About

8 Bridges works as a core team of Minnesota-based consultants. We frequently recruit regional and national partners to bring specific expertise and lived experiences to our projects. We bring practical, on-the-job expertise in philanthropy, public media, and arts and culture to help you and your organization create a path toward a better future.
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WHAT WE DO

Our Capabilities.

Philanthropy
Field research, program development and implementation, and evaluation across grantmaking to support public media and journalism, arts and culture, organizational capacity building; and other fields of interest.
See Work
Media
Strategic and organizational planning, program development and evaluation, desk and field research, and editorial project development.
See Work
Culture
Strategy, organizational planning, program development and evaluation, and supporting the exploration and evaluation of new initiatives and opportunities.
See Work

Why Us?

A bridge represents many things: it can be a link, a scaffolding, a platform, a connection, or an extension. 8 Bridges Workshop uses our practical and on-the-job expertise in philanthropy, public media, and arts and culture to help you and your organization go from where you are now to where you’d like to go. 

Our collaborative approach creates a dynamic workshop environment in which clients and our team work together to develop strategy and to research, plan, implement, and evaluate projects. We excel in future-facing projects such as strategic plans, organizational assessments, contextual research, and program development scenarios.

Bridging can take on many forms and structures. 8 Bridges Workshop can help you become the organization that you aspire to be and create a path toward a better future.

WHO WE ARE

Our team.

Our core team of consultants brings diverse lived experiences to our work.  We have been in your shoes and have worked in philanthropy, public media, the arts, and the private sector. We value close working relationships and often partner with organizations long-term or on successive assignments. We will join you as thought partners, learners, collaborators, and multi-disciplinarians, helping you refine your vision for the future while fitting within your organizational culture, needs, and budget.

Sarah Lutman

Principal

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Enrique Olivarez

Principal

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Greta Rudolph

Principal

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Jessica Fiala

Research Associate

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Patricia Johnson

Associate

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Anika Fajardo

Associate

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Our Clients

Partners we
work with.

Clients we work with

Recent collaborators:

Sharon Rodning Bash
Independent Consultant

Jessica Clark, Founder
Dot Connector Studio

Christine Dwyer, Senior Vice President
RMC Research

Janis Lane Ewart, Principal
Collective Eye Productions

Beck Tench
Independent

Andrew Haeg, Founder
Groundsource

Jocelyn Hale, Principal
MillerHale Associates

Colin Hamilton, Principal
Hamilton & Associates

Andee Mazzocco, Owner
SAYGRID

Amanuel Medhanie, Principal
Parsimony

Tracie Powell, Senior Fellow
Borealis Philanthropy

Elana Schwartzman, Founder,
Fontlove Studio

Koven J. Smith,
Museum Digitalist

Our

Collaborators

Sharon Rodning Bash, Bash Consulting

Jessica Clark, Founder, Dot Connector Studio

Christine Dwyer, Senior Vice President, RMC Research

Janis Lane Ewart, Principal, Collective Eye Productions

Andrew Haeg, Founder, Groundsource

Jocelyn Hale, Principal, MillerHale Associates

Colin Hamilton, Principal, Hamilton & Associates

Andee Mazzocco, Owner, SAYGRID

Amanuel Medhanie, Principal, Parsimony

Tracie Powell, Pivot Fund

Elana Schwartzman, Founder, The Fontlove Studio

Koven J. Smith, Museum Digitalist

Beck Tench, Independent

Jonathan Banks, NCXT

Sara Lutman

Principal

Sarah Lutman founded Lutman & Associates, now 8 Bridges Workshop, in March 2012. Since then she has pursued a wide variety of projects with clients in cultural, public media, and philanthropic organizations. Her experience as an entrepreneur and innovator is well-documented in projects across these sectors in the Twin Cities as well as the Bay Area, where she spent her early career. For more information on Lutman’s background, work and volunteer experience, please visit her LinkedIn profile.

Jessica Fiala

Research Associate

Jessica holds an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Museum Studies & Cultural Studies and continues to research, write, and present work in the areas of Museum Studies and Performance Studies. Jessica is also a performing artist and company member of Ragamala Dance. To learn more about her background, experience, and volunteer work, visit her LinkedIn profile.

Contacts

Questions?
Get in touch.

Contact Us

Email

[email protected]

Address
1161 Selby Avenue #1
Saint Paul, MN 55104

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Sarah Lutman is Founder and Managing Director at 8 Bridges Workshop. Over the past ten years she has built 8 Bridges to become a leading consulting firm nationally, producing a body of influential projects, including strategic plans, program evaluations, and field-building reports. Recent clients include the Wyncote Foundation, the Knight Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, CultureSource, Twin Cities PBS (“TPT”), Sahan Journal, American Public Media, and Agora Journalism Center.

Prior to founding 8 Bridges Workshop, Lutman served as President and Managing Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, where accomplishments included expansion of free media offerings on digital platforms, and innovative approaches to audience development. She was previously senior vice president for content and media at American Public Media where she was responsible for all broadcast, digital, and live event programming, including Minnesota Public Radio’s regional network of 42 news, classical music, and rock and roll radio stations and APM’s national news and cultural program portfolio.

Lutman worked for 16 years in philanthropy, first as executive director of the Fleishhacker Foundation in San Francisco and then as senior program officer at The Bush Foundation in St. Paul. Lutman’s responsibilities included program development, assessment, and evaluation in pre-collegiate education, public broadcasting, civic engagement, the environment, and the arts and culture. She is a widely published journalist and author.

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Enrique Olivarez, Principal, joined 8 Bridges Workshop in early 2020. In his 30-year career in the nonprofit sector, Enrique has led resource and project development efforts at the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, MacPhail Center for Music, Minnesota Public Radio, and Coffee House Press. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Development at CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio), a Latino social service organization focused on serving the rural and urban Latino community in Minnesota.

Olivarez worked as program manager for the Ford Foundation’s Working Capital Fund, which sought to increase the organizational capacity of 12, mid-sized culturally specific arts organizations across the nation through business planning, grants, loans, and organizational consulting services. Enrique’s consulting expertise includes journalism, public media, arts and culture, organizational assessment, and institutional fundraising.

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Greta Rudolph, Principal, has worked with 8 Bridges Workshop since 2017, contributing to written reports, evaluation projects, and strategic plans. Rudolph has been a part of 8 Bridges’ recent digital media work and has led recent survey and analysis efforts, gathering both qualitative and quantitative information to support client projects.

Rudolph holds a J.D. from the University of Minnesota and practiced at the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright for ten years, where she was three times named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers (2018, 2019, and 2022) and counseled clients on diversity, equity, inclusion, and ESG matters. She is also a practicing artist, co-leading a small dance performance group, and has been a board member for the Midwest Morris Ale and COMPAS.

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Jessica Fiala, Research Associate, has been with 8 Bridges Workshop since 2012, working on projects ranging from research and analysis to writing and editing, workshop development, program evaluation, and project management. Jessica coordinated the artist grant program at Forecast Public Art from 2014-2017, served as the Research Coordinator for the 2015 International Award for Public Art, and has continued as a nominator and researcher for the award. She is a company member of Ragamala Dance where she performs, teaches, and leads community engagement activities. Jessica holds an interdisciplinary master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Minnesota and is a former

docent at the Walker Art Center. Her writing as an independent scholar has been published in the anthology The Ruined Archive (2014) and the journals Diálogos com a arte (2016, 2019), the Journal of Somaesthetics (2020), and Public Art Journal (2022).

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Patty Johnson, Associate, has a broad scope of experience in the nonprofit arts and public media sectors, with expertise in managing board governance and relations, event planning, special projects, and prospect research and data analytics for institutional and individual giving programs. She holds a degree in international relations from the University of Minnesota.

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Anika Fajardo, Associate, is a writer, editor, teacher, and former academic librarian. She has a Master’s in Library and Information Science and is passionate about connecting people and information whether on the printed page, online, or via emerging platforms. See more about her background and experience on her website.