Creating Powerful and Poetic Theater

The Olseth Family Foundation seeks a more inclusive society through support of the arts, literature, and exposure to atypical experiences. Research has proven that creative pursuits provide numerous benefits, such as a voice for the voiceless, a diminishing of stereotypes, reshaping, and renewing communities, and placing a spotlight on difficult issues, while allowing healthy discussion.

For more than three decades, the Jungle Theater has never strayed from its mission and vision to be a neighborhood theater with national impact, indispensable to its local Minneapolis community and aspirational to the field.

In 2021, the Jungle created the Artistic Cohort, leadership, and development model, with the objective of bridging the divide between theater authority figures and artists by fostering growth, providing mutual support, expanding diversity, and increasing the range of voices shaping the future of the Jungle.

The Olseth Family Foundation has committed to support the initial Artistic Cohort, composed of four local artists, Sequoia Hauck, James Rodriguez, Angela Timberman, and JuCoby Johnson, whose talents cover a variety of artistic and theatrical disciplines. Each member will be given full access to the theater’s decision-making process, including show budgeting, season creation, and overall management. They will also envision and create supplementary material for the Jungle while receiving resources to support their own independent projects.

This unique new cohort model places artists in a position to have influence on decisions that shape the future of Twin Cities theater by building support systems that empower artists to be key decision makers in the institutions where they work. By ensuring artists’ voices are amplified and given a voice at the decision-making table, the Jungle Theater will ultimately broaden the audience reach.

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