Barr Announces Awards to 15 Boston Arts Organizations That Support Young People

In 2011, following extensive conversations with local arts organizations about how they were responding to a challenging economy and the departure of several longtime, institutional funders of arts and culture in Boston, Barr introduced a new strategy for its arts grantmaking. This strategy is focused on two areas that the foundation has supported since its inception—mid-sized arts organizations and youth arts programs that help young people achieve mastery in an art form. The strategy provides for deeper, multi-faceted, longer-term support to cohorts of arts organizations. This focus on cohorts was a direct response to grantees, who noted that declining arts funding in Boston had resulted in fewer forums to share strategies, to learn together, and to coordinate collective action focused on drawing new funding to Boston arts organizations.

Barr issued its first open request for concept papers in the fall of 2011, for the mid-sized cohort, and in early 2012 a fifteen-member group of outstanding mid-sized organizations were chosen to receive awards. This group has already begun convening, sharing strategies, and collaborating in new ways. Since I started at Barr in August, I’ve had the chance to join some of these conversations. I am excited to share more in the years ahead about what is emerging from this group and what we are learning together.

In the meantime, we are also delighted to introduce the newest cohort to receive funding under this new approach—fifteen organizations offering Boston youth from across the city rich opportunities to pursue excellence in a wide range of artistic disciplines:

• Artists for Humanity
• Boston Children’s Chorus
• Boston City Singers
• Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras
• Community Music Center of Boston
• From the Top
• Hyde Square Task Force
• OrigiNation
• Project STEP, Symphony Hall
• The Theater Offensive
• Sociedad Latina
• URBANO Project
• West End House
• Youth and Family Enrichment Services
• ZUMIX

We are excited to begin working together and grateful for the continued support in this effort from the Klarman Family Foundation, which shares our goals for strengthening the arts in Boston.