UPDATE on Partners:
Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places
Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places (AiSP) experienced
a busy 2012: finding a location for the nation’s first
Theatrical Design Center, offering its first training sessions,
and traveling to New York City and Austin, TX, to do field
research.
In the spring of 2012, Partners received one of the larger
awards from the Knight Foundation’s Arts Challenge grants
– $180,000 – to create the nation’s first
Theatrical Design Center. So far, Partners
has generated a match of $150,000 and is
working towards closing the gap. Partners
then embarked on a search for the perfect
space to house Philadelphia’s best and
brightest set, light, sound, and costume
designers. Partners’ staff traveled to many
parts of the city in search of a space that
would be large enough to hold offices, a
costume shop, fitting rooms, and washing
and drying facilities, as well as a light/
sound/video lab, a recording studio, and a
set-model-fabrication room.
Philadelphia region, Partners recruited ten participants for
its first round of training, while in Chicago almost 21 groups
took part! The training consists of two day-long modules:
the first focuses on assessing the organizations’ assets and
exploring the concerns and hopes of each participant, while
the second follows up with nuts and bolts, such as figuring
out expenses, creating a lease, and re-envisioning spaces
for a new use. Congregations and arts leaders have already
It was a tall order, but Our Lady of Mount
Carmel Roman Catholic Church in South
Philadelphia, led by Father Francis J.
Cauterucci, saw a partnership with the
Theatrical Design Center as a way to
reinvent its recently closed K-8 school
building. The parish was founded in
1896; the rectory, convent, and sanctuary
followed later. The three-story school,
including a full (clean and dry) basement,
is ideal for the center. Father Cauterucci
looks forward to the designers bringing
something new to this traditional South
Philadelphia parish. Designs for the space
and how it will be used were started in
January, and the partnership may also
include hosting a theatre company with
offices, rehearsal, and storage space.
Partners debuted its AiSP training
sessions in the summer of 2012,
prompting a remarkable response from
both congregations and arts groups. In the
The unused Sunday School wing of Lafayette Presbyterian in Brooklyn, NY, was
transformed into a fully functional and modular performance space by their long-term
tenants, Irondale Ensemble.
Sacred Places • Winter 2013 • 8