Grant to opera timely as ticket sales decline

The Atlanta Opera, stung by a drop in ticket sales and with low cash reserves, has received a timely grant —- the largest in its 29-year history.

The Atlanta-based Goizueta Foundation has awarded the opera $1.5 million. The first part will arrive as a $300,000 endowment fund. The remaining $1.2 million, paid out over three years, is designated for the opera’s education and outreach programs.

“The biggest aspect to this grant,” said opera General Director Dennis Hanthorn, “is that they’ve bought into our long-range goals, helping us plan two and three years ahead, which is essential to maintain quality opera.”

Hanthorn said the substantial multi-year grant might also help coax more skittish donors, troubled by the recession and the precariousness of an arts organization’s financial health, into making gifts.

The foundation was established by the late Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta in 1992 to fund educational and charitable groups. It has given to the Atlanta Opera since 1999; including the new grant, its donations to the opera total $2.2 million.

The opera, which operates on an annual budget of about $6 million, is without debt but has a small endowment and just a million dollars in cash.

Its four November performances of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” sold just 80 percent of the tickets available at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Hanthorn had budgeted for 89 percent attendance.

“This [Goizueta grant] comes at the right time,” Hanthorn said, “but we’ve put new initiatives on hold. Nothing will change for the current season, but we’re already looking to keeps costs low for next year without damaging what’s onstage.

“In this economy, the new standard of success is just hanging on to what you’ve got.”