Arts Paper screenshot
Music Haven string quartet members play on during an October concert.
Online programming. Student scholarships. Staff health insurance. And essential connections between young people and joyful creativity, even amidst such a joyless time as now.
Local arts nonprofit leaders pointed to those services as example of how they’ve spent state grant money to date as they struggle to stay afloat during the ongoing pandemic.
That latest local arts check-in took place Tuesday afternoon during a Zoomed virtual roundtable discussion hosted by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
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Arts nonprofit leaders on Tuesday, clockwise from top left: Kit Ingui, John Fisher, Noah Bloom, Mandi Jackson.
The focus of the conversation was the state’s distribution of $9 million in grants last November to 154 qualifying arts nonprofits across the state — including $1.34 million in emergency pandemic relief to 11 New Haven-based groups.
Long Wharf Theatre Managing Director Kit Ingui, Shubert Theatre Executive Director John Fisher, Neighborhood Music School Executive Director Noah Bloom, and Music Haven Executive Director Mandi Jackson joined Bysiewicz, DeLauro, and Mayor Justin Elicker to outline how that Covid-era relief has kept their (virtual) doors open at a time when new infections mount and performing arts venues across the state remain shuttered.
“At a time when we are all looking to make sense of this challenging world, the arts are a vaccine for the mind and the soul,” Bloom said. “They keep us all grounded and connected to each other.”
Bysiewicz (pictured) agreed. She said that, before Covid, the arts provided more than $9 billion a year in economic activity in the state and supported 57,000 Connecticut jobs.
Since the state relief program provided additional funds for eligible nonprofits that also raised money from private donors, Bysiewicz said, the $9 million in public CARES Act money ultimately resulted in those 154 statewide arts organizations raising over $34 million at a time when they have been unable to be physically open, sell tickets, and hold typical pre-pandemic fundraisers.
“Arts are not just an extra special thing,” she said. “They are absolutely essential.”
Long Wharf received $551,400 through the state emergency support program, Neighborhood Music School received $166,900, the Shubert received $118,800, and Music Haven received $101,100.
New Programming, Digital Pivots
Thomas Breen photo
Ingui and Jacob Padron at October’s announcement of the state grant program.
Ingui said that, as a producing theater, Long Wharf develops and rehearses plays in New Haven. It also constructs scenery, costumers, and props here in New Haven. Before the pandemic, it employed 65 people and brought in 75 guest artists, actors, designers and directors every year.
The pandemic put a stop to nearly all of that.
“As everyone knows, with the restrictions on gathering, we have not been able to bring our audiences into our theater since March. As a result, Long Wharf has already lost about $1 million in projected ticket revenue, and we’re just one theater.”
The state grant the theater has allowed Long Wharf to maintain a core group of staff, she said. It’s allowed the theater to invest in developing new plays. And it’s allowed them to create a new program that brings high schoolers digitally into the theater.
“The arts are a tool to rebuild,” she said. “Without true investment in the arts, we’re left without that thing that grounds us.”
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Liz and John Fisher at the December virtual Arts Awards.
Fisher said that Covid has forced the Shubert to cancel roughly 200 events and shows since last March. The pandemic has led to hundreds of administrators and event staff across the city laid off, and has left local union stagehands out of work.
“Many arts organizations across the state are at risk of permanent closure without this critical funding.”
He said the state help has allowed the Shubert to continue with virtual programming, as we as with educational partnerships with teachers and students at Co-Op High School.
Thomas Breen photo
Before the pandemic, Bloom (pictured) said, Neighborhood Music School provided music and dance lessons and classes to 2,500 students from 80 different towns and cities each week. It ran an arts-based preschool and middle school and summer programs, and employed 150 professional teaching artists and provided financial aid to 500 students each year.
“Covid has had a huge impact on our ability to operate,” he said. He said the school is currently facing a $1.5 million loss in earned revenue since last March.
During Covid, the school has pivoted almost entirely online.
Its faculty have provided “100 hours of one-to-one instruction every day online,” he said. The school has held virtual recitals and plays and online concerts. And it’s kept its preschool and afterschool programs largely open.
The state grant has helped fund scholarships, new tech, and employee health insurance, he continued.
“The arts are indeed essential,” Bloom said. “For so many students, one-on-one mentorship is one of the most critical relationships in their lives.”
Jackson (pictured) said that her music education nonprofit has also been able to pivot online and continue providing free violin, viola, and cello lessons for qualifying low-income New Haven students in part thanks to the state financial boost.
“We have had to adapt in a lot of ways,” she said. The children who attend Music Haven — all low-income, almost all students of color — have already borne the brunt of the twin public health and economic crises precipitated by Covid.
“We have moved our programming online,” she said. “What this support has enabled us to do is to stay connected.”
Not just by conducting online lessons and recitals, but also by ensuring that students have access to computers and WiFi in the first place.
A violin lesson, a music theory class, allows a student to “focus on something else other than the terrible” fallout of Covid, she said. That alone is an invaluable resource that the state has wisely supported.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full roundtable.
There is more help on the way from the Federal Government via the federal $15 billion Shuttered Venue Operators (SVO) Grant program for arts, performing arts organizations and venues, and movie theaters. More details here :
https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/shuttered-venue-operators-grant
Frank Alvarado
US Small Business Administration