Todd Duesing, President & CEO, Hennepin Arts
In an interview with Invest:, Todd Duesing, president and CEO of Hennepin Arts, talked about the organization’s economic impact on the region and the Twin Cities’ prosperous arts and entertainment landscape. “We have the second most theater seats in the United States outside of New York City,” he said.
What economic impact does Hennepin Arts have on the region?
We do about 12 weeks of Broadway productions here, on average. In the past couple of years, that has resulted in an economic impact of between $62 million and $65 million.
For our next season, 2025-26, we have 21 weeks of Broadway productions. We’re hopeful that our impact can get as high as $150 million locally. We are adding on a six-week engagement of Purple Rain, the musical, for example, which is a pre-Broadway presentation before it hits New York. The show will originate here and drive a lot of tourism from around the world into Minneapolis. We will then have five weeks of Wicked, and then four weeks of Harry Potter. We just have these nice long runs, as well as our other new products that are in for one or two weeks, which creates a big market of shows where our impact can be quite great on the local economy, particularly in terms of restaurants, parking, hotels, and experiences around the theater.
What makes the Twin Cities a national hub for entertainment in general?
Even though we’ve had quite a few theaters tragically torn down over the decades, we have the second most theater seats in the United States outside of New York City. We also have the third most theatrical and arts employees outside of New York and Los Angeles. We’re pretty proud of those statistics. We have a rich cultural scene here, with a lot of history. There is also a lot of innovation around the arts and new works.
The other factor that helps is that in Minnesota, we have the largest public arts support program, or funding program, through our legacy amendment, which helps lift all the cultural institutions. That is unique.
We’re also supported quite well by the citizens of Minnesota, and they get what they pay for. They invest in this type of program and in many programs, and it raises the quality of life in the state.
We also have several great institutions for the performing arts. We have plenty of theaters available to make space for all the various art forms and artworks that are either local or traveling. There are also a lot of grassroots artists who are starting here and presenting in small theaters and club spaces. The same goes for visual artists. We have these beautiful visual arts institutions, but we also make spaces for artists to present their works.
It’s a solid ecosystem where an artist can find many ways to be presented, and the consumer has lots of options for what to spend their dollars on for their enjoyment.
What education initiatives do you have to promote the arts?
The great thing about our organization is that we are not only an arts business organization, but we are also an arts workplace, and we invest in people. Whether that is a program like “It’s the People,” where we have a public mural campaign that highlights the many artists in our city and promotes them, or our “Spotlight Education” program, where we’re creating a clear and fundamental pathway to a larger stage through our education programs and creating a statewide platform that also can reach as far as a national platform. We’re harnessing our programs to find future performers and artists.
What does today’s audience expect when they attend a performance?
People are expecting an elevated experience and new ways of being presented with art or engaging with it. They want a more well-rounded experience. To meet this need, there are teams of people who are leaning on their creative energies to come up with ways to engage patrons and create an experience. For example, with our presentation of the Broadway show “Life of Pi,” we did an engagement event in one of our studios where the tiger in the show, which is played by three people with a puppet, was engaged in this experience. You could go in and listen to the performers talking about their movements as the puppet and the different nonverbal cues they have to give each other. It’s cool to have those extra experiences because people want more than just the surface-level presentation.
Today’s audience wants to have an in-depth experience. That’s a positive for us because it brings people closer to the arts. Instead of just checking a box and moving on to the next thing, they want to go deeper and enjoy a bigger experience.
What upcoming projects or new shows are in the pipeline?
The biggest would be “Purple Rain,” the pre-Broadway production. We’ll start building that in August. We open the first performances in October. It’s great because Minnesotans get to be the taste testers of the show, which is appropriate because Prince is our local man, a local icon. There’s a lot of energy around Prince and around this production. It’ll bring a lot of people into town, which is great as well.
