This June, the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) capped its 50th anniversary campaign by setting a record for dollars raised and then breaking that record. “The number we announced at our finale event—we exceeded it!” says Dave Fantle, UPAF’s chief marketing officer. A total of $12,312,885 was raised through workplace giving, fundraiser events and the UPAF Ride for the Arts.
Some 85.28% of this year’s allocation will go to UPAF’s six “Cornerstone Groups:” the Florentine Opera, First Stage, Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Milwaukee Ballet. The remaining 14.72% will be presented to the Bel Canto Chorus, Danceworks, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Children’s Choir, Milwaukee Public Theatre, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Next Act Theatre, Present Music and Renaissance Theaterworks.
Each year after its 15-week spring campaign, UPAF has gone dark for eight months, until now. “Our member groups asked us why UPAF goes quiet at the time when the arts season kicks off,” Fantle continues, referring to the traditional post-Labor Day start to Milwaukee’s performing arts season. This fall (Oct. 1-Nov. 17), UPAF intends to make some noise, not by passing the hat and asking for money, but by sponsoring something new—the Performing Arts Awareness Campaign—to beat the drum for local arts.
“We’ve always had a gentleman’s agreement with the United Way to not compete with their fall fundraising campaign,” Fantle says. “What we’re doing is making our member groups the stars for six weeks in order to put the spotlight on them for the fall season.”
The goals of the Performing Arts Awareness Campaign are to find new audiences by attacking the “not for me” mentality of folks who assume they won’t like theater, dance or classical music, and by reaching people who intensely engaged in other aspects of the local community—supporting Milwaukee businesses, eating food grown nearby—just not the arts. The effort includes several facets:
• Pop-up performances in the Third Ward by UPAF member groups during the Fall Gallery Night (Saturday, Oct. 21).
• Working with 88.9 Radio Milwaukee to sponsor MKE Arts Live, a series of live podcasts involving panel discussions on Milwaukee arts education, prop design for theater, arts administration and other topics. The podcasts are open to the public and will be held at Radio Milwaukee (6 p.m. on Mondays Oct. 2, 9 and 30) and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (Thursday, Oct. 19).
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• Facebook Live, in which volunteers from theater appreciation classes and other novice artgoers attend a play, an opera or a symphony and post their unfiltered responses.
• The website mkearts.com, “celebrating the stories behind Milwaukee’s arts community.”
“We have evolved,” says Fantle, reflecting on UPAF’s half-century history. The primary goal remains to provide financial support for a select roster of performing arts groups, but recent years have seen greater emphasis on filling the gap left by declining funding for arts education in primary and secondary schools. Partnering with 10 local nonprofit organizations, the UPAF Connects initiative brings the arts to “underserved populations,” Fantle explains. The project pays performers to visit sites across the city and purchases tickets that allow members of participating nonprofits to attend performances in concert halls and theaters.
“It’s all about reaching people who are likely to be receptive, but have not had exposure to performing arts,” Fantle concludes. He hopes this fall’s awareness campaign will lead to the first Milwaukee Performing Arts Month—an annual event modeled after Downtown Dining Week and other local promotional events—possibly as early as September 2018.
For more information, visit upaf.org or mkearts.com.
