Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

By Ann Marie Miller
Executive Director, Art Pride

Smart New Jersey arts organizations use effective tools to learn the who, what, when, why and where about arts patrons. The Jersey Arts List Exchange & Audience Census is a community patron database that houses data from over 50 participating non-profit New Jersey arts organizations. Its goal is to help arts groups grow audiences and boost revenue by identifying a targeted, qualified and focused group of arts consumers through comparative market analysis. After three years of continued growth, the database currently holds information on nearly one million households throughout the region.

Analyzing data and exchanging lists of active patrons is the cheapest and most effective way to augment an organization’s pool of prospective attendees. A community database provides a tool for quickly and easily sharing audience data while offering a pain free way to keep lists clean—free from errors and duplications—all necessary elements of an effective direct mail marketing campaign. A community database also provides an important research tool for learning about arts attendees and their behaviors within the market. Analyses can obtain demographic and psychographic information about patrons as well as information about how attendees interact within and between each participating organization. This type of research can play an important role in advocacy efforts by learning about those who engage (and those who do not engage) in cultural events.

The Art Pride New Jersey Foundation and TRG Arts, through a co-sponsorship with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, partner to provide the Jersey Arts List Exchange & Audience Census as a service to New Jersey’s nonprofit cultural community. TRG Arts manages a number of similar community patron databases in markets across the country including Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston. The Jersey Arts List Exchange & Audience Census is the first of its kind to serve an entire state.

While the deadline for free open enrollment is January 10, cultural groups of all sizes can opt in at any time for a small fee that quickly returns its value. See what arts leaders have to say about the project:

“We’ve been blown away by how much we’re learning about our own patrons! The more time we spend with the data, the more we realize just how much marketing intelligence we have at our disposal. In fact, we plan to start using the List Exchange a lot more aggressively for targeting donors this year.”

—Mary Eileen Fouratt
Executive Director, Monmouth County Arts Council

“The Jersey Arts List Exchange provides my theatre with marketing intelligence on our patrons that would cost me thousands of dollars to acquire any other way. It also serves as the cornerstone of my direct mail campaigns and helps to keep direct mail the most cost-effective way for us to market our productions to arts-savvy patrons throughout the region. This project saves me time and money, period.”

—Rick Engler,
Director of Marketing, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

For more information on the List Exchange, please follow this link.

Ann Marie Miller is the Executive Director of Art Pride, the premier arts advocacy organization in New Jersey, and a regular contributor to the Dodge blog.

By Ann Marie Miller
Executive Director, Art Pride

In this hyper-connected world there are a multitude of online fundraising possibilities now available to non-profit organizations. It’s often dizzying to wade through them (Kickstarter and Razoo are just two) to find the “best fit.” For the last three years the Art Pride New Jersey Foundation has used the online auction as a way to draw attention to not only its programs and services, but to offer a brand new audience a glimpse of the many exciting cultural events happening throughout New Jersey.

Theaters, dance companies, performing arts centers and museums have all donated tickets to help Art Pride continue its work promoting the value of the arts to our daily lives. Art Pride staff took some cues from our astute destination marketing organizations (DMO) by creating tourism packages for the auction that match cultural events with dinners at local restaurants and, in some cases, hotel stays in Cape May, New Brunswick and Princeton. In a few instances, the DMOs donated their own cultural tourism packages, like the one offered by Destination Jersey City that features salon services and an overnight stay along with gala tickets to Art House Production’s annual Snow Ball.

It’s a win-win for all involved. Bidders come from as far as San Jose, CA and Hawaii to bid on getaways, cultural experiences, and unique items autographed by New Jersey artists and entertainers. Savion Glover recently autographed tap shoes for Art Pride’s auction when he performed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Maplewood resident and Tony-award winning actor Norbert Leo Butz agreed to have dinner with a highest auction bidder at a local eatery. The range of items for auction is diverse geographically and culturally, showcasing the best that New Jersey arts groups offer all year round.

As with all fundraising special events, the online auction requires board and staff support from hunting down attractive items to answering questions from individual bidders, to assuring that payments are made and items are appropriately delivered. Marketing is essential and Art Pride uses every tool in the box from traditional direct mail, to our blog, to social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out during an intense two week stretch that includes the annual last minute bidding wars!

Is it all worth it? We think so! The Art Pride New Jersey Foundation has reaped $10,000 from its online auction that is a fun alternative to the traditional annual fund appeal at the end of the calendar year (although you can donate cash through the auction page, too). This year’s auction ends TONIGHT at 8pm on, so check your watch and get your credit card ready to make a bid and give a gift of New Jersey arts this holiday season.

Go to the auction before it’s too late!

Ann Marie Miller is the Executive Director of Art Pride, the premier arts advocacy organization in New Jersey, and a regular contributor to the Dodge blog.

Today’s guest blog (Part 2 of 2) from the Institute of Music for Children is an important reminder of the value of the arts in our lives and the way it connects us to our community. If you missed it, Part 1 is here.

An Interview with an Institute Family

Building community through music is the essence of our work at the Institute of Music for Children in Elizabeth, NJ. Our teachers build community in each class, our staff builds community throughout the campus, but it is our families – parents and siblings, cousins and grandparents – that truly build our community across the city. We recently spoke to one family who has made the Institute a key part of their life in this country.

“We love the Institute. I don’t know what we would do without the Institute.”

Johnson and Jeanne Ratsimbazafy

Jeanne and Johnson Ratsimbazafy came to the United States from Madagascar 20 years ago and settled in Elizabeth. Like generations of immigrants before them, they set down deep roots: Jeanne has worked at IKEA in Elizabeth for more than 10 years, and Johnson at Continental Airlines. They are longtime members of a Malagasy Christian congregation at Second Presbyterian Church on East Jersey Avenue. And they have been a part of the Institute family for over a decade.

“We heard about the program at Second, where our congregation meets. We were looking for something fun for the kids to do over the summer, and saw a poster. A friend of ours said the program was great and we decided to register them all together.”

Her daughter Sarah began that 2-week summer program at only 6 years old, learning the keyboards and playing in the Hand Bell Choir under the direction of Ms. Carolina Bradford. The response was immediate, for the entire family.

“We fell in love. We couldn’t believe how much they learned in just two weeks! The music showed them the best way to learn.”

In the 10 years since then, they returned again and again as the Institute grew from that short summer program into a year-round arts-based youth development agency, now serving more than 900 children each year. What kept them coming back?

“The Institute began to offer more choices, so we had new things to do. My daughter was always so shy, always standing behind me and refusing to meet strangers. When she joined this program, I saw her up there, singing onstage, and that was such a big step. The longer we stayed, the deeper our relationship with the program.”

Sarah Ratsimbazafy

Sarah is now 16, and attends the prestigious Thacher High School in Ojai, California, which Jeanne partially attributes to the Institute. “Every time I go to see her, she is onstage, at this amazing boarding school in the mountains…..I say, where did she get this from? She got it from the Institute.”

Her son Michael followed in the family tradition, beginning classes at age 6. These days he is studying guitar and acting on Saturdays, so that he can play sports during the week. But Michael still considers the Summer Institute a must.

Jeanne considers the scholarship support a must. “We couldn’t do it without the help of the Institute.” So when Executive Director Alysia Souder introduced the Membership Program last year, Jeanne jumped at the chance to help deepen her ties to the organization, and to help others have the same amazing experience as her kids.

Michael Ratsimbazafy (right)

The Membership Program “is about supporting each other, finding a way to help. It makes your relationship to the Institute stronger, more involved.” Under the annual Membership fee, families receive discounted tuition, opportunities for scholarships, and priority placement in classes. In exchange, they volunteer one hour per semester per child and commit to raise an additional $50. Though it requires some work, Jeanne feels it worth it. “It’s a great way for kids to see you – ‘Look at my parents, how they are helping me.’”

That community spirit extends to the alumni as well. Every summer, Sarah returns home, and her first question is, “Can I help out at the Institute this year?” For two years, she has been a leader in the Youth Employment Program, an innovative training course for teens, in which they assist our Master Teaching Artists, supervise younger students, and learn vital workplace skills. “It lets the older kids say. ‘Look – this is where I started, and now look what I can do.’ And the young ones say ‘I want to be like you.’”

From pre-school to high school and beyond, the Institute becomes a part of the lives of those it touches. Even if they don’t become musicians or performers, the Ratsimbazafys agree that “Music never leaves kids’ lives. It may not be their whole life, but it never going to leave their life either.”

The Ratsimbazafys exemplify the ethos of the Institute community: long-term, life-changing educational experiences rooted in the performing arts. The Membership Program takes the Institute’s work a step further, allowing dedicated families like theirs to ensure that the music continues to play for those coming after them.

“You feel it. You live. You have to give back to it.”

Images courtesy Institute of Music for Children

By Ann Marie Miller
Executive Director
Art Pride

This week the New Jersey League of Municipalities will host its 96th Annual Conference in Atlantic City from November 15 – 18. This year’s theme is Creating a Community with a Common Vision.

The Art Pride NJ Foundation is proud to partner with the NJ State Council on the Arts, Arts Plan NJ, the Arts Build Communities program of Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning, and Sustainable Jersey to present a panel discussion on “Partnering for Sustainable and Creative Communities.”

Mayor Ed Mahaney of Cape May is the presiding mayor for this discussion that will explore opportunities for municipalities to partner with neighboring towns, higher levels of government, and other community organizations to successfully accomplish sustainability projects. Panelists will share success stories that demonstrate how sustainability and creativity are natural partners.

Panelists include Suzette Dewey, Coordinator for Earthwise Associates, Barbara Fiedler, Assistant Deputy Director of Community Services for the Township of Galloway, Mary Reece, Director of Media and Innovative Programs for the Foundation for Educational Administration (who also serves on the board of trustees for Young Audiences for Learning NJ, and the Steering Committees for the NJ Arts Education Partnership and Creative NJ), and Larry McCullough, the Grants Officer for Woodbridge Township. They will share personal experiences and describe how seniors and youth worked together to build a community garden, how four towns partnered to host a regional green fair, and how one municipality focused on sustainability by developing its creative community assets. Panelists will also focus on how a strong arts education program can not only gain points toward Sustainable Jersey certification, but improve graduation rates and property values.

Mayors and municipal leaders in attendance will receive a resource guide that offers practical ways to incorporate arts education and cultural development into municipal sustainability efforts along with data on resulting benefits. A wide variety of resources that are listed in the resource guide are available through the Arts Build Communities program that offers local government leaders assistance through research and continuing education opportunities.

This is the seventh year that the Art Pride New Jersey Foundation partnered with the NJ State Council on the Arts to present a panel discussion at the NJ League of Municipalities Conference. Previous panels focused on cultural tourism, destination marketing, arts education and cultural planning. Our partnerships in this effort keep expanding and we are happy to widen the net!

Ann Marie Miller is the Executive Director of Art Pride, the premier arts advocacy organization in New Jersey, and a regular contributor to the Dodge blog.

We love the creative spirit that thrives in Newark.  We wanted to make sure you knew about the Newark Arts Council’s city-wide 10^th Open Doors Studio Tour, which kicked off yesterday.  This weekend is the best time to explore Newark’s galleries, curated shows and artist studios during this great event.  The Tour culminates on Sunday with a parade leading to an Art Festival at Washington Park.  For more information and a full schedule of events, visit the Newark Arts Council’s page.

And if all the artistic stimulation makes you hungry for something delicious, you’re in luck – because it is also Newark Restaurant Week. Explore the variety of cuisine that Newark has to offer – whether you’re in the mood for Portuguese in the Ironbound, New American in the Downtown Arts District, Rodizio or Sushi – you’ll find great deals at Newark’s best restaurants.

Take advantage of the free shuttles which will be stopping around the city all weekend, and please don’t forget to be green – Newark is highly accessible by public transportation. See NJ Transit’s website for more information.