FEATURE STORY
Choral Arts Philadelphia performs Mozart in Salzburg at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, PA. Photo by Milton Burgada
Making Homes for
the Arts in Sacred Places
PARTNERS FOR SACRED PLACES has long known that
congregations play an indispensable role in hosting arts
organizations, and that there is a close parallel between
the facility needs of the arts community and the ability
of congregations to accommodate those needs. To
further examine this dynamic and explore its potential,
Partners undertook a study of the relationship between
visual and performing arts groups and faith-based
communities that own facilities in Philadelphia. The
Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places (AiSP) study
also assessed the possible role that Partners could
play in assisting long-term, sustainable shared-space
relationships.
In July 2010, Partners teamed up with CultureWorks
Greater Philadelphia to design and implement the
AiSP study, which was generously funded by the Barra
Foundation. With help from Dance/USA Philadelphia,
the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and
the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA),
the study answered questions regarding the current
state of space sharing between congregations and arts
organizations, the amount of free space congregations
have to offer, the level of interest in these partnerships,
and the ways in which Partners could foster and support
these relationships.
13 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Summer 2011
Since completing the study, Partners has initiated a
two-phase program in Philadelphia, supported by
the Connelly Foundation and the Barra Foundation
– which was impressed enough with the study’s
fi