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Flourish Online Magazine | Fall 2009 |
Arts in the economy remain shaky amidst massive losses
By Jarmea L. Boone
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In theater, shaky hands are signs of nervousness. In the economy, shakiness is a sign of collapse. The unsteady economy is rocking the art world. Once relatively stable with donations, rising ticket revenues and government subsidies, many nonprofit arts groups and organizations now find themselves reeling. Cuts of every kind—including staff and artist layoffs, furloughs, canceled performances and tours, and truncated seasons—are widespread and show little sign of improving.
The global recession has severely affected one of the most thriving periods for the arts in America. Two decades of steady growth for community theaters, dance companies, museums and other kinds of arts groups have screeched to a halt. The stock market’s decline has shrunken the endowments on which many organizations depend. The banking crisis has cut off funds from reliable corporate patrons. State and local tax funds, until recently an increasing source of support, have been slashed, too.
Major institutions, like the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, have decreased their number of exhibitions because of portfolio value loss. In January 2009, the Sacramento Ballet canceled the rest of its 2008-2009 season in attempts to get back on its feet financially. In March 2009, the 58-year-old Baltimore Opera Company voted to liquidate months after seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Other noted organizations across America have closed due to lack of available funding, such as the Milwaukee Shakespeare Theater Company, the Connecticut Opera, the Las Vegas Art Museum and Opera Pacific in Orange County, Calif.
Locally, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra faced its financial deficit by having two rounds of salary cuts, as reported by the Associated Press. The ASO also canceled its annual “Free Parks Concert in Piedmont Park” for summer 2009. Atlanta Ballet replaced its live orchestra with recorded music for performances at the Fox Theatre in fall 2006. “Fortunately, in fall 2008, thanks to the generosity of two donors, the orchestra was restored for select Atlanta Ballet performances at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and Atlanta Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ at the Fox Theatre,” says Tricia Ekholm, marketing director of Atlanta Ballet. Other noted Atlanta-area arts venues were not so lucky. The Jewish Theatre of the South in Dunwoody, Neighborhood Playhouse in Decatur and Theatre Gael in Midtown have all closed within the last year.
These changes and closings have resulted in job loss. The unemployment rate for artists is lower than that of the general population, but it is growing at a faster pace, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. Sunil Iyengar, the NEA’s chief researcher, says 74,000 artists, from dancers to actors to musicians, left the workforce during the fourth quarter in 2008. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the state took a harder-than-average hit from the recession. While losing 3.4 percent of its jobs in 2008, Georgia’s economy contracted 0.6 percent.
The National Endowment for the Arts produces an annual survey that measures long-term, detailed analyses of arts participation, and it represents the nation’s largest and most representative periodic study of adult participation in arts events and activities. Findings in last year’s survey, published in June 2009, include a decreasing percentage of U.S. adults attending arts events for almost every art form. Attendance at performing arts events, such as classical music, jazz, opera, ballet, musical theater and plays, has seen double-digit rates of decline. Attendance at the most popular types of arts events, such as art museums and craft/visual arts festivals, also saw notable declines. “As far as attendance, the arts, like any other good or service, will depend on the strength of the income and substitution effect on attendees at various entertainment venues,” said Don Sabbarese, director of Kennesaw State University’s Econometrics Center. “That attendance is down is of little solace.”
In addition to lack of participant support, arts organizations are affected by diminishing donorship. Donors who provide support monies to arts entities have either cut the amount they give or have canceled giving all together. “The arts are certainly negatively affected by charitable contributions by businesses and individuals,” said Sabbarese. “As corporate profits turn negative, corporations lose their ability and willingness to contribute at the levels when the economy was stronger. As individuals lose wealth and income, their contributions have also diminished as important resources for sustaining current operations and growth.”
Some donors are responding by strictly supervising where their in-kind donations go and are providing specific services for certain needs. Brooke Kaine, president and owner of Kaine Homes and donor to county organizations in southern Maryland, told the Washington Post in June 2009, “We gave time, material, equipment and personnel this year instead of the hard dollars. I know I have done some stuff on a small level out of my personal funds, but nothing on the scale we were used to doing.” Arts administrators say they are fighting a supplementary effect of the recession: the perception that contributing to the arts is elitist and excessive at a time of rising unemployment and general economic hardship.
To cope with the recession, arts groups are managing themselves like any troubled corporation. The Atlanta Symphony’s executive and artistic leadership, administration and 95 unionized orchestra musicians agreed to compensation reductions and furloughs that will save the Atlanta Symphony $2.8 million through fiscal year 2012. “Previous measures taken by the ASO have already reduced the economic impact on its revenue by $1 million in 2009,” said Melissa Sanders, public relations director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. “Earlier this year, we froze open positions and delayed the hiring of any new staff. Marketing initiatives, such as a recent one-week $25 ticket offer and other special offers to concert-goers, have kept the classical-series ticket volume equal to what it was last year.”
Most arts organizations have increased their cost-saving measures. Once organizations get a handle on strict budgeting and throw in a little creativity, some can stay afloat. Last fall, the Orlando (Fla.) Museum of Art avoided a deficit by borrowing from its endowment and cutting more than 26 percent from its planned 2008-2009 budget. The museum also closes its building on Mondays so that the lights and electricity in all non-arts sections are turned off. The Orange County (Calif.) Regional History Center has lowered some of its fees, resulting in increased business, and has gone aggressively after other kinds of rentals, including bar mitzvahs, high school reunions and proms. The Orlando Shakespeare Theater produces shows with smaller casts and has cut the number of weeks in its season, enabling it to hire fewer people for fewer work weeks.
Some performing arts groups are fighting the economy with laughs. At the improvisational comedy troupe Dad’s Garage in Atlanta, attendance has skyrocketed for this very reason. Managing Director Lena Carstens told the Atlanta Business Chronicle her group played to 95 percent capacity in January and 86 percent in February 2009 versus last year’s numbers in a better economy of 80 percent in January and 67 percent in February. Many theater managers have taken on second jobs as theater “pruners,” according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, snipping extra costs wherever they can. “This means staff members use the back sides of used paper, drink water from the tap, and save every screw, costume, and prop that can be recycled for the next production,” says writer Victoria Nguyen.
Even though trends show that the arts only mimic the economy that supports them, organizations have begun to accept unforeseen change and are finding more positive ways to muddle through financial troubles. Arts administrators are digging in for the long haul. As bad as 2009 has been, many are not optimistic about 2010 because contributions to the arts recover only after companies have become profitable and have begun to hire workers again. “The arts will continue to suffer until the local economy returns to its pre-recession level,” said Sabbarese. “The only good news is the recession is close to
its bottom.”
In the meantime, some hope is on the horizon. The federal government’s stimulus package included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. Also, the Kennedy Center has launched the Arts in Crisis initiative to provide planning assistance for struggling arts organizations. And, in some cases, arts organizations have found funding success with special emergency appeals to the people in their communities—the Beck Center for the Arts in Cleveland, Ohio, raised more than $152,000 in one month.
It is not certain how long the swaying economy will sustain the arts world without further hardships; however, arts leaders feel it is important to cherish and support the arts not just because they are important to the economy but because they are an invaluable part of the community.