In 2012 Bronfenbrenner Consulting Group was commissioned by The Saint Paul Foundation to find solutions to decades-long conflict surrounding the operations and funding of the iconic Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Over eighteen months, our personnel engaged Ordway management and the venue’s Resident Arts Organizations to identify collaborative solutions to problems ranging from scheduling conflicts to financial arrangements. BCG then facilitated creation of the Saint Paul Arts Partnership, a unique organization with the goal of instituting cooperative utilization of the Ordway Center, developing additional performance spaces, and conducting coordinated fundraising efforts to endow rental costs.
BCG’s work was extended to an in-depth study to substantiate the need for expanding the Ordway Center with the addition of a 1,100-seat concert hall – a new home for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. This expansion provides further relief for Ordway’s tightly-packed utilization calendar, offers opportunities for program expansion, and improve significantly SPCO’s performance environment.
The new Concert Hall at Ordway Center opened in February 2015 to critical acclaim.
Citing Bronfenbrenner’s extensive work on this project, The Saint Paul Foundation’s President Carleen Rhodes, stated:
“About three meetings into the process, the group agreed to hire a results-oriented consultant with strong financial skills and a deep appreciation for the complexities of performing arts facilities… This proved to be a linchpin of the process as B Squared Consulting was able to dispel misconceptions about the Ordway’s cost allocation to the Resident Arts Organizations and surface flaws in Ordway’s business model.”