Culture Crunch: The Recession and the Arts

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Lynn Saville

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So back to the private sector, which, after all, has been the lifeblood of American arts since the 19th century. But how to operate there at such a treacherous time is a puzzle for a lot of arts groups. This is why Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, established Arts in Crisis, a free consulting service for arts groups on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kaiser is something of a rescue artist. Over the years, he has swooped in as a director to save the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, the Kansas City Ballet and London's Royal Opera House, which had just canceled every performance for the next year and a half when he got there in 1988. In February the Kennedy Center launched a website--artsincrisis.org--where beleaguered administrators could go for advice on fundraising, programming, budgeting and marketing. Kaiser and his staff sometimes pay house calls to ailing organizations, and so far they have fielded more than 350 requests for help.

Kaiser's message to all of the groups is to resist the temptation to cut their programming and their profile. When times are bad, it's crucial to make yourself interesting and vital and to let everybody know you're there. "Organizations that are cutting performances and marketing are going to be the losers," he warns. He also cautions them against reaching for the most familiar programming--Beethoven's Fifth! The Nutcracker! Grease!--in the hope of drawing guaranteed crowds. "I talked to an opera company recently that has done some adventurous programming," he says. "But this season they were just doing things like La Bohème. It wasn't selling at all, and I'm not surprised. People have seen lots of La Bohème. They don't need to see another one."

One of the shell-shocked organizations that went to Kaiser for advice was the Beck Center for the Arts, a theater and arts-education group near Cleveland. In January ticket sales and donor money "fell off a cliff," says Lucinda Einhouse, the Beck Center's president. In April she traveled to Washington to meet with Kaiser. She went home and instituted some, if not all, of his gospel. Marketing will be maintained. But the theater will mount fewer shows next year, and some will be chestnuts like Fiddler on the Roof and Peter Pan.

Will it work? "It's too soon to tell," she says. "But after we had that sharp decline, we did an urgent appeal to the community, and we got more than 800 contributions in one month--over $152,000. They came with all of these notes from people about how much they cared about the Beck Center. It really made a statement that especially in troubling times, it's important to people to have the release and escape of the arts and an opportunity to dream."

For now, at least, the biggest dream of all may be a balanced budget.