The Dayton Hudson Foundation and Nancy Hauser Dance Company and School: A funding relationship

A 1988 study by the Business Committee for the Arts found that out of four of the major arts disciplines, (symphonies, theater, dance, and museums), dance was ranked fourth, or last, for receiving corporate support. There are almost no statistics on corporate funding to local dance organizations. Dayton Hudson Foundation gave more than $100,000 a year from 1986 to 1990 to dance organizations based in Minneapolis. One of the recipients, The Nancy Hauser Dance Company and School submitted four proposals to Dayton Hudson Foundation, between 1980 and 1991. Many of the successes and failures involved in that funding process are illustrated and may be representative of funding relationships between multitudinous corporations and dance organizations. Key issues---aesthetics, funding trends, community, communication and the role of management---are identified as factors which may be affecting the current level of funding to dance organizations by corporations.