UPDATE on Partners:
Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places
The 2012 Knight Arts
Challenge Philadelphia
winners gathered
to celebrate at a
recognition ceremony
held at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art last April.
Partners’ President Bob
Jaeger is on the far left
in the back row. Photo
courtesy of the Knight
Foundation.
The Arts in Sacred Places (AiSP) program has been
working hard all winter long: a dance rehearsal space,
a theatre office, exploration of a new arts center, a
training program and a new Manual of Best Practices
have all been on the program’s front burner.
Grant News
In late April, Partners received a $180,000 grant
from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as
part of its Knight Arts Challenge, to start the nation’s
first Theatrical Design Center. Since the award is a
matching grant, the total project cost will be $360,000,
making it Partners’ largest AiSP endeavor to date! The
Theatrical Design Center was selected from over 1200
total applications, and Partners is honored to have
received one of the larger awards. More importantly,
this project could completely transform a diminishing
congregation into a buzzing center of design creation
and collaboration
Training
The training has begun! It launched in Philadelphia
with 55 people from arts groups and congregations
attending the introductory meeting. The excitement in
the room was palpable, and four hours raced by, filled
with conversation about mission, vision, and values
that are shared by both arts groups and congregations
alike. The conclusion was fairly obvious but validating
– not only was our research regarding the feasibility of
this idea spot on, but also both communities hunger
for these partnerships. In mid-April Partners’ Chicago
office launched the same program and our hopes are
very high for similar enthusiasm.
New Partnerships
It goes without saying that dance troupes need plenty
of floor space and ceiling height, but when Partners
learned that JUNK, a Philadelphia-based dance
company, was also interested in doing aerial work,
Shiloh Baptist Church seemed like the perfect backdrop
for their creative endeavors. Shiloh’s Sunday School
auditorium is over 3,500 square feet and more than 35feet high with four floor-to-ceiling windows that make
overhead lights unnecessary on any sunny day. JUNK
and Shiloh recently signed a year-long lease that will
hopefully be renewed for many years to come.
Shiloh Baptist has also been the savior for an arts
groups that was being pushed out of its office space.
Back in February, Brat Productions, a small theatre
company in Philadelphia, PA, was told that it had to
vacate its office by April, giving it two months to find
a new home. Desperate for assistance, Brat contacted
Partners. Since Brat was getting its office at a belowmarket rate, it didn’t have a lot to put toward rent for
a new office space. Partners brought them to Shiloh
Baptist to meet with Reverend Edward Sparkman and
Sacred Places • Summer 2012 • 8