Cultural Planning and Arts Management Consulting
MJR Partners is an arts management consulting firm working at the intersection of cultural expression and public policy. We help cities, counties, local arts agencies, foundations, and cultural institutions design the plans, funding systems, and governance structures that let creative communities thrive.
Our plans get adopted. Cultural plans and funding frameworks authored by MJR Partners have been approved by city councils in Austin, DeSoto, and Columbia, and our principal's work on Houston's cultural plan led to the creation of that city's cultural affairs department. We are currently leading the Cultural Roadmap for the City and County of Durham, North Carolina.
We take a small number of engagements at a time. That is deliberate. Every client gets the senior team — not a junior associate working from a template. No two communities are alike, so no two sets of recommendations are either.
We engage - WE listen - we learn - we respond
Services
Community Cultural Planning and Implementation
We build comprehensive cultural plans for cities and counties. Our plans name what a community actually values, then specify the policy, funding, and staffing steps required to get there. The work starts with existing conditions and historic funding data, moves through broad public engagement, and ends with implementation strategies and benchmarks a client can measure against.
Local Arts Agency Design and Governance
Standing up a public arts agency, or restructuring one, is a governance problem before it is a programming problem. We advise on organizational structure, staffing models, grants versus contracts, allowable uses of public funds, facility needs, risk management, and the private-sector investment strategies that sustain an agency past its first budget cycle.
Grantmaking Review and Cultural Equity Audits
Funding processes are gatekeepers. Our equity audits examine every step of a grantmaking system from eligibility criteria, application language, panel composition, scoring, to the decision-making practices that quietly route some applicants toward project funding and others toward institution-building funding. Every audit is paired with a data-informed analysis of historic funding, so findings are evidentiary rather than anecdotal.
Community Engagement and Public Participation
We design engagement that respects people's time. Survey fatigue is real, and communities lose confidence in processes that ask endless, repetitive questions. Before we ask anything, we establish what is already known, what is genuinely missing, and why the question matters. We work in public forums, small groups, one-on-one conversations, and mobile micro-surveys. We always ensure that language justice is addressed.
Organizational Assessment and Strategic Planning
For arts organizations and municipal departments alike, we conduct operational assessments and lead strategic planning that ties mission to budget, staffing, and programming. Our assessments are candid and our recommendations are sequenced, so leadership knows not only what to change but in what order.
Public Art Program and Policy Development
We develop public art programs and the policies that govern them: percent-for-art ordinances, artist selection and review panels, commission structures, conservation policy, and the artist protections that make a public art commission worth pursuing. Our team includes practicing public art professionals.
Professional Development for Artists and Arts Administrators
Individual artists and teaching artists are the backbone of any civic cultural system. We deliver skills-development workshops, curriculum, and training — including our Teaching Artist Handbook — for artists, teaching artists, commissioners, grant panelists, and arts management staff.
Board Recruitment, Retention, and Governance
We help cultural boards and commissions recruit members who reflect the communities they serve, then build the onboarding, committee structure, and working culture that keeps those members engaged and contributing.