Founded in 1992 in South Minneapolis, Pillsbury House + Theatre’s mission is to co-create enduring change towards a just society through arts. It presents innovative Mainstage productions and supports artist development with its McKnight Community Engaged Artist Fellows for exceptional mid-career artists and the Naked Stages Fellows for early career performance artists. Youth and cultural engagement initiatives and creative community development efforts include the Chicago Avenue Project youth classes, memoir classes for older adults, and Breaking Ice, a customized diversity, equity and inclusion workplace training workshop. It is launching a capital expansion project, Pillsbury Creative Commons, to expand and improve its Chicago Avenue campus. Phase 1 of the project will see a new workshop space created for a theater tech and media arts training program for local youth and a maker-space for artists. Later phases will include extensive renovations to its main building to help it better serve the community.
The Foundation currently supports Pillsbury’s general operations. Past grants have funded Mainstage productions and capacity building.
