On Sept. 30, the board of directors of Georgia Shakespeare made the very difficult decision to dissolve the 29-year old organization. Georgia Shakespeare has been struggling with short- and long-term debt for several years, lacking adequate earned and contributed income to support its inventive and acclaimed performances by Shakespeare and other playwrights.
Just this summer, Georgia Shakespeare produced some of its best work. Its production of “As You Like It,” performed in Piedmont Park, received strong critical reviews. It was a marvelous experience to be with a diverse public in a shared civic space. This summer, Georgia Shakespeare had the largest audience ever for its main stage productions at its home theater at Oglethorpe University. However, ticket sales covered only about 30 percent of operating costs for the company’s modest $1.5 million annual budget.
Over the past three years, our region has lost two other important theater companies: Marietta’s Theatre in the Square and the landmark Theater of the Stars. Looking at the arts economy of the Atlanta region’s nonprofit theaters, these are among three of the oldest and largest nonprofit theaters.
A mix of revenues is needed to operate healthy nonprofit arts organizations. Organizations thrive with revenues from earned income, public funding, and individual and foundation funding. Public support of the arts is key to a healthy arts sector. It provides organizations with reliable revenue, fuels smaller arts groups, enables large arts institutions to present programming that is free to the public, and signals to other funders that the arts are essential to civic life.
Problematically, the Georgia State Council for the Arts budget is the lowest per capita in the U.S. Fulton County has been an essential funder to arts organizations in its jurisdiction; however, the 2014 contracts for services budget is a mere $750,000, down from $2.7 million in 2001. Decreases and cuts to funding are felt disproportionally by small and midsized arts organizations.
The Atlanta region comprises about 200 active, nonprofit arts organizations. Of those, only four have operating budgets over $2 million annually: the Woodruff Arts Center ($111.7 million), Atlanta Ballet ($9.2 million), Atlanta Opera ($5.9 million) and Center for Puppetry Arts ($3.6 million). This imbalance in budget sizes leaves the rest of the arts organizations in our region hovering under a glass ceiling without adequate access to capital and the ability to thrive.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund was created in 1993 to address this inequity. It has granted $10.8 million to 94 small and midsize arts organizations for stabilization, general operating support and capacity building. This year, the arts fund went further and launched a capitalization program that educates business leaders, foundation, arts patrons and arts organizations about the need for an adequate mix of revenue and capital.
Well-managed, vibrant arts organizations with a sound artistic and business plan can thrive when this level of investment is provided. The arts fund’s first competitive capitalization award of $200,000 will go to the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center. Horizon Theatre and Atlanta Celebrates Photography, also candidates for this grant, have created capitalization plans ripe for investment.
Unlike cities such as Charlotte, Cincinnati and dozens more, Atlanta does not have a United Arts Fund that serves a wide range of arts organizations. Modeled like a United Way (whose funding does not support the arts), United Arts Funds raise money from corporations and individuals in focused campaigns for distribution to arts groups in their regions. Cities with United Arts Funds thrive with reliable revenues and strong arts leadership organizations.
Thriving, relevant cities and towns in America are places where the arts and creative industries are prevalent and growing, as they attract the knowledge workers that fuel today’s healthy urban economies. A productive arts economy is advanced by structures that support arts and creativity at every level — from coordinated financial support systems for independent arts groups, to school systems with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) curricula.
The loss of Georgia Shakespeare underscores the need to adequately support financial structures for the arts in our region. This is a sounding cry for a plan that heralds the arts as core to our quality of life in the Atlanta region.
Lisa Cremin is director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc.
