ARTS and SACRED PLACES (cont.)
are eager to house arts organizations. Partners and
collaborating organizations will facilitate negotiations
between congregations and arts groups, developing
and tailoring agreements and governing space-sharing
and management relationships. They will also oversee
board-to-board dialogues, review variable and fixed
costs of building space to suggest rent or fees, and
work with design professionals to adapt space for arts
use. Seed grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 will
be made to support renovations needed to more fully
accommodate the technical, spatial, and/or physical
needs of arts groups.
Other elements of this initial phase include a range
of services that will be available to all arts groups and
congregations in Philadelphia, such as a formal training
program to improve knowledge of and sensitivity to
key issues for each party and its stakeholders. This
phase will also include a primer on the needs of arts
organizations and congregations, information on
challenges that both groups share, training on how to
approach issues regarding sensitive or controversial
subject matter, and a discussion of the historic
“Center City Philadelphia currently
has only four legitimate theater
spaces available for a pool of
more than 40 small professional
companies looking to produce
here.”
Margie Salvante, Theatre Alliance of
Greater Philadelphia
relationship between artistic practice and sacred places
and communities. A Manual of Best Practices for Arts in
Sacred Places is being developed to address many of the
issues included in the training program. It will offer
model documents, such as sample leases and digital
floor plans, and present case studies that suggest good
approaches to the management and shared use of
religious properties. Lastly, a space-matching database
is being created with an emphasis on space that is
available for long-term use.
Curio Theatre Company performs The Odyssey at Calvary United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.
17 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Summer 2011