beginning to a
festival focused on community and creativity!
Left - John Osebold; Right - John Ackermann. Photos: Mike Hipple.
In collaboration with the City of Seattle and Shunpike, art band “Awesome”
took over the vacant storefront at 610 2nd Ave. downtown for a lunchtime
performance event. The performance was a mix of sound demonstration,
dancing, singing and live theatrics. “Awesome” performed inside the
storefront, while the audience watched the show through the windows
and followed the sound experiments through an outdoor speaker.
Seattle Opera provided the ultimate
chance to peek behind the curtain and
get your hands dirty, quite literally! Props
Guru Pete Olds taught folks young and
old all the tricks to making stage blood!
Everyone had a chance to make blood
of different varieties and for different
uses (thick, thin, spray-able, ooze-able).
Needless to say, it was one of the most fun
and buzzed about events of the festival.
And, it perfectly coincided with their
production of the famously bloody opera
Lucia di Lammermoor, which was available
as an Arts Crush Date Night.
Photo: Laurie Clark
Seattle Opera’s
How to Make Stage Blood
Recuerdos de las Mujeres
ARTS CRUSH
LEADERSHIP
Left - Japanese/Latin fusion duo Miho and Diego; Right - Catalina M. Cantú. Photos: Laurie Clark.
In preparation for Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, ArtXchange
Gallery hosted a prose/poetry reading by four women writers from La Sala
Seattle: Wendy Call, Catalina M. Cantú, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, and
Christina Montilla. This lively event beautifully represented the unifying
themes of Arts Crush, bringing visual art, literature and music together in
a celebration of community.
BQdanza’s THICK
Arts Crush is managed and produced by Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) in
cooperation with a consortium of arts leaders from various arts disciplines
throughout the region. In 2010, these organizations included Edmonds
Community College, Broadway Across America, City of Edmonds, City of
Olympia, City of Tacoma, Eastside Arts Coalition, Henry Art Gallery, Mirror
Stage, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Arts & Lectures, Seattle Chamber Music
Society, Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Seattle Office of Film & Music,
Seattle Repertory Theatre, Shunpike, SoCo Culture and Velocity Dance.
Theatre Puget Sound is a leadership and service organization founded in 1997
to advocate for the region’s growing theatre community’s causes and administer
much-needed services. TPS provides programming and services that benefit
both the theatre community and the larger regional arts community.
Throughout our history TPS has built and maintained programs and services
that serve to promote, strengthen and unify the regional performing arts
community. TPS directly serves a membership of more than 1,700 theatre
practitioners and 140 organizations within our region. In addition to Arts
Crush, TPS sponsors workshops, seminars and regional auditions, manages
affordable rehearsal/performance space for the arts, produces the annual
Gregory Awards and the TPS Stage at Bumbershoot, and coordinates and
promotes other events which strengthen and celebrate our local community.
2010 SUPPORT
An enormous thank you goes out to our 2010 sponsors and supporters. Their
commitment to the arts and our community is what made this exciting new festival
possible. We couldn’t have done it without them!
Major Support: Amazon.com, Boeing, Seattle’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
A shining example of the collaboration and innovation inherent in Arts
Crush, BQdanza’s THICK was a site-specific dance work presented in
collaboration with the Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) at Tollefson’s Plaza.
Choreographed by Carla Barragán and performed by BQdanza members,
THICK was a meditation on the creatures affected by the BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico and around the world. It was presented in collaboration
with TAM’s 75th anniversary and the opening of Mighty Tacoma.
Additional Support: Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union, Seattle Office of Arts &
Cultural Affairs, 4 Culture, DLA Piper and The Norcliffe Foundation
Media Sponsors: Seattle Weekly, KING FM and KUOW
GeoCRUSH Sponsor: Groundspeak (geocaching.com)
In-Kind Support: Clear Channel, The Maxwell Hotel, Pyramid Communications,
Savage Color and Seattle Center
artscrush.org
t involved with
For more information or to ge
tival director Sam Read
Arts Crush 2011 contact fes
sonline.org.
at 206.770.0370 or sam@tp
PO Box 19643
Seattle, WA 98109
206.770.0370
tpsonline.org
seattleperforms.com