Hamilton, a Broadway musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, is moving people across the country in a once-in-a-decade kind of mass cultural phenomenon. The show reclaims America’s early history and puts it in the language of rap, hip hop and pop music. It reframes one Founding Father’s story as the tale of a scrappy immigrant with a hot head and a lot to offer his new home; a story with lessons for a country besieged by racist, nativist rhetoric on the national stage. The show has morphed quickly from the toast of the New York theatre scene to the hottest ticket in town to a bona fide national cultural sensation. All the more exciting, it provides an exemplary case study in innovative approaches to funding new work by an arts nonprofit.
Hamilton was first staged at The Public Theater, a publicly funded nonprofit theatre, early this year, in a partnership that benefited all the parties involved. Instead of fronting the full cost of a Broadway production up front, startup costs were significantly defrayed for the creators of the musical, and the theater itself bet on a steady stream of income if and when the show became a hit. Crucially, the artistic team behind the show was legally shielded from any influence in the process from the commercial interests behind the initial investment – quite a risk for the investors themselves. It’s a model that’s becoming more common on Broadway, and it ought to be an instructive example for the social sector at large of the power of innovative, cross-sector partnerships.
Most importantly, the partnership allowed for high-quality, evocative, supremely entertaining art to reach the masses. The results of Hamilton’s public-private partnership have been extraordinary. Because Hamilton has since moved to Broadway, the theater now stands to reap about $3 million from the show’s success. It’s the kind of money that many arts organizations can only dream of. The theater’s largest philanthropic supporter, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust (administered by NCRP supporter the Mertz Gilmore Foundation), should be pleased with its grantee’s work and confident in its sustainability. Allowing The Public Theater the space to engage in partnerships with for-profit entities to take risks on ground-breaking art demonstrates the kind of grantor-grantee relationship other foundations need to aspire to.
I hope that the producers of Hamilton will remember their roots at The Public Theater, and ensure the show is accessible to those for whom a Broadway show might be financially out of reach. That must be the other end of this cross-sector equation: Risky art is propped up by public support and when it succeeds, communities historically excluded from the tony theaters of Broadway are given a chance to enjoy it, too.
Especially at a time when arts funding is anemic and for-profit arts investments are risky, a partnership like the one that brought us Hamilton is good for all involved. In 2012, less than 4 cents of every dollar granted by foundations in the U.S. was devoted to the performing arts. Our nonprofit arts and culture institutions are consistently underfunded, even as their role as outlets for expression – especially telling stories about identity and shared history, like Hamilton does – remains as essential as ever. It’s important that leaders in the arts nonprofit sector, and funders especially, encourage and support innovative new strategies for arts organizations to maintain a steady stream of funding. In a recent essay, NCRP’s Executive Director Aaron Dorfman wrote about the need for foundations to support fundraising capacity building among grassroots nonprofits. Beyond just grassroots organizations, it’s important for any nonprofit to have the necessary support from its funders to experiment with new sources of sustaining funds.
Funders ought to pay attention, and think about how they can encourage their grantees to take a shot like The Public Theater did. The continued survival of our arts and culture organizations might rely on risks like the ones taken on Hamilton.
Ryan Schlegel is research associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter.
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