It was one of the biggest programs Jacqueline Cassidy ran as manager of public programs at the Walker from 2015 to 2021. Target didn’t just cover folks’ admission; it provided funding for programming, too. Art-making and music, poetry readings and tours. Cassidy used it to counter real and perceived barriers, planning programming that welcomed artists and audiences of color.

”The community saw themselves in the programming,” said Cassidy, who now works as an independent arts and culture consultant.

As a Minnesota-raised, arts-loving citizen, she’s watched with concern as Target and other corporations have stopped or stepped down their funding for the arts, noting the loss of educational programming that tends to follow.

Thursday nights at the Walker are still free. They‘re now sponsored by the Principal Foundation.

Many local companies, including Ameriprise Financial, 3M and U.S. Bank, still support the arts, said Stevens, of the Walker. But it has been difficult, if not impossible, to replace the loss of Target dollars with other funders, several arts organizations said. It’s been even harder to replace them with donations from individuals.

“It is a crisis,” said Margaret Wurtele, whose name adorns a stage at the Guthrie. In the 1980s, Wurtele, whose parents were instrumental in the Guthrie’s creation, was the managing director of the Dayton Hudson Foundation, Target’s predecessor. Then, 40% of that foundation’s funding was dedicated to the arts, she said. (Another 40% went to social action and 20% to projects that popped up.) Then, corporate CEOs understood that people would move to chilly Minnesota if it boasted thriving arts organizations, Wurtele said.