Arts need support more than ever

As we end our current fiscal year, I have decided to make a plea, not only for the Charleston Ballet Theatre, but for all the arts organizations here in the Lowcountry, be it the Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Stage, the Gibbes Museum, Footlight Players, Pure Theatre, etc. We all need you.

Since its formation in 1987, CBT has been praised for its eclectic, bold and youthful programming that has wowed audiences and critics alike around the South. Raising money for the arts in today's financial climate can be daunting, thankless and endless. Federal and state funds continue to be pushed into the background. And the product, dance, is more difficult to sell.

I believe there is room and potential funding for everyone, but it won't be as easy to do what we've done in the past. We'll have to come up to a new mark, generate new interest and operate in an accepting and generous manner.

It takes a driven group to carry off a high-wire act like this. Donors who come from areas other than the arts often want to see concrete results, such as a statue in a public garden.

Courting a donor becomes even harder when you factor in the uncertainties that face every new artistic endeavor: the possibility of failure, the relatively short life of most dance and theater works, and the danger that donors who are new to dance may not fully understand or deeply appreciate the finished product — the issue of individual taste often creates complications.

I am proud to say that this season, the company garnered the best ticket sales in any Piccolo Spoleto festival due to the sellout of "Twisted Tango" performances, along with our debut at the North Charleston Arts Festival and our performance with the CSO on the Customhouse steps on opening night of Spoleto. I hope that CBT's whirlwind pace of artistic activity during this past 20th anniversary season will spur you to invest in us through season-ticket sales, program ads and contributions.

I hope you remember community support — plain old-fashioned good will around town — is an essential ingredient for any arts organization's survival. Dance cannot afford to be seen as an elitist pastime, a fact confirmed by the great amount of time that artistic directors must spend these days in community outreach projects, in educating and building audiences.

As my pounding the pavement continues for arts eduction in every community, I always challenge my audiences by asking them to remember what live performing arts do for them, for their children and their communities. It is art that defines how communities are viewed, and, so often, art is the only memory of any society and culture from ages past. We need you.

Jill Eathorne Bahr

Resident choregrapher

Charleston Ballet Theatre

King Street

Charleston