Based in Chicago, Lucky Plush Productions is an internationally touring dance-theater company that provokes, inspires, and entertains audiences through its layered choreography, surprising humor, and socially relevant storytelling.
Lucky Plush Productions (LPP) is recognized as a leader for its entrepreneurial approach to arts management. The company received a 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads received a 2014 Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award for initiating Creative Partners, a fundraising model that provides a shared development staff for Lucky Plush and two other nationally-recognized companies.
Lucky Plush launches its newest sustainability initiative, Volunteer Cultivation Lab (VCL), with the significant endorsement and financial support of Chicago’s lead funders through Arts Work Fund. In activating a network of diverse high-level professional volunteers, VCL will dramatically increase the organizational and creative output of LPP without a corresponding surge in expense. VCL simultaneously enriches the Chicago arts sector by boosting community engagement with the arts.
Fellowship Program
Lucky Plush’s unique Fellowship Program provides valuable skill building opportunities to a graduate student or individual new to the work force with a strong interest in nonprofit and performing arts management and entrepreneurial business models
Customized mentoring and enrichment opportunities will bridge classroom knowledge to practical career preparation. Fellows oversee VCL by recruiting, training, managing, and stewarding of a body of volunteers. Based on interest and expertise, fellows may also engage with LPP in the following areas:
- Marketing/communications, brand management, messaging and public relations
- Financial management, accounting, business processes, budgeting, forecasting, and cost modeling
- Fundraising, policies and strategies, fundraising initiatives and target donor identification
- Company/tour management, operations, logistics, scheduling
- Presenter networking, booking, contracts
- Project/program management for change initiatives, a new venture, or expansion