RTP-area local music and culture

[local506 AT gmail.com]

Here is a great article from yesterday's DTH that might've gotten lost
in all the weather-related and Blacksburg-related headlines of the
day.  It's a really inciteful overview of what's going on financially
behind the scenes, and can be applied to any of your favorite music
venues.  Now, if only 506 or Kings had an endowment...glenn

http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2007/04/16/Ar=
ts/Arts-Series.Trying.To.Balance.Books-2843150.shtml

Arts series trying to balance books
By: Margaret Hair, Senior Writer
Posted: 4/16/07
The arts don't make money, and neither does the Carolina Performing
Arts Series.

"It's not like running a private performing arts venue. It's not the
case where we'll be making money on this," Executive Associate Provost
Steve Allred said.

"We're trying to bring top-level artists and still balance the books
at the end of the year."

It is a fact of funding that is common knowledge within the arts
community but is not always understood outside of it, Executive
Director for the Arts Emil Kang said.

And it is the central reason why, going into the third season of the
Carolina Performing Arts Series, fundraising and University support
have become the two factors most important for the sustainability of
the program.

Boasting acts such as Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma and STOMP, Kang said
the new season, which was announced Friday, is the strongest yet.

But maintaining a series with so many internationally recognized acts
is, of course, expensive. The average artist fee for the 2007-08
season is $28,000, Kang said. Franklin cost $100,000, Ma $75,000,
STOMP $50,000.

Add on the $1.3 million in total salaries of 19 full-time performing
arts staff members, plus the cost of putting on 35 shows, and things
get pricey quickly.

There is, Kang said, a "long- term imperative to create a sustainable
source of support to ensure that this won't drop off in the future."

In 2005, the series received a $5 million challenge grant from the
William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, which would create a $10
million endowment for the program. Half of the $5 million promised was
given up front, and the other half will come once the series has met
the match.

The performing arts series has raised $9.2 million toward that goal,
and Kang suspects he will surpass it by the Dec. 31 deadline.

Until that endowment comes in, all of the series' financial shortfalls
will be covered by the University. Because much of the money donated
was pledged, as opposed to cash, it might be a while before all of it
is readily available.

"We probably won't see that $5 million for the next five years," Kang
said.

Once that happens, and the endowment kicks in, the series will receive
5 percent, or about $500,000, annually for operations and booking.

Ticket revenue, which Allred approximated at $1.2 million for the
2006-07 season, covers the artists' fees and then some, Kang said.

The endowment would reduce the University's funding of operating
costs, which Kang said "produce a huge deficit." Those costs include
necessities such as lights, sound, box office staff and ushers, and
totaled about $600,000 for this season.

The University will continue to cover the series' $1.3 million in
salaries and benefits, as it would for any other University
department.

"If you look at how this is done with universities around the country,
it basically represents a commitment to the arts the same way you
would fund a library or a chemistry department," Allred said.

The issue of University involvement, then, becomes making the series
about more than putting on concerts. For the student body to reap the
benefits of the millions spent, the series plans to reach out through
thematic programming - such as next year's "The Death Penalty
Examined."

"Ultimately the series has to reflect the values of the University,"
Kang said of the goal to challenge and broaden student experiences
through the arts.

But putting terms like "challenging" and "broadening" into practice is
a step that will need to be taken carefully, said Tim Carter, chairman
of the music department.

"The ways to measure that kind of achievement become more difficult,"
Carter said.

Part of the difficulty, Carter said, comes with the varied
constituencies the series has to keep happy.

There are undergraduates who ask why they haven't heard of more of the
acts and community members who are more familiar with symphony
orchestras than multimedia extravaganzas. And there's the need to draw
ticket revenue and appreciation from those groups and all the arts
advocates who sit somewhere in between.

"Everyone wants more of what they want, so we're just trying to do
what we're trying to do," Kang said.

What's more, the series has only one venue: a 1,434-seat hall that
might not be suitable for all performances and will feel empty with a
crowd of as much as 500.

"We struggle with the fact that we have to do a one-size-fits-all
performance space," Kang said.

Offering student tickets for $10, which is partially supplemented by
$250,000 annually in student fees, cuts into ticket revenue, as well.
With about 32 percent of tickets for the 2006-07 season going to
students, Kang said the series is meeting one of its goals despite
losing some potential revenue.

"Of course that kills our bottom line, but that's why we do it," Kang
said.

For those reasons, Carter said, "there is absolutely no way it can be
commercially viable."

The key thing to remember here, though, is that mixed funding and
private donations always have been the stuff of promotional arts
series.

Memorial Hall is not Walnut Creek, and even widely known acts like
Wynton Marsalis do not come from the same cash crop as those like John
Mayer.

With names like Aretha Franklin and Yo-Yo Ma on the schedule, the
series is likely to continue drawing attention from potential donors.

Kang said when that money does come, it will be invested in artist
residencies and extended engagements, rather than adding more one-off
performances to an already full 35-date season.

"We want our series to be more than entertainment."



Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk AT unc.edu. =A9 Copyright 2007 Daily
Tar Heel