Partnerships
Ordway builds on many partnerships to benefit the City of Saint Paul and other arts organizations.Ordway has a fundamental and long-standing partnership as the performance facility of our Arts Partners: The Minnesota Opera, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and The Schubert Club. Over the years, scores of other Twin Cities-based artists and arts organizations have also performed at the Ordway.
For the last 14 years, Ordway has bestowed Sally Ordway Irvine Awards to individuals and organizations that have made a difference in advancing the arts in Minnesota. To contribute to excellence in the field and expand access, Ordway participates in state, regional, and national organizations such as the Saint Paul Arts & Culture Partnership, the Minnesota Presenters Network, Independent Presenters, and the Kennedy Center. Ordway is one of five nonprofit performing arts centers to collaborate with Elephant Eye Theatrical, a new producing company dedicated to developing musicals for Broadway.
Ordway has strong ties with the Saint Paul Public School District and Minneapolis Public School District through Education programming. We also have working partnerships with Perpich Center for Arts Education, COMPAS, VocalEssence, and other nonprofit arts organizations working in arts education.
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is sponsor to the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, (SPCPA) a professionally guided academic and artistic educational environment for grades nine through twelve located in downtown Saint Paul. The SPCPA trains aspiring artists in the areas of instrumental and vocal music, theater, and dance. Though SPCPA students receive a strong liberal arts education, the focus of the school is on the performing arts, in which students spend three hours each day. Currently in its fourth academic year, the SPCPA serves more than four hundred students.
Ordway staff are involved as members and leaders of national and international organizations promoting and defining best practices in arts and arts education programming including Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program, Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and the Minnesota Presenters Network. In June of 2007, Ordway hosted the annual conference for the USA chapter of Theater for Young Audiences in connection with the annual Children’s Festival.