Celebrating 25 years - Center for Puppetry Arts

Online Ticket Sales
As a companion to the revamped Web site, the Center began selling tickets online, with the first online sale on
September 1, 2003. During the 2003-04 season, 3,333 tickets were purchased online, representing over $50,000
in net revenues. The online ticketing system also expanded the Center’s reach and the number of patrons in the
database – 75 percent of patrons buying online had never been to the Center before, generating over 800 new
accounts! In addition, over 600 new accounts were created where the patron said they heard about the Center
and booked due to the site but did not purchase online.
Rockefeller Grant Awarded to Jon Ludwig & Jason Hines
In October 2003, The Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund awarded a grant to Jon
Ludwig, associate artistic director, and Jason Hines, resident puppet designer and builder, for their new project,
Avanti, Da Vinci! The Secret Adventures of Leonardo da Vinci, which premiered in August 2004.
The Rockefeller Foundation, endowed by John D. Rockefeller and chartered in 1913, is a knowledge-based, global
foundation with a commitment to enrich and sustain the livelihoods of poor and excluded peoples throughout the
world. In 1988, the Rockefeller Foundation developed the MAP Fund to encourage proposals in the performing
arts that reflected the boldest and most creative approaches to new work in contemporary art. The MAP Fund
is a highly competitive annual grant program funding only 15 percent of the approximately 350 applications it
receives per year.
Center Awarded a New Generations Grant from Theatre Communications Group
In April 2004, the Center received a “Cultivating the Audiences of Tomorrow” grant from the New Generations
Program, an initiative cooperatively designed by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation and Theatre Communications Group. The two-year grant enabled the Center to hire an audience
development/group sales manager, create target-specific marketing promotions for adult puppetry programming
and create a promotions internship in the marketing department.
The Center was one of 24 theaters selected across the nation to participate in this round of the New Generations
Program. Established in 2000, the Program has awarded more than $6.1 million in two-year grants to 84 theatres
in support of two separate objectives: Mentoring the Leaders of Tomorrow, the cultivation and strengthening
of a new generation of theatre leadership through mentorships with accomplished theatre practitioners; and
Cultivating the Audiences of Tomorrow, the expansion and bolstering of existing audience development programs
that have proven effective in reaching young and/or culturally specific audiences.
New Generations Program applications were reviewed by an independent national selection panel comprised
of John Belluso, director, The Other Voices Project, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, CA; Stephen Buescher,
performer/teacher/director, Providence, RI; Lillian Cho, executive director, Asian American Arts Alliance, New
York, NY; Del Hamilton, artistic director, 7 Stages, Atlanta, GA; Jayne Baccus Khalifa, managing director, Penumbra
Theater Company, St. Paul, MN; Paul Nicholson, executive director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR;
Laura Penn, managing director, Intiman Theatre, Seattle, WA; and Steve Richardson, producing director, Theatre de
la Jeune Lune, Minneapolis, MN.
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