Leah Cooper, Executive Director of the Minnesota Theater Alliance (MTA), has an eclectic career background which includes opening her own theater company at 15 (I know, right?), working as a software engineer, and leading the MN Fringe Festival. She has seen first-hand how small theater organizations struggle to find resources to further their missions, and at the same time how much waste there is in the theater industry.
Leah also observed how many organizations’ mission statements often laud “community”; at the same time some organizations inadvertently neglect their community’s ecosystem.
For this reason, Leah hopes that a new sharing platform known as the Arts Market will give other theaters the freedom to make a set from used set materials versus building new sets. Think of a Craigslist for the theater scene. It’s akin to using the ramen noodles and can of garbanzo beans already in your pantry to make a new recipe instead of going to the market to buy new ramen noodles. “Yes, like a new goulash!” Leah laughed.
The Arts Market, launched in September 2014, lets users create a password-protected account in order to buy, sell or barter for materials or props. MTA has given the autonomy to users and wants to avoid being a middle-man in addition to setting few rules. The Arts Market has enrolled approximately 400 users and while most of them have been merely window-shopping, the database is forecasted to grow as users realize the benefits of sharing resources. In the future, the MTA may add staff to help theaters take large-scale inventory to sell their wares more efficiently.
What are users selling, you ask? Santa’s sleigh for one! (Weird I know! Oh well, Santa must be upgrading.) And what do users want to buy or rent? Do you remember Lord Farquaad, the short-statured king from “Shrek” voiced by John Lithgow? Well one theater wants to borrow Lord Farquaad’s horse for their own “Shrek” production so if you know of this niche item, let Leah know. Oh and if you know of anyone who has a hot rod to lend, there’s a high school hoping to borrow the car for their production of “Grease.”
By helping the Minnesota theater community share resources, Leah identified a number of benefits, not all of which are tangible like a sleigh or hot rod or horse. Aside from the obvious benefits such as using fewer capital goods, another benefit to resource sharing is the ability to foster networking. “In the arts community, we tend to be understaffed and overworked,” Leah said, “which can lead to missed opportunities to learn from each other. It’s ironic since theater is a collaborative art form,” she added, noting how the collaborative spirit can fall by the wayside on the administrative side of the proverbial coin.
A New Look at Happy Hour, with a Side of Baloney
Project 824 is an initiative founded in 2011 when the Brave New Workshop (BNW) moved to its 824 Hennepin Avenue location in downtown Minneapolis. The owners, John Sweeney and Jenni Lilledahl, pledged to donate the use of their Experimental Thinking Centre (ETC) to non-profits and causes on 824 occasions for worthwhile events. “When the venue is not in use for a corporate or social event, BNW still has to pay rent and utilities so why not open it up to community organizations who can’t typically afford the rental fee?” asked John.
And herein lays the bunch of baloney! Once per month, a baloney-sandwich-making frenzy overtakes the ETC when the public is invited to make sandwiches for the homeless as part of the Happy Hour Squared initiative. "Happy Hour Squared fits with the purpose of BNW Creative Outreach, our corporate services division, which is to spread the mindset of discovery, and the purpose of our ETC event center, which is to hold events that inspire innovation and serve the community," said John. "An event like this does not take much new effort from any of us, but our combined resources create a huge amount of community service impact," John added. "Happy Hour Squared is a low cost, high impact event." So far, the BNW has hosted nine Happy Hour Squared events and generated more than 23,000 sandwiches. You can find when the next Happy Hour Squared will be by visiting www.happyhousquared.com
“Small businesses and arts organizations typically don’t have big budgets or resources to give back to the community in traditional philanthropic ways, but if they look at their resources creatively, most companies can have a much larger impact than they might originally think,” said Elena Imaretska, BNW’s VP of New Products, Partnerships and Sustainability.
From Trash to Treasure
When Chris Lutter, artistic and managing director of Puppet Farm Arts, used to live on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin, he worked (and lived) in a renovated barn making puppets and other works of art. When people started referring to his abode as a “puppet farm” the name stuck!
Chris’ aim is to recycle anything that would normally find its way into the waste stream – anything that ends up in a landfill – to create puppets, artwork and theater sets. For example, he may go to a furniture store or manufacturing plant to inquire about their discards. Above all, Chris’ goal is to get his materials for free. “Otherwise,” Chris laughed, “it defeats the goal of recycling if I am going to purchase something new!” Some of his favorite materials to use are window screens; coaxial cables for creating set pieces that require curvature; rubber tires; feed bags that are conducive to being torn into hair-like material; and tennis balls fitted with the tops of water bottles that, in combination, create a lifelike ball-and-socket joint for puppetry. What doesn’t he enjoy working with? Styrofoam® because it’s messy, difficult to carve and can produce fumes.
Chris considers himself an artist and a conservationist and is concerned about the wasteful culture we live in. Above all, he hopes his artwork conveys a sense of what others endure on the other side of the globe and “who are unwittingly drawn into our economy of consumption.” Living and working ‘green’ should be a necessity, not a trend. Plus, working with recyclables saves Chris money and it puts him in touch with the manufactures who produced the materials.
Aside from its namesake, Puppet Farm Arts also creates musical devices from everyday materials. Need a drum? Done. Need a horn? Done. Granted, the melody from a PVC pipe will be different than a French horn. “It’s about discovering new sounds, not mimicking a clarinet,” Chris added.
….Ready, Set, Reframe!
Reframing can be difficult when we are in the daily whirlwind of work. We may be too focused on the tasks at hand to discover what our skills, space, materials, knowledge etc. can do for the community or how they can be used in other ways to help us achieve our goals. Stepping back, being curious about how others see the world, and thus finding new applications for existing resources, can be a powerful practice, which can literally change the world.
“Reframing what you have in abundance and sharing it with the community is a great way to amplify your positive influence and grow your network of collaborators and supporters,” Elena concluded.
Photo: "Big Boots" by Pam Heaney; created from refrigerator boxes, waste coaxial cable, paper, paint, wax
--Nancee Magistad