Arts community must improvise as cuts add up

Recent local arts news has played across metro Atlanta like the feel-bad movie of the year, if not quite “Apocalypse Now,” then at least something close to “Doubt.”

The Alliance Theater canceled next month’s big-budget Stephen Sondheim revue, while Georgia Shakespeare pulled the plug on its annual Piedmont Park freebie. The High Museum has cut staff and salaries, and the nearly three-decade-old Fay Gold Gallery closes its doors at the end of this month.

Just Wednesday, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced the first phase of its plan to help counter the economy. Between April 3 and May 31, ASO president Allison Vulgamore, who earns $436,738, will take a 7 percent salary cut, the four vice presidents will take a 6 percent cut and the 68 other administrative staffers will take a 5 percent cut. After June 1, the administration will take unpaid leave, ranging from 13 to 18 days.

In some instances, Atlanta-area arts and cultural groups have survived better than peers around the country. Museums and opera companies have closed for good, and other groups have seen programming more severely curtailed. All are victims of some combination of shrinking audiences, donors, endowments and public funding.

“Everybody’s feeling the hit, to a greater or lesser extent,” said Chris Caltagirone, research director for AMS, a national arts management consulting firm.

ASO’s Vulgamore said music director Robert Spano and the conducting staff will make undisclosed “contributions” back to the ASO. Vulgamore is in talks with the 95 unionized musicians to also trim their earnings.

“Our problem is that we were already lean and mean,” said Vulgamore. “One hundred percent of our staff and musicians will help find solutions.”

Indeed, arts cuts have been deeper than Atlanta’s in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore. The 59-year-old Las Vegas Art Museum closed last week.

The Baltimore Opera has filed for bankruptcy, while opera companies in Miami, San Diego and San Francisco have shrunk their schedules. California’s Opera Pacific shut down in November.

The Atlanta Opera, once on the edge of bankruptcy, is in comparatively good shape since its move two years ago to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, though its box office last fall was down 14 percent.

“Atlanta has a unique trajectory,” said Marc Scorca, president of the service organization Opera America. “It’s just beginning to realize its potential. It’s not immune from the downturn, but it’s experiencing the downturn in the midst of a huge upswing.”

Outlook is grim

Recent surveys give a snapshot of how broadly the collapsing economy has hit the arts nationally.

In a January survey by the Theater Communications Group, almost 60 percent of respondents expected cash flow problems in the coming year.

At least 77 percent have already cut costs, including wage freezes and layoffs.

In another recent survey, sponsored by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, about 50 percent of respondents said their fund-raising efforts failed to meet budgeted goals.

Most thought things would get worse in the next 12 months.

“No one has a crystal ball,” said Jesse Rosen, League of American Orchestras president. “I think we’re entering a new reality.”

Yet Rosen added there’s an element to this new reality that he calls “stimulating.” Already, many arts groups have hatched new schemes to attract audiences, reduce costs and find new revenue.

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in New York will hold the seats of any current subscribers laid off as of January for next season until Sept. 15. If subscribers are still unemployed by then, they’ll receive their subscriptions free.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra created a “37/11” program: Anyone under 37 (and 15 or older) can buy any available tickets for $11.

Perhaps the most inventive new idea: The Maryhill Museum of Art, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge in southwest Washington, has agreed to let a company install a 15-turbine wind farm on the museum’s 5,300 acres. Hit hard by the recession, the museum expects the wind farm to bring in more than $100,000 a year.

‘Deadbeats’ and discounts

Local arts groups are finding ways to boost attendance and aid both patrons and artists in these tough times as well.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra offered all available seats to any of its concerts this season for $25 (the offer ended Sunday).

Dad’s Garage, an improv comedy stage in Inman Park, instituted a Dead Beat Club in December and January: Anyone who lost their job in the last six months got in free on Thursday nights.

Eight West Side galleries, near Georgia Tech, recently started an art walk the third Saturday of each month, with free lectures at each stop. And the Spruill Art Gallery, in Dunwoody, has plans to begin a barter network through which unemployed artists and professionals can exchange services.

“Everybody has to look for ways to innovate,” said Lisa Cremin, director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, which aids local arts groups. “The arts community has the best chance to do that. There’s a lot of creative energy in the community, and people want the arts when they’re living in a time of fear and the unknown.”

ATLANTA ARTS CUTBACKS

Among cost-cutting moves made recently by Atlanta-area arts groups:

> The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday announced 5 percent to 7 percent pay cuts and furloughs.

> The High Museum of Art announced in February a 7 percent staff reduction, salary cuts and furloughs.

> The Fay Gold Gallery, a Buckhead arts fixture for almost 30 years, closes its space at the end of this month. Owner Fay Gold will continue as a private dealer and consultant.

> Seven Stages Theater in Little Five Points canceled its February production of “Willie & Esther,” replacing it with the one-woman show “Zora,” which opens this week.

> The Alliance Theatre canceled its premiere of a Stephen Sondheim revue, “iSondheim.” It will be replaced in April with the smaller-scale “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”

> The Atlanta History Center’s Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, a literary way station for prominent visiting authors, reduced its in-house staff to one.