Feature Stories - June 2008

Industry Focus: The Arts

Recently, a group of Nevada-based arts professionals gathered at Arrow Creek Golf Course in Reno to discuss current challenges within the industry, including the corporate partnerships, funding and the impact of the economic downturn. Connie Brennan, publisher of Nevada Business Journal, served as moderator for NBJ’s monthly event.

Education

All participants agreed that art plays an important role in raising creative thinkers for the workforce, as well as maintaning the industry in future years. They said that educating the community and business leaders is vital to the growth of the arts in the state, as well as fostering creativity among students.

Dan Rosenblatt: When you talk to various businesses CEOs, there seems to be a lack of creativity in business people. The arts can foster a creative way of thinking for business and it’s only through exposure, training and participation in the arts by the youth that ultimately businesses are going to succeed and grow.

Tim Young: It’s our job to maintain education programs to make sure that everything we do makes sense, is interesting and exciting to people of this community so that the arts remain a stronghold in Reno.

Mary Ellen Horan: The most pressing need is to raise and educate creative thinkers, especially in elementary students. It’s important to raise creative thinkers to help support the arts in years to come.

Christine Fey: I’m very worried about the sustainability of our industry as we all age. It’s crucial for us to be training the next generation to carry out the goals of the arts.

Funding

Participants discussed the various programs to increase arts funding and ensure it grows each year. All agreed that funding is the number one challenge among the nonprofit industry. They said not only is it important to receive funding from businesses and supporters at the local level, but also to receive national recognition.

Susan Boskoff: We work in partnership with Nevada Arts Advocates and all these organizations around here to ensure that public funding for the arts is maintained and increased appropriately. Last year, $1.2 million in grants was given to the arts across the state. The public funding for the Nevada Arts Council was $400,000 in 1993, and today it is approximately $1.8 million.

David Walker: Our big challenge right now is trying to achieve some national relevance and to turn to organizations outside the state of Nevada for funding.

Horan: We also have the Rich in Art license plate with Nevada Arts Council, which raises funds both for VSA Arts of Nevada, formerly Very Special Arts Nevada, and Nevada Arts Council for children’s programming. It’s a huge fundraiser for us. We’re able to do many different programs with children throughout the state.

Angie Wallin: Nevada Arts Advocates works with the Legislature to increase arts funding in the state. Prior to the last legislative session, the budget for the arts was about 70 cents per person. Our ultimate goal is to increase it to one dollar per person.

Arts as an Economic Development Tool

All agreed the arts are vital to the long term sustainability of a community and one of the most important means to attract and keep new businesses in the state. Participants discussed the use of arts as a recruitment tool to attract a healthy and creative workforce.

Sharon Rosse: I’ve heard from city leaders who are trying to bring businesses to the state that the very first question corporate heads will ask is, “What’s there to do in your state? What’s the cultural vibe like? What are the schools like?” in either that order or reverse order, and without the dynamic healthy cultural environment, new businesses aren’t going to come in, nor will they stay.

Scott Faulkner: Recruiting arts professionals to come to the area to play or relocate, concerns me. We have wonderful musical quality but our depth isn’t exceedingly great.

Boskoff: It’s important to keep employment high and come up with more interactive and more expansive programs to engage more people in the arts. It comes back to that relationship between the workforce and how the arts community can provide the workforce with an engaging workplace.

Libby Lumpkin: That is absolutely right. In fact, the figures suggest that problem contributes to the brain drain – we train doctors, we train attorneys and they leave the state because they don’t want their children to grow up where there are no cultural amenities. But we’re in a unique position in Las Vegas in that the arts, particular contemporary art, is so popular that it’s actually contributing to the economic growth of the city. Corporations care about the cultural life of the city, therefore, they support the arts. The arts are an economic opportunity. Look at Miami – in 2000, the city started the Art Basel Miami Fair, which features contemporary art. The fair is now the number one tourist attraction in the state of Florida. It elevates room rates from 11 to 24 percent over the four-day period. Las Vegas – a tourist mecca – ranks at the top of the tourist industry but at the very bottom in attracting cultural events.

Myron Martin: The same applies to the performing arts as it does to the visual arts, and that’s what we’ve seen firsthand in cities like Fort Worth, the 19th largest county in America. Clark County is the 20th largest. When they built their performing arts center, the Bass Hall in Fort Worth 10 years ago, the entire downtown was recreated. Now, the same is true in places like Newark, a town that people wouldn’t necessarily want to go during the day, much less walk around at night. The New Jersey Performing Arts has 250 performances a year for people in New Jersey. Terry Lanni, CEO of MGM Mirage and Jim Murren, president of MGM Mirage, speak to their constituencies about the need for arts in Las Vegas. In fact, they have said that it’s more difficult to recruit the kind of senior executives that they need to help run their business because the city doesn’t have cultural amenities. The arts can make businesses stronger by having an arts infrastructure. Somer Hollingsworth, president of the Nevada Development Authority in Las Vegas, uses the arts as a recruiting tool for business.

Fey: All business owners, no matter how small they are or how big they are, care about having a creative, intelligent workforce that’s been developed for them to have access to. They also care about sustaining and retaining that workforce and attracting the new people from other places, as well as that creative foot soldier they need to be able to carry on the business of their organization. When I was a planner, when Patagonia was looking for a place to move and they came to the planning department, one of the things they asked us was, “How are the schools, what have you got for arts and culture, and describe the recreational opportunities for our employees that we’re going to be asking to move from California.” The arts industry not only brings economic vitality but the important core body of people who can be used to advance business goals.

Economic Downturn

Most arts groups have felt an economic squeeze. While large donations continue, small donations have become scarce. They felt it important to recognize that support for the arts comes in more forms than just financial. Time spent on a board of directors or as a volunteer was put at a premium.

Linda Nazemian: The economic downturn is beginning to affect the arts industry. We’re also seeing that shorter programs are selling and are still vibrant, but the longer, more expensive programs are slowly being cancelled.

Tim Young: I think the conventional wisdom is that those people who are major donors are somewhat insulated, so those gifts are still continuing. Those giving at a lower level, the supporters, sustaining-type gifts, we’re seeing some impact. Our fiscal year is coming to a close, so we have not really seen any of that in our budget for next year. But, we’re planning on some reduction.

Bill Russell: A more direct and really short-term challenge is that getting items for auctions has been more difficult because people are cutting from all sides. We’re at about two-thirds of our normal level. A lot of people are very nervous and holding back. While our attendance is about the same, it’s going to be interesting to see how loose the pocketbooks become. In some of the foundations, we’ve noticed a warning about the level of funding they’re able to contribute in the future due to stock market earning.

Horan: We’re trying to be more creative in our fundraising in this economic time. Corporations want win-win situations where their name is out there so their customers know that they’re supporting arts. But it’s not just funding – we only think of the big dollar – but it’s also the time. We need corporations that are willing to have their employees and upper management sit on our board of directors and volunteer. Even if they can’t give financially, they can give their time.

Boskoff: Our budget was cut due to the economic downturn, and we’ve been working with our grantees to work out a budget reduction that would continue to maintain the funding at the highest level possible. The upside of having a downturn in the economy is the ability for the arts community to work together on a common scale to show off the creativity of people who work with us.

Martin: We may be in the most troubling period for the financial markets in many of our lifetimes, and it is definitely affecting fundraising. Most of the experts say that this is a bubble and they can see light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the economic state, we are responsible for raising what will be $475 million in a state that’s not known for philanthropy. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation gave us a $50 million gift a couple of years ago. At the time, it was the largest arts gift in our state’s history. So there’s a lot of good happening in our state. We have currently signed, sealed and delivered 36 corporate and individual donors at $1 million or more. We expect in the next 60 days, despite the hiccup in the economy, it will be 50 signed and sealed. It’s a little tough to think about that light at the end of the tunnel, but I have to say that we can see it, and I think the future for the arts is brighter than ever.