EMILY WOOD, MASSINC: Thanks for coming out for the last in a series of RealTalk events. We focused on our economy this year and the choices people are making due to the economic climate people are facing. We are looking at the arts and what’s needed to keep them flourishing during these times. These are very audience-engaged events. Our moderator will open up with a few questions and then we will open it to the audience. We hope to wrap up by 8 p.m. But please stay for networking afterwards.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): When we have a tough economy people forget how important the arts are to the well being of the economy. We have an esteemed panel of experts in the field. Our conversation start tonight in the arts community it’s always in a challenging climate. It’s not new to us. What kind of best practices have each of you developed to help you succeed?
JULIE CRITES, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM: It’s this thing where the arts have been in a situation that other sectors faced a few years ago. We are always scrambling for funding. I don’t want to say the arts are not suffering. We were well poised though to be flexible and make changes. It’s something a lot of us have always had to do. At the Gardner as the news came out we wanted to try to stay ahead of the curve and not be reactive so that we could still build our audience.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): Julie has done some really interesting audience development tactics.
JULIE CRITES, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM: We view our programs and fundraising separately. Our after-hours evening program is about building audience. It’s good to be clear about the program goals. Once a month we are open late from 5:30 until 9:30. It’s a great way to experience the Gardner. Maybe down the road those will be future museum patrons. If it happens ten years from now that’s fabulous.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: My organization serves theaters and artists. The artists, reminding them to go back to the core way of doing business, building relationships and being on message and sharing goals. We have focused on providing more opportunities to bring people together and to build and strengthen networks and develop new relationships. The same goes for the theater companies. It’s going back to the core mission and core values. The theaters, for many of them the relationships are with their audiences and their funders and their staff. A lot of companies have been faced with making cuts. So it’s finding other ways to demonstrate value to staff.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): Networking is so key, utilizing your strengths. In Lowell we have utilized the idea of partnerships and bringing things to the table to increase marketing capacity and reduce the staff time that has to be put in.
JANELLE GILCHRIST, BALLETROX DANCE COMPANY MANAGER: We have always had to struggle a little bit so when the economic times went wrong, it was okay. We’re used to it. I have to work jobs like dancing and teaching and through friends you are able to stay afloat. Many people are suffering from it, you have work and then suddenly you don’t. We have to do different things to stay alive.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: Grub Street is actually growing very quickly. The way I am able to even my paycheck is to teach and it’s part of my mission to give back to others who are joining the writing world and who are readers and are passionate. I have a book coming out in the summer and it’s affected that. Hardcovers are no longer in existence. The publishing world is a mess and the new economy is thinning down the industry. These changes are really necessary. The book is still going out. I am lucky in that way. We are getting rid of some of the excess the publishing industry was involved in. We have a free brown bag series for writing exercises. It’s been a wonderful support base for me.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): Grub Street is a network of like-minded professionals. That is what we are looking at. We are looking at getting artists together and writing cooperatives. It’s seeing how you can branch your networks and reaching out to other communities. Ned, from a creative entrepreneur standpoint, what are your best practices?
NED WELLBERY, LEEDZ ENTERTAINMENT CEO: For my company persistence was key. There were changes but we kept doing what we did best. Over the last six months it’s hit as far as attendance at concerts. We deal with $15 and $20 tickets. Younger people are losing jobs. The headliners still want the same money. Unfortunately a lot of them are very greedy. Performance artists make their money these days off performances. They have to focus on that. Their prices really don’t go down. As a promoter you have to find cheaper ways to promote. We work with guerrilla marketing and getting the word out organically. You don’t stop. You work harder and you stay afloat that way. You work with new ideas and new people.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): What actions have you taken to save funds and consolidate resources and are you partnering more?
JANELLE GILCHRIST, BALLETROX DANCE COMPANY MANAGER: At BalletRox, in the summer we decided to get a general manager to make it into an organized organization. We try to be conservative with our money and with the dancers we are hiring and just kind of make it more organized. We have partnered and written grants with the Boston public schools. We go into the schools three times a week and teach dance classes in K through 5. Those are some ways we are able to stay afloat. You can dance and teach and eventually that can be the only thing that you can do. You can teach and dance and live happily ever after. The company has been there eight years. We do the urban Nutcracker. We bring in guest artists. We have a mix of jazz and hip hop and ballet and Chinese traditional dance.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): The educational partnership is key. With foundational support, arts and culture seems kind of discretionary. Educational partnerships can go the distance.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Many arts organizations are very lean, certainly at the small and mid-size level. There is not a lot of fat to cut. First it’s marketing and then it’s staff. Last is what’s up there on the stage. Consolidating or coming together, sometimes it’s not going to bring any savings to be in the same building or to co-produce. When you consolidate staffs, you increase the size of the needs of the organization, a new phone system and a bigger network and someone to support it. At the same time there are benefits to working collaboratively together. We have a theater arts marketing alliance that shares best practices. StageSource is entering into a major overhaul of its web site and doing it with the same vendor as another organization and using the same database programming. It’s an opportunity in some ways.
JULIE CRITES, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM: The program is typically the last thing to go. That’s the way it should be. The arts touch our lives and our minds and make us feel alive in a way that watching TV doesn’t and no other thing does. The program always has to be there. Gardner laid off ten percent of staff and it was a huge blow. The programming still has to be there. We are doing a lot more printing and social networking and online communication to reach audiences. We have to be creative and keep the work that we do the best it can be.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: Demand is up because people have more time. They have no money. If we can serve them when times are thin they will be with us when the economy turns back around. It’s an opportunity for the arts to grow tremendously. People are rethinking their previous interests and the feeling of accomplishment they received from them.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): If we were real estate investors, we would be investing. In the creative economy, we have to reinvest in the programs. We are starting a technical assistance workshop series in Lowell. We are doing a buy art campaign around the holidays to bring businesses and artists together. Come buy art. This is the time. You will spend more on framing that ugly poster than on unique creative work. We have done an actual creative economy plan. We put it into place right before the economic meltdown and have gone through steps to implement the plan.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: Touch on business and non-profit collaboration please.
JULIE CRITES, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM: The program we have created for after hours has become a funding benefit to companies that join us at a corporate level. It’s all their employees coming after hours for free. It’s how do you reciprocate intelligently in a way that works for the arts.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: It’s difficult in that arts organizations have gone with their hand out and said, I need, I need. Businesses are wary of that. At the same time companies are valued parts of their communities and they have needs they can meet by working with arts organizations to relay their message, to show they are a key member of a community, that they are civically engaged, that they value what the arts organizations represent. It might be a relationship where you dedicate an evening to the organization, make the CEO part of the opening remarks, invite them to meet the artists. If you serve on the board of an arts organization, the board members respond to meeting the artists and getting the behind-the-scenes look. Organizations are finding ways to deepen those relationships.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): The point is well taken, especially around community engagement. At the Lowell Folk Festival, we usually have the bucket brigade seeking donations and this year we said we can have LZ find companies to help collect donations. We had 1,200 volunteers and they get to feel like they are making a difference. Our donations increased 25 percent and the companies loved it. Other companies are like, let me in. In the buy art campaign, we featured two local businesses who have become real patrons for the arts. One firm has art all over their law offices. Another bank has unique art from their communities in their branches.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: For individual artists, a big obstacle to a career is health insurance. How do you handle that? Has the law requiring it made it easier or harder or resulted in no change.
NED WELLBERY, LEEDZ ENTERTAINMENT CEO: When I started I was as broke as you could be. I had another job. I then couldn’t balance the two. I was broke. They say you don’t make any money in the first couple of years. I could not afford health insurance. I went to the ER once and it was three thousand dollars. Luckily we live in this state. This state does cover you based on your income. The state did help me out at the beginning. We are lucky we can have insurance programs that will cover us when we don’t make that much money in the beginning. As you make more money, your insurance is based on that and I don’t have to pay as much as other people, but I am not paying zero anymore.
JANELLE GILCHRIST, BALLETROX DANCE COMPANY MANAGER: There was a time when I did not have health insurance. I am married now. That helps. I know dancers don’t have insurance. You can break yourself very easily. Dancers are sick or hurt and don’t go to a doctor. We go see an herbalist. We really do. That’s what we do. It kind of makes you stronger but still, we should probably have health insurance more than anyone else.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: I am lucky to have health insurance. The writers’ union offers insurance at a union rate. It’s a great place to go to. Improv Boston has gone into businesses to run workshops for the company. We have also considered running writing workshops for businesses. Get employees to work in teams and think creatively about projects. It’s a huge service we can give to business.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: I grew up in Britain with socialized medicine. It was great. The first thing I do each month is make sure I have money for health insurance. I was delighted by the law in 2006 and look forward to the day when I can lower my health insurance costs. My boyfriend just got health insurance under the law and has gone to the doctor for the first time in 15 years. If you have not applied under MassHealth, I urge you to do it. People say I can’t believe how much I paid before.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: StageSource has a plan. It’s an association health plan so you get Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts, Liberty Mutual, there’s like five plans there. There are artists who work multiple freelance jobs and may be just over the threshold but they don’t have one employer where they qualify. They fall through the gaps and you may look for advocacy for individual artists.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: I have the StageSource insurance and the problem with eligibility for MassHealth is if you are self-employed, it’s what you make before your expenses and costs. You are stuck in this horrible place where you can’t get MassHealth and it’s really difficult for entrepreneurs.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: On the StageSource web site is information on the plan where you can get subsidies.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: The Mass Artists Leadership Coalition is made up of artists and it’s people taking a look at legislation affecting artists and trying to keep on the forefront things like the orphan works bill, the health care reform, artists being advocates for themselves.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: Beyond the health care question, is there a distinct political issue that you feel like you have a unified voice on and that you have moved toward?
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): That is a great question, one of the closing questions planned for tonight.
JULIE CRITES, ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM: I think getting arts of all kinds into the Boston public schools is a huge priority. You need to build cultural literacy from the beginning.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: That’s the number one thing. We are not all working well towards that. It ranks way up there, arts education. It’s critical to get the artists of tomorrow engaged when they are young. If not, they will not be interested when they are older. Arts need to be part of the curriculum. Right now it’s not required.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: The primary goals are math and reading. Early reading is supposed to grow cognitive skills. Arts and music programs help discipline, planning skills, everything. People think that arts are extra and it’s not. It’s fundamental to the main learning skills we think about with our students. It’s saying these things are important to those main goals.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): One thing we all fight against a little bit – many of us are working a lot – and you tend to want to relax. There is free programming going on. The events you have to pay for, we are challenged. The biggest obstacle is the couch – people want downtime in their lives.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: It’s not just inertia. It’s people staying at home and social networks. You are playing Scrabble and Mafia Wars instead of going to a concert or even going to a bar. People have so many options now.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: An additional thing is support for the Mass. Cultural Council and the support it provides for schools and organizations.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: I want to thank MassINC because what we need is strong credible third party advocates. It’s one thing for an arts group to organize this but another for an organization like MassINC.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: We might want to think about the appalling statistics that show most artists earn less than $10,000 a year off their art and little above that. It’s a scary prospect. Our expenses are high and we are supposed to buy health insurance. Luckily I have a spouse. We are all living off our spouses and other people. Kids have to see that this is viable and we need to find a way to make that happen.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: Minnesota gives huge tax breaks to businesses that help arts organizations.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): What are the low- or no-cost policies the Commonwealth can adopt? What are the impacts that the art community can make in terms of the health of the state?
AUDIENCE COMMENT: This might be a little ahead of its time. I am interested in the social venture mechanisms, people forming businesses with a social mission. Like supporting the arts. I am in the non-profit world so I understand. There are other areas like fighting poverty that have turned to the social venture model. I put out a call to true entrepreneurs. We might not have to stay in the non-profit handout mode. It’s a really good time to look at brand new models.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: We talked about the big tax breaks in Minnesota. In Ireland they don’t tax artists at all. It’s one of the main reasons Bono still lives there. I don’t know if that could work in the U.S. The other thing is film gets left out at events in Boston and it’s growing fast. We have studios growing and tax breaks.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Film is an important part of this sector and we should do our part.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): Two productions filmed in our city brought an incredible number of people and a significant return on investment. But it’s not equal all around.
AUDIENCE COMMENT: Another caution there. All the studies show the film tax credit doesn’t create that many jobs and much of the subsidy goes right out to Hollywood. We should make the choice to support our local artists now. The subsidies would need to go on forever and would need to go to A list actors, not many of whom I see in the room here today.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: With budget cuts and the importance of arts in education, we are losing programs in our school systems that enrich the lives of children. How do you feel about that and how does it affect the kinds of career choices you make?
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: We all feel angry about it.
MICHELLE HOOVER – EDITOR, NOVELIST AND INSTRUCTOR: It’s dangerous because I have health insurance because I teach. There are other teaching avenues, tutoring or consulting businesses. You become your own business.
JEFFREY POULOS, STAGESOURCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: It goes back to advocacy again. You have to continue on message about the value of arts in schools and in the core curriculum. The Boston Foundation is doing a lot. There are other key partners. When asked to write a letter – you just have to point and click and the letter is generated for you. It’s easy to be an advocate.
LZ NUNN, CULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF LOWELL (MODERATOR): The point around innovation in our economy, supporting education in all its forms. What our next generation is going to be focused on is being well-rounded and how it’s important to the innovation economy. The thought leaders will be the leaders of the next generation. To be an artist is not necessarily defined in one career path. To be successful, the path to success is much more like a maze. I moved to Boston eight years ago. I was a poet and waiting tables in Seattle. I realized how expensive Boston was and started working with immigrants. The process can be maze-like.
