FROM DOWNTOWN
TO EVERY TOWN
Building arts ecosystems that extend beyond the performance.
The Presentation
Follow the presentation during the session, then use the framework and workshop tools below to apply the ideas to your own work.
Most people do not begin their relationship with football by deciding to buy an expensive ticket to a professional game.
They played as children. They watched with family. They attended high school games. They followed teams, athletes and traditions. They played fantasy football.
By the time they arrive downtown for the big game, the stadium is gathering an ecosystem that already exists.
Build the relationship around the performance.
The sequence is not rigid. The discipline is relational.
MAP
Who is already part of the ecosystem surrounding this work?
LISTEN
What conversations are already happening in the community?
INVITE
How can people encounter the work in a meaningful way?
CREATE
What opportunities exist for participation or contribution?
GATHER
How can the work become a reason for people to come together?
PERFORM
The performance becomes part of the relationship, not all of it.
REFLECT
What happened? What did participants and partners experience?
RETURN
What continues after the curtain closes?
Map your ecosystem.
Choose one production, concert, exhibition, festival or program.
PEOPLE
Who might have a natural connection to the ideas inside this work?
PLACES
Where are those people already gathering?
TRUST
Who already has meaningful relationships with those people?
EXPERIENCES
What could happen before someone is ever asked to buy a ticket?
Not everyone enters through the theater.
A healthy arts ecosystem gives people different ways to encounter, experience, contribute to and eventually belong to the work.
SEE
Performance
Preview
Demonstration
Public encounter
EXPERIENCE
Workshop
School program
Class
Open rehearsal
TALK
Q&A
Panel
Book discussion
Story circle
CONTRIBUTE
Share a story
Create movement
Offer an idea
Make something
BELONG
Return
Volunteer
Advocate
Partner
Don't make an ad.
Make a doorway.
Imagine you cannot buy any advertising for your event. Design ways people could encounter the work instead.
SEE
What could someone encounter before deciding whether to attend?
EXPERIENCE
What could someone actually do?
CONTRIBUTE
What could someone add, share, create or shape?
CONNECT
Which trusted partner could make this invitation stronger?
When people share their stories, experiences and ideas with us, participation creates responsibility.
CONSENT
Do people understand how their participation may be used?
DIGNITY
Are we treating lived experience as relationship, not raw material?
RECIPROCITY
What does the participant receive from the exchange?
RETURN
Will people see what their contribution helped create?
The Every Town Canvas
Choose one production, exhibition, concert, festival or program.
ART
What conversation already exists inside the work?
PEOPLE
Who has a natural connection to that conversation?
TRUST
Who already has relationships with those people?
INVITATION
What could people do, not merely attend?
RETURN
What will continue after the event?
Experience Ballet 5:8 beyond today's conversation.
Follow the work, experience a performance, or bring Ballet 5:8 to your own city, venue, conference, school or community.
Great art can happen anywhere.
Belonging has to be built everywhere.
Ballet 5:8 sparks discussion on life, faith, and human dignity
through powerful storytelling and breathtaking dance.
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