Actors Theatre of Louisville Awarded $40,000 from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Artistic Director Les Waters and Director of Development Julie Roberts announced today that Actors Theatre of Louisville has been awarded a generous $40,000 exploration grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Exploration Grant is a part of the prestigious Building Demand for the Arts program. In collaboration with local performance artist Ben Sollee, Actors Theatre will utilize the funds to explore new engagement initiatives for young audiences through the use of technology and new media. One of only eighteen performing arts organizations in the country to receive this coveted award, Actors Theatre will use the newly formed partnership with Sollee to focus on audience development and community engagement.

"Today's technologies and social media platforms offer a wholly different way to connect audiences with theater arts," said Sollee. "I'm so grateful to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for giving Actors Theatre of Louisville and me the opportunity to explore these opportunities. It is our ambition to use this collaborative grant to stretch out, try new things, and take some chances."

Waters said, "Actors Theatre has had the privilege of collaborating with Ben Sollee on two previous projects. He is a unique and inspired artist and we are thrilled to partner with him to explore audience development through new media, technology, and music. I can think of no one more suited for this collaboration than Ben. He is a celebrated musician and a treasured Kentucky native. We are honored to receive this extraordinarily rare opportunity."

"We are pleased to support the collaboration between Actors Theatre of Louisville and Ben Sollee to investigate new strategies that build demand for the arts among younger generations," said Cheryl Ikemiya, senior program officer for the Arts at DDCF. "The partners' exploration of how technology and social media might build crossover audiences of music fans for live theater will provide important learnings to the field."

The Building Demand for the Arts program promotes deeper, longer relationships between artists and arts organizations, as well as new kinds of conversation, brainstorming and cooperation between them. The program therefore offers multiple Exploration Grants, which support initial, investigative conversations between artists and organizations about ways to build demand for the performing arts. DDCF is awarding these grants as part of a larger $50 million, 10-year commitment over and above its existing funding for the performing arts.

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