Blythe Brenden

“It was an incredible learning experience,” she says. “We talked about world issues, those that were affecting us, and it was my entire family.”

Brenden says most of her projects involve arts and kids. “It’s so important to a child’s development. When you see the faces of the kids running off the buses toward the Ordway, when thousands of kids are silent for an entire play . . . it fuels their imagination and passion. I will do whatever I can to make sure that happens.”

For Brenden, “whatever I can” involves an arsenal of activities, which include, among others, Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s Institute for Health and Healing, Ordway Circle of Stars, Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, Minnesota Orchestra Symphony Ball, Friends of the Institute’s Art PerChance, United Way Women’s Leadership Council, and the Minnesota International Center.

She founded the Arts Circle at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts—a membership category based on her belief that it’s critical to teach younger generations about the legacy of giving back and keeping nonprofits alive. The program, geared to those aged twenty-five to forty-five, offers the benefits of belonging to the museum for a nominal fee, along with educational and social components designed to retain younger members. “I’m really proud the educational component is flourishing and growing,” she says.

Another recent success she helped coordinate is the construction of the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center in Minneapolis, which will complete the Hennepin Arts Corridor and provide a venue that will emphasize dance. The three buildings will house more than nineteen arts organizations, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Minneapolis home. “We’ve never really had a venue just for dance,” she says.

Brenden has found she’s most effective as a fundraiser, looking for donations (and making her own) and organizing committees. “We have a very philanthropic, giving community,” she says. “There are so many incredible causes and organizations doing amazing work. It blows my mind. It also reaffirms that there’s so much more to be done.”