Cultural Investor Program

MAPP International Productions
New York, NY

Founded in 1994, MAPP International Productions (MAPP) helps individual artists create, premiere and tour performing arts projects. Over the three to four years it often takes to move a project from its conceptual stages to full production, MAPP provides artists with a range of services, including managing schedules and budgets; securing grants, commissions and residencies; arranging and marketing performances and community engagement activities; and documenting work. MAPP has developed 25 multidisciplinary projects; produced more than 50 tours; and instituted international exchanges and partnerships. The organization has an annual budget of $825,000.

The Innovation: MAPP developed the Cultural Investor Program (CIP) to promote interaction between individual artists and the public, with the aim of generating new resources for MAPP and its artists. Contrary to traditional art patronage models based on a “ladder of engagement” where the objective is to move patrons up the ladder, MAPP envisions CIP will operate as “interwoven loops of engagement that are multidirectional, iterative and highly personal.” Engagement activities will take place online and in live events through studio visits, reading groups, round tables and social gatherings. By taking part in a dynamic mix of activities, which open up artists’ processes of creation and discovery, patrons will be stimulated not only to engage but as MAPP says, “to invest in the work of contemporary artists as part of their lives.”

How did they do it?  Click on the image to read about MAPP’s work to create a new paradigm in audience engagement. (PDF, 4 pages)

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Posted December 15, 2010