The Arts Partnership
Four organizations building a brighter future
The Arts Partnership is a strategic alliance of four performing arts organizations — Minnesota Opera, the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Schubert Club — with a mission to ensure equitable sharing and effective care of the Ordway Center as a vital cultural asset in the Twin Cities. The Arts Partnership strengthens its organizations in service to the community through growing collaboration and stewardship of its shared assets.
History of The Arts Partnership
Formed in 2007 with considerable input from community leaders, the Arts Partnership was formed to solve persistent challenges arising from sharing a multi-purpose venue in the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, including an overcrowded schedule and growing facility needs. Together, the four partner organizations collaborated on an $83.8 million Capital Campaign to replace the underutilized 300-seat McKnight Theater with a state-of-the-art 1,100-seat Concert Hall on the Ordway’s campus. The increased capacity and flexibility not only better serves the needs of the Partners, it has also meant greater opportunity for a wider range of community organizations to perform at the Ordway.
Equally important, the campaign provided an endowment to help ensure the long-term stability of all four Arts Partners by providing funds that make using the venue more affordable.
The success of the Arts Partnership demonstrates what can be accomplished when organizations collaborate to overcome challenges, creating opportunities that none of them could have achieved on their own.
Community Initiatives
Ordway Inside Out
The Arts Partnership is tasked with maintaining a healthy arts ecosystem rooted at the Ordway in service of our greater community. These efforts include the Partnership’s annual presentations of Ordway Inside Out in Rice Park, providing free programming from the four member organizations to the Downtown and Lowertown communities of Saint Paul.
Knight Foundation Cultural Opportunity Fund
In addition to its own community programming, the Arts Partnership endeavors to support emerging to mid-sized arts organizations and local performers in bringing new and culturally rich offers at the Ordway Center with a strong emphasis on cultural diversity and artistic excellence. The Arts Partnership’s Knight Foundation Cultural Opportunity Fund provides Minnesota performing artists and ensembles the opportunity to receive financial support to produce an event in the Ordway Concert Hall.
Each year, applications for the next performance season open in October and close in December.