The State of the Arts

How are Charleston arts organizations weathering the current financial drought?

In times of economic woe, spending speaks for individuals' priorities. Though the arts are a mark of an enlightened society, participation in cultural events is not a necessity for the penny-pinching masses.

This is apparent in the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, released June 15. The study looked at how frequently adults attended arts events over a 12-month period. Approximately 35 percent of U.S. adults, 78 million, attended an art museum or event in 2008, which is down from 40 percent in 1982, 1992 and 2002. Art museums and craft or visual art festivals were the most popular but saw significant declines, while performing arts like classical music, jazz, opera, ballet, musical theater and dramatic plays saw steeper decline rates in the double digits. Other than the economic downturn, the NEA points to the aging of arts audiences as a factor in the long-term reduction in the number of attendees.

As with any study though, the results were not uniform across the nation. Locally, Charleston arguably has the largest artistic community in South Carolina. With a professional orchestra, a professional ballet and several professional theater companies, Charleston indulges in cultural amenities that are typically found only in a booming metropolis. Charleston underwent a renaissance in the 1930s, spawning talent liked painter Elizabeth O'Neil Verner and author DuBose Heyward, whose book "Porgy" inspired George Gershwin's folk opera "Porgy and Bess."

Another significant contribution to Charleston's cultural growth is that the city plays host to the Spoleto Festival USA annually. Each spring since 1977, Charleston becomes inundated with dance, theater, opera, music and visual arts events as the stateside counterpart to Gian Carlo Menotti's international arts festival held in Spoleto, Italy. The city of Charleston also created Piccolo Spoleto, a regional of the arts festival that highlights local talent and runs on the Spoleto hunger for art.

Additionally, the city's tourism-driven market infuses Charleston with attention and funding. According to Marla Loftus, Director of Communications at the Gibbes Museum of Art and an arts management professor at the College of Charleston, typical Charleston visitors are well-educated families with children out of the house— the same demographic that is predisposed to viewing art and attending events. Also, the same thing that draws vacationers tends to inspire arts and appreciation: the sheer beauty of the natural and historic surroundings.

"It's basically like we live in a painting," Loftus said.

Highs & lows

Currently, the Charleston arts scene might take the form of a chiaroscuro painting, though — areas of darkness punctuated by brightness.

Carol Ann Davis, the president of the Lowcountry Initiative for Literary Arts, reports that particularly in hard economic times the group's free writing workshops at the county library have "exploded."

"When a downturn occurs, how populist writing is appeals to people because all you're doing is saying something," Davis said. "You're not spending or even asking people to look at something."

Other media also are expanding. Redux Contemporary Art Center is offering twice the quarterly art classes and is enjoying larger event crowds. The six-year-old fledgling nonprofit also offers affordable studio space and is on target for budget and membership for the year, despite raising only half of the goal funds in last November's art auction. Redux development director Kyle LeGette attributed the sub par spending to the stock market's free fall at the time.

"I do think that people maybe have gotten a little more comfortable with the state the economy is in, so people are still giving," LeGette said.

Many theaters dealt with an attendance dip between October and the start of the year, according to Emily Wilhoit, the executive director of Theatre Charleston, a nine-company umbrella nonprofit organization. After increased marketing efforts by Theatre Charleston, and an arts marketing blitz put on by the Office of Cultural Affairs through mailings, media buys and a booth in Marion Square, many companies reported record highs at box offices.

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra, however, is fighting to stay afloat. Though the December marketing blitz, for which the CSO was one of the main beneficiaries, tided the CSO over, ticket sales still declined 5 percent. Cynthia Branch, the CSO's director of patron services, reports that not only individual ticket sales but membership sales for the upcoming season are decreasing. Last season's membership would not have reflected a full-on economic downturn since the packages were purchased in the spring of 2008.

"If they do beautiful programs and very few people go to them, a tree is falling in the forest and nobody's hearing it," Ellen Moryl, the director of the Office of Cultural Affairs, said of the symphony.

Despite its kindred nature to classical music, the Charleston Ballet Theatre has contrarily increased ticket sales over the past several years due to efforts to embrace a broader demographic. Though ticket sales are soaring, they still account for only 40 percent of the company's operating budget.

"People may come to the ballet and see a full house and assume everything is just fine on the financial front since our seats are filled, but that could not be further from the truth," said Kyle Barnette, the company's administrative director.

The real downturn

With all charitable giving down, the severe decrease in public and private contributions is the common denominator for nearly every Charleston arts organization. Companies have fewer funds to allocate for donations and many individuals consider the arts as luxury spending.

Several people in the arts community, including Wilhoit, also point to Charleston's lack of major corporate headquarters as another gap in funding.

"Big cities have huge businesses that have money they can donate, but Charleston doesn't have numerous businesses, so we rely on individual donors," Wilhoit said.

All nonprofits in Charleston County are receiving less grant money from the county due to serious shortfalls in accommodations tax revenue, traditionally earmarked for charitable groups.

Fortunately, philanthropic groups like the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, with its artistic vitality grants, and the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina continue to dole out funds to worthy groups who ask.

When the going gets tough, the tough get creative

Though cutting budgets down to the bare bones is a typical reaction to economic hardship, it is what arts organizations are doing with their remaining funds that will help them pull through.

"Smaller independent groups are increasing what they're doing," said Jessica Bluestein, president of the Charleston Arts Coalition. "They're getting more entrepreneurial and developing and strengthening their community. Creative entrepreneurs know what to do with little money, it's no news to them."

Organizations have continued with the

Spoleto momentum and put on productions during the summer, when arts are typically in a lull. Theaters are planning big-name crowd-pleasers for next season to ensure audiences, too.

Conversely, the CSO is celebrating the city itself by utilizing local talents who are less expensive than national acts, just as they are choosing music for smaller ensembles to save. The Gibbes Museum is conserving funds by saving on equipment by letting guests use their own tools to hear a cell phone guided audio tour.

Getting in on the technology side of marketing is also helpful for groups like the Gibbes, The League of Charleston Theaters and the Office of Cultural Affairs, all of which send out regular e-mail blasts to large groups of interested subscribers.

Matt Hampton, the dramaturge at South of Broadway Theatre, is even going so far as to stage a play online using multiple interacting Twitter accounts.

"We do get a chance to innovate," Hampton said. "If you're going to experiment you've got to be like Wile E. Coyote: You're going to go face first into the wall every once in a while."

Creative ticketing and promotion has also increased attendance. Heavy e-mail discounts and "Pay what you will" nights for each run have grown crowds at Pure Theatre and Charleston Stage. Pure also helps narrow the demographic gap between young adults and retirees by hosting a "Bring Your Own Baby" night where parents can indulge in free childcare during the show. Theatre 99 even offered a promotion where attendees of all Piccolo Spoleto shows received free summer passes with their pledge of allegiance to the troupe.

Because many artists are struggling now, they are more open to reaching out to others, which reduces duplicated efforts and strenghtens everyone's work.

"I think the recession forces people to get really clear about what they're doing and be more focused about the services they're offering so there's none of this mediocrity," Bluestein said.

Visual artists are putting a greater emphasis on collaborative efforts, while centers like Redux and Eye Level Art are also nurturing cross-media shows.

The symbiosis is also manifest in niche groups like Theatre Charleston market on the basis that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Gibbes Museum attributes its steady attendance, even when city visitation was down, to the positive group public relations of the Museum Mile.

Groups like the Charleston Ballet Theatre are also pioneering public/private partnerships by joining forces with King Street neighbors to throw opening night parties and cocktail parties at Fish, where attendees mingle with dancers and sip special themed drinks after performances. Dinner-and-a-show specials have also been audience-pleasers.

The Charleston Arts Coalition, newly created in February, aims to serve as a collective voice for Charleston creatives and advocate for them in an effort to irradiate the "starving artist" model of creativity in a time when the audience is more selective. Pecha Kucha Charleston hosts quarterly events with a goal of creating a dialogue and enhancing the creative economy's potential.

"What we haven't been able to do as a community is turn the switch on and build on that foundation to create an economic driver out of the creative cluster," said Patrick Bryant, a co-chair for Pecha Kucha.

Silver lining

Though Charleston does appear to be a complex microcosm for the arts, its arts organizations are by no means out of the woods.

"If you can weather the storm right now using your creative thinking cap, then you are going to be in a much better position," Bluestein said.

Perhaps extending a hand to the local arts is just what the doctor ordered.

"We're tired of the bad news and we want to do something that's a small escape, and so going to an art museum for an afternoon or going to see the ballet one night is something you can look forward to and it's not going to break the bank." Loftus said.

Resources

Charleston Concert Association

www.charlestonconcerts.org

Lowcounty Initiative for the Literary Arts

www.lilaconnects.com

Charleston Arts Coalition

www.charlestonartscoalition.com

Charleston Ballet Theatre

www.charlestonballet.com

Gibbes Museum of Art

www.gibbesmuseum.org

Charleston Stage

www.charlestonstage.com

League of Charleston Theatres

www.theatrecharleston.com

Theatre 99

www.thehavenots.com

South of Broadway Theatre Company

www.southofbroadway.com

Charleston Symphony Orchestra

www.charlestonsymphony.com

Redux Contemporary Art center

www.reduxstudios.org

Eye Level Art

www.eyelevelart.com

Pecha Kucha Charleston

www.pechakuchacharleston.com

Jazz Artists of Charleston

www.jazzartistsofcharleston.org