In Friday’s (4/25) Boston Globe, Shannon Mullen explores efforts by Boston arts groups—including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Institute of Contemporary Art, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts—to attract young professionals. The BSO’s new YoPro series is “a ticket package targeting the type of young professionals the nonprofit hopes might one day become patrons. ‘Our focus early on is to develop relationships,’ explains BSO managing director Mark Volpe. ‘We engage these people before they’re successful. It’s been our experience that as they get involved … if things develop as they hope, they’ll share their good fortune with us.’ So far this season, more than 100 young professionals have bought into the program, which will also include a trip to Tanglewood this summer and a Holiday Pops concert.” The article notes that young professionals in the technology sector tend not to support the arts, focusing their philanthropy on poverty, education, and diversity. “On the issue of community engagement, many arts institutions have initiatives that look beyond their core missions…. ‘If Mozart doesn’t float your boat, we invest millions of dollars in education,’ says the BSO’s Volpe. ‘We are a cultural institution, we’re an educational institution, and to a modest extent we do have a social services dimension.’ ”
Posted May 1, 2014
