Board Perspective on Partnership
As part of our preparation for the ABA live! Webinar featuring the partnership between the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet, we interviewed the board chairs of both organizations. Below is an edited synthesis of those conversations.
Anne Kaplan is an owner and designer at Insight Environmental Design, an interior design firm in Chicago. Kaplan joined the Joffrey Board in spring of 2011 and has served on the Executive Committee as Vice Chair, in addition to the Development, Strategic Planning, and Campaign Planning Committees. She is a trustee of the Mayer & Morris Kaplan Family Foundation and was board chair at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Sylvia Neil was elected the first woman’ board chair of the Lyric Opera of Chicago in September 2020. Neil joined the Lyric Board of Directors in May of 2011 and has served as a member of Lyric’s Executive Committee, IDEA Steering Committee and several others over the course of her Lyric tenure. She is a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School, where she was former associate dean. Currently she is a vice chair of the Art Institute of Chicago and sits on the boards of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago High School for the Arts, Chicago Public Media, and Brandeis University, where she chairs the Board of Fellows.
Tell me the story of the Lyric/Joffrey relationship from your perspective
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: Before the partnership, I often had conversations with Ashley [Wheater] and Greg [Cameron] where they referred to Anthony [Freud] . They talked quite a bit about their shared perspectives about developing audiences. They were on the same page. It was exciting to talk in general about this. This was before the relationship became more than just two very experienced artistic allies.
Ashley and Greg were very open with the board from the beginning about the possibilities of this partnership and the implications. When it started to be clear that this partnership could happen in a physical way, they took the board to see the Lyric. Personally, I was worried about the sight lines for a ballet, but even with that concern it seemed like it was worth it. There were so many benefits to the Joffrey: the fact that we didn’t have to move in and out constantly of a venue. With only eight days of performing, we could rest our sets on that stage. We could probably do more elaborate productions because of the stage and storage – and loading in and out was fairly eliminated. Plus there were the amenities to our audience – parking, valet parking, restaurants to make an evening.
So although some people expressed their doubts we all knew to trust in the decision-making and the analytic capabilities of our leaders. It was a profound move. Two great organizations coming together under one roof. In addition to the benefits I already mentioned, it will enhance each of our subscriptions and our capacities and our advertising.
Ashley, Greg and Anthony were delighted to be exploring new ways to have innovative programming. And when I saw the production of Orphée et Eurydice, I thought, “This is what opera and ballet should be, together.” They come from the same place to me, they have amazing traditions. How great to have it coming out of one of the great opera houses. And of course now I’m thrilled about the reconfiguration of the seating to improve the sight lines!
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: from my perspective – these are two wonderful performing arts companies and there has been a long mutual admiration. Anthony and Drew [Landmesser] had long conversations with Ashley and Greg – starting with a possible accommodation of the Joffrey for their Cinderella performances, when they needed to find a last-minute performance home and Lyric offered the accommodation.
Eventually the good feelings led to a wonderful outcome for the city. The fit feels so natural. Opera is a multi-faceted art form. Dance is more prominent in opera than most folks think. It is not just about the voice. And Lyric has emphasized the excellence beyond the voice for some time.
Part of what makes them such a great fit is that both organizations have a similar emphasis on the quality of the work. Unless there is the same quality focus on both sides, the partnership won’t work. In addition, the leadership teams’ personalities mesh well. There is trust, there is transparency.
I have treasured Ashley Wheater’s work as an audience member. And I remember when Joffrey first came to Chicago and I have long gone to the performances. Anne Kaplan and Greg Cameron are two people whose leadership in the city I have long admired. One cannot imagine the city without Joffrey. It is part of the city’s DNA, part of the identity.
Anne and I worked very closely together at the MCA, I’m very fond of her. In fact, when I officially became the Lyric Opera board chair we shared a Zoom glass of champagne with her and Helen Zell to celebrate women leading boards of three major arts organizations in Chicago!
What is the thing that most surprised you about the organizations working together?
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: One thing that surprised me was how much our two organizations have in common. The Lyric started in 1954 and the Joffrey started in 1956, although of course we started in New York originally. But we’re sisters, we happened at the same time.
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: The pandemic has been a surprise! We were so excited to be able to announce our collaboration, our partnership and have this be such an exciting opening season for the two of us together. All of it further enhanced by having a new music director-designate, Enrique Mazzola. The pandemic has put a bit of a cloud over all that excitement.
On the other hand, the relationship has marinated in a wonderful way. It has brought us closer as collaborators and partners thinking through issues, announcements. It’s like a friendship.
The hardest thing to put together for us was the coordination of calendars. There is a certain kind of expectation for when the opera season is, when the Joffrey performs and, or course, the Nutcracker needing to be at the winter holiday time. Those were some of the harder issues to work out yet for Lyric. We have been looking at our future, we have continued to introduce new performance elements, like a musical in the spring, doing more chamber opera performances, and even revisiting the nature of our opera productions with dance – we are excited to have challenges of the new calendar structure, as they foster further growth and development We think that we enhance each other as companies.
What is something you are excited about with the two organizations partnering?
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: We both have a great commitment to education and community engagement. I have to imagine there will be spillover in collaboration there. I’ve talked to Sylvia about it in the past – about being able to expand each other’s programs to make them fuller experiences for the community and students. Bring excitement to their creative possibilities and possibly jobs in the arts. That’s a great place for us to coalesce.
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: I can summarize it in one word. The word is richness. There’s a programmatic richness to the shared residency. One company enhances the other. Our audiences will thrive and grow because of that. Our complementary cultural personalities play off of each other.
What advice would you give from the board perspective to another organization considering a partnership?
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: Boards should follow the lead of your executive leadership and trust them. When you can see when a partnership feels natural, go for it. We have a lot of overlapping boards and donors in both places. We had the benefit of trusting the leadership of the other organization.
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: In Chicago, we know each other. It’s a big world, but it’s also pretty small. So I would say, develop relationships with other arts organizations. Anthony and Ashley had a relationship before the partnership conversations evolved. I’m sure some conversations likely happened early over a cocktail!
If you have built those relationships then, when it becomes clearer that more formal partnership might be a possibility, there is already an underlayment of trust.
Overall, alliances like this are the way to go. The lines have blurred in the arts. At the MCA we had an exhibit of Merce Cunningham in our galleries. So even though it is time consuming, it’s important to have those relationships, to explore the possibilities.
On a separate note, how has the pandemic affected your relationship with the organizations and the board itself?
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: There is nothing like stress and uncertainty to give you the measure of a person and an organization. As a group, we’ve gone through a lot together. You can sense the stress. You know you are with people who have things going on in their lives. But what I have come to appreciate more fully is that the measure of this organization is really good – I wouldn’t have known it without this. It’s easy to ‘dance in’ and watch things blossom but now is really an important time to be part of it, be even more involved.
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: I cannot praise our board enough. Our board has participated in unprecedented ways: taking on more tasks, being generous in more ways, and coming up with a great agenda of alternative programming that we have started doing. People have rolled up their sleeves.
In an interesting way, there’s an ability to step back and it’s given us an opportunity to live the strategic planning. We are engaged dynamically, every single day in the organization. We have engaged with the board as a whole in what the future of the organization is going to be. Not just to survive, to re-build--to thrive. I have more confidence in our future than I think I ever have.
Anything else you want others to know about the partnership?
Anne Kaplan, Joffrey: I am so interested in developing each other’s audiences. Being additive. I hope that some of our productions will be attractive and attended by our great opera lovers. They can see the synthesis of our arts forms – music, voice, and movement – and it will be so beneficial.
Sylvia Neil, Lyric Opera: It is a warm partnership and collaboration. It is not just transactional. There is great respect among leadership, staff and the artists, our board and our donors. We so look forward to when we can be together with live performances.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago and Joffrey Ballet co-production of Orphée et Eurydice is currently streaming on PBS’ “Great Performances.”