Engaging Dance Audiences is made possible with generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.

Call for Project Ideas Deadline: May 4, 2009

Download a PDF of these guidelines.

Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA) is a $1.9 million pilot program that enables Dance/USA to learn methods of engaging audiences, learn from peers, and share the learning nationally. EDA consists of four components that are designed to expand the theory and practice of audience engagement. Three of the components involve direct support to Dance/USA members and are outlined below. The fourth component involves field-wide research on dance audiences. To administer EDA, Dance/USA has engaged Callahan Consulting for the Arts to manage its grant making component, and WolfBrown to lead its audience research component.

About Audience Engagement

The term "audience engagement" is recognized by dance professionals to indicate emerging practices and new attitudes about the inter-relationships among artists, presenters, and audiences, going well beyond accustomed practices of marketing, outreach, and audience development. Audience engagement:

• Invites audiences to be participatory rather than passive and values their involvement. By being actively two-way rather than presentational, it empowers people to better understand, appreciate, and connect with the meaning and impact of the art experience.
• May be tied to specific performances, but also may occur independently. Some practitioners see "audience engagement" as blurring the line with the art making itself. It deepens relationships with existing viewers and also builds connections among prospective audiences.
• Plans in good faith that a more knowledgeable and involved audience will lead to better sales or donations and will attract new faces. The outcomes of engagement practices, however, are not attendance or ticket sales alone, but other kinds of impacts. It appreciates that everyone will react differently to the art, and celebrates the diversity of impact.
• Inevitably involves risk, investment and innovation.

A clear definition of "audience engagement" is still evolving and Dance/USA hopes that EDA will encourage and empower participants to contribute their own wisdom and experience.

Three Related Components

1) Project Support. Grantees will be funded to develop new or refine existing engagement practices and share their discoveries with the dance field. Projects could enhance ongoing activities or be completely new. For example, among the many possibilities are projects that may:

• broaden reach to a new target audience that may be based in a location or ethnicity;
• reach and cultivate young audiences;
• engage with technology and connect with audiences in new ways;
• cultivate deeper relationships with existing audiences, such as subscribers, donors, etc.;
• involve audiences in the creative process and/or dialogue about the work in new ways.

Grant amounts will range according to the size of the project and the organization's operating budget, but will generally be between $25,000 and $125,000, and no greater than $150,000.

Matching Funds. A 1:1 match is not required but grantees should identify 25% of other funds to help sustain the project's activity and embed the learning for the future.

If funded, grantees must participate in components two and three.

2) Audience Engagement Research. Grantees will cooperate with consultants Alan Brown and Jennifer Novak of WolfBrown to conduct research on their own audience engagement. WolfBrown will provide technical assistance to the grantees in designing and executing surveys of audiences at live or other events.

• Grantees must confer by telephone with WolfBrown to plan their survey efforts and work with the consultants to finalize an audience research plan.
• Grantees must provide on-site logistical support of survey efforts (e.g., copying, distributing, and collecting surveys; providing email contact information and links, and/or obtaining permission to distribute surveys from rental facilities).
• WolfBrown will conduct data entry and analysis and provide grantees with the results as a means of refining and improving their programs.
• In early 2010, grantees will be required to broadcast an email invitation to their dance ticket buyers (to the extent that email addresses are available) requesting cooperation with an online audience survey.

3) Learning Community. Grantees are not just being funded to undertake their projects, but also to actively participate in a learning community about engaging audiences by fulfilling the following requirements:

• Grantees will participate in regular meetings and conference calls in order to share their experiences with other grantees and the field at large.
• Grantees will attend, in-person, an orientation meeting to be held in January 2010 in San Diego, CA in conjunction with Dance/USA’s Winter Forum. Two individuals (the project director and one other person) from each project are required to attend. One individual must also attend two additional in-person meetings (time and location to be determined). Dance/USA will cover transportation costs to these meetings separate from grant funds awarded.
• Grantees will submit documents, images, video files, commentary, and other evidence of their project, which Dance/USA will highlight on its website over the life of the funded project.

More details about grantee requirements will be available in the summer of 2009.

Eligibility

Both organizational and individual members of Dance/USA may participate in EDA. Applicants must have 501(c)3 status and be a Dance/USA organizational member in good standing by May 4, 2009. Individual members may participate as part of a consortium (see below) or upgrade their membership to become an organizational member to be eligible to apply on their own. Refer to Become A Member for additional information, including costs and benefits, or contact membership@danceusa.org.

Consortia of at least two or more partners are encouraged to expand opportunities to develop new working relationships in the field, bring diverse organizations and communities together, and build and engage audiences. Consortia must include a Consortium Lead, as well as one or more Consortium Partners. Dance/USA organizational members may apply only once either individually or as a Consortium Lead, but may be a Consortium Partner on multiple applications. Dance/USA individual members may be a Consortium Partner on one or more applications as long as the Consortium Lead is a Dance/USA organizational member. However, it must be a true consortium that will collaborate on a project, rather than an organization serving as a fiscal sponsor.

A Consortium Partner is defined as a key stakeholder that plays an instrumental role in the design and/or implementation of a project and is crucial to its completion. This is distinguished from  a Project Partner, which may provide helpful information or host an event, but is not crucial to the completion of the project. In line with the way in which the dance field functions, it is anticipated that Project Ideas (both individual organizations and consortia) may involve one or more Project Partners. See Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about eligibility.

Note to California Applicants: Current Irvine Foundation grant recipients may not apply to EDA for the same funded project but may apply for a differenct project; if you have questions, please contact Suzanne Callahan, project manager

Review Criteria

For Call for Project Ideas

• Artistic quality of artists and/or works proposed, if relevant to project
• Quality of idea, including the degree to which it either proposes an innovative concept or deepens an existing practice
• Rationale behind the Project Idea, including its feasibility, calculated risk, and/or the context in which it is presented
• Clarity of project’s goals and engagement activities
• Potential of project idea to serve as a model for the dance field in advancing audience engagement practices
• Clarity of, and commitment to, learning that will be shared with the dance field

For Full Applications

At the full application stage, the following criteria will also be considered:

• Clarity of entire project, including evidence of planning and appropriate timing;
• Evidence of fiscal and managerial ability to implement the project, including ability to working with EDA consultants on the audience research component and participate in the learning community;
• Quality and clarity of applicant’s plans to share information with the field;
• Key staff qualifications;
• Appropriateness of the proposed project budget.

In addition, for Consortia:

• Commitment of Consortium Partners to project; and
• Clarity of details of collaboration, including roles, timeline and other planning.

Two Steps to Submit a Project Idea

1) Complete the online Field Survey of Audience Engagement Practices, which goes directly to WolfBrown. The purpose of this survey is to build a base of information for the dance field. It will not affect the review of your Project Idea submission in any way. It is, however, mandatory that you complete the survey for your Project Idea to be considered. You may download a PDF of the survey to review the questions before you start the online version.

2) Complete the online Call for Project Ideas form, which will go directly to Suzanne Callahan, program manager, and Dance/USA. There are character limits for each field on the Call for Project Ideas Form. You may download the Call for Project Ideas Form as a Word document to draft your responses and check the character counts so that you can cut and paste them into the online form.

Note: You will need your EDA user name and password for the Call for Ideas form.  Your user name is the email address of the contact person(s) listed on your Dance/USA membership. Your password is unique to your organization, and will be emailed to your Dance/USA member contact person(s) in the second week of February. If you have joined Dance/USA since that date, please email eda@forthearts.org to obtain your password. Until May 4, 2009, you will be able to change or update your answers to all questions. Note that you must enter your user name and password, to be able to enter updates or make changes, so please retain that information in a safe place.

Questions? Contact Suzanne Callahan, program manager, at 202.955.8325 or eda@ForTheArts.org. 

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