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A lot of touring shows have passed through the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, but none has had a title quite like Friday's: “Arts in Crisis.”
It isn't snappy. But it resonates in Charlotte, where the recession has clobbered cultural organizations, performances and jobs.
The show's theme: surviving the downturn and going on to flourish. The star: Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
Kaiser is sometimes called the turnaround king because he has rescued cultural groups with money troubles. He's sharing his experiences through a 50-state tour sponsored by the Kennedy Center. He addressed Charlotte arts leaders Friday at Booth Playhouse, about 20 cities into his itinerary.
“Every community thinks they're different,” Kaiser said. “And the problems are always the same.”
When money runs short, he said, many groups react by cutting performances or exhibitions, and trimming advertising. Kaiser thinks that's a mistake, leading to a drop in ticket sales and a vicious cycle of shrinking revenue and further cuts.
Instead, Kaiser said, arts groups should devise innovative programs that intrigue audiences and donors.
“Every successful nonprofit is like a family,” Kaiser said. For a cultural group, the excitement of the art is what binds everyone together – from board members who help spread the news to donors who help foot the bill to audiences who buy the tickets.
If a group can't afford an eye-catching project now, he said, it can schedule it for a few years off and use that as a lure.
When Kaiser headed the American Ballet Theatre in New York, he said, it was “totally destitute.” Its only option for rejuvenating itself was to plan an attention-getting new ballet three years away. That allowed time to get donors interested.
“You can talk about this great idea coming along,” he said. “You seem like an exciting organization.”
Kaiser didn't specifically address challenges in Charlotte, where the Arts & Science Council suffered a 37 percent drop in its fund drive, and the symphony has been shaky for years.
But sometimes he shed light on Charlotte even when he talked generally. Some industries can save money by making fewer people work harder, Kaiser said. But an orchestra can't play Beethoven's Fifth faster to economize.
“I think symphonies,” Kaiser said, “face the hardest problems.”
Yet arts groups are resilient, he said. A national arts organization predicted the recession would kill thousands of arts groups. That hasn't happened. Arts supporters persevere.
“Their passion for the work,” Kaiser said, “prevents them from walking away.”
