Arts, Culture & Humanities

It sounds dramatic, but it’s true: Many organizations still apply “best practices” for short-term wins that data suggest leave them far, far worse off in terms of achieving their long-term goals. As I’ve recently reported, if I weren’t providing market insight and analysis for museums and nonprofits for a living, I’d want to be a host of the show “Mythbusters.” Here’s a myth-busting roundup of my three favorite situations in which executives and board members most frequently celebrate their own decline.

Not-for-profit theatres contributed nearly $2 billion to the U.S. economy and attracted 36.7 million attendees, according to Theatre Facts 2012, released by Theatre Communications Group. The six major findings from the report include (five-year percentages are adjusted for inflation): 1. attendance on the rise; 2. an overall return to pre-recession levels; 3. individuals and foundations leading the way; 4. investment in theatre people; 5. 50 percent of theatres ended 2012 with breakeven or better change in unrestricted net assets; and 6. working capital still needs work.

America's nonprofit theaters are feeling a bit better about their finances these days, according to a recent survey conducted by the sector's main national service organization, Theatre Communications Group. The brief survey, titled "Taking Your Fiscal Pulse, 2012," was circulated in early fall and was characterized by TCG as a "snapshot" of how the theater scene is doing financially. The theaters surveyed were a cross section — 69 had annual budgets of $50,000 or less, 61 had budgets of $3 million or more, and 76 were in between.

Three art foundations have teamed up to help artists and nonprofit arts organizations in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and  the Lambent Foundation announced the effort on Thursday. The Warhol foundation will give $1 million to affected visual arts organizations and $1 million to individual artists. These funds will be augmented by the Rauschenberg Foundation and by the Lambent Foundation, a project of the grant-making Tides Center,  that explores the intersection of arts, culture and social justice.

Film, television and Broadway Actor Richard Thomas, star of the current Manhattan Theatre Club production of Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," has been named honorary chair of the National Corporate Theatre Fund (NCTF) as it moves forward with its national theatre education initiative "Impact Creativity." 

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced that The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is awarding $2 million to the internationally acclaimed company in support of expanded community engagement and new artistic initiatives. A portion of the grant will help fund the creation of a major and multifaceted new initiative, Lyric Unlimited, which will include a number of specific community engagement projects to be announced in the near future.

Dayton, Ohio’s philharmonic orchestra, opera, and ballet have merged into a single arts organization, the country’s first three-way union among major classical music and dance outfits, writes the Dayton Daily News.

The three groups officially re-formed on July 1 as the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, the product of two years of discussion over how the companies can best cooperate and secure their collective future amid dwindling financial and administrative resources.

The League of American Orchestras announced the receipt of a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation to administer a re-granting program that supports orchestras in deepening their involvement with their communities.  

The Getty Education and Community Investment Grants Program will fund orchestras’ educational and community engagement work, helping to fuel new practices or support longstanding model programs.

ArtPlace announced $15.4 million in grants for 47 projects nationwide to support the use of the arts to improve quality of place and transform communities.

ArtPlace received almost 2200 letters of inquiry from organizations seeking a portion of the $15.4 million available for grants in this cycle. Inquiries came from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling in New York is the top-ranked recipient of ArtPlace awards in 2012. The museum will receive a $350,000 grant.

Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, announced the findings from Arts & Economic Prosperity IV™,  the fourth economic impact study of the nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences.

According to the study, the nonprofit arts and culture industry generated $135.2 billion of economic activity. This economic activity had a significant impact on the nation's economy, supporting 4.1 million full-time equivalent jobs, and generating $22.3 billion in revenue to local, state and federal governments.