According to the Lincoln Theater’s materials, the venue, built in 1922, was the center of a cultural renaissance that predated Harlem. Washington natives Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey performed regularly in the hall, along with artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, and Sarah Vaughn. Longtime board member and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham is advocating for the city to pick up 2012 operating expenses to keep the Lincoln open, while D.C. Mayor Gray has stated that the Lincoln’s business model is “not sustainable.”

The Lincoln’s struggles highlight the need to increase funding for the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the city’s official arm for arts support. The tragedy of the Lincoln’s closing — if it is a tragedy — will be that it is the victim of investments made in other arts infrastructure. A quick look around the city shows a sparkling list of new and renovated theater since 2004, including: the Greenberg, GALA, ARC, Atlas, Artishphere, Woolly, Olney, Shakespeare Harman, Fords, Arena, Signature, Bethesda, Studio, and Source. The latest jewel in D.C.’s arts venue crown will open February of 2012 just a few blocks from the Lincoln Theater: the newly renovated Howard University Theater (550 seats, at a cost of $29 million.)

The thrill of construction and the potential to anchor neighborhood revitalization has driven enormous investment in arts infrastructure in the region over the last decade. Now, non-profit managers and policymakers are struggling to find the money to cover the operating expenses for all of the venues — old and new. These problems are not unique to our region, and writing for the New York Times Claudia La Rocco quotes Kate D. Levin, commissioner of the New York City Cultural Affairs Department, who said the government could help only so much: “If you want to build something, and the city can help, that’s great, but you cannot expect us to come in also with operating funds… We have to have organizations that are able to deal with the operating costs.” Also in the New York Times, Robin Pogrebin reported, “Some are arguing that arts administrators and their patrons succumbed to an irrational exuberance that rivaled the stock market’s in the boom years.”

Just a few months ago, The Bethesda Cultural Alliance hosted an auction for the bankrupt Historic Bethesda Theater, renovated at a cost of $12 million dollars in 2007. As reported on TBD, “BB&T bought back the Bethesda for $2 million — the exact same sum, coincidentally, that Montgomery County taxpayers spent on the theatre’s $12 million renovation three years ago. Now the bank is looking for buyers, and the only thing saving the building from becoming, say, a CVS, is a county law requiring that it remain a performance arts center.” Erin Donaghue’s article for the Gazette quotes Steven Silverman, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, “The biggest challenge is that the theater is not economically viable without a full-time operator and a business plan that will produce contributed income — meaning corporate sponsorships, philanthropic gifts, something other than the box office.”

Rental revenues are a critical component of budgets for the majority of theater venues, and with more available venues there has been increased competition for a shrinking number of rentals. The general recession has reduced the ability of outside non-profits to rent theater space. The Lincoln and other theaters are suffering from a Trickle-Up Effect of reduced earned revenue. With less arts money available in general, smaller non-profits rent fewer nights in theater venues, resulting in a Trickle-Up Effect of contraction from the smaller non-profits to the larger ones, impacting the sustainability of theaters.

Granting funds available to D.C. non-profits through the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities have been reduced from over $10 million in 2009 to less than $4 million for the current fiscal year. While the rush of opening new venues is no match for the grind of daily maintenance and the needs of the community day after day, one has to hope that sooner or later awareness of the struggles of the Lincoln and other venues will help reverse that trend. An increase in general arts funding would enliven the city and could help salvage the bottom line of theaters like the Lincoln. With D.C.’s “Creative Economy Initiative,” started under Mayor Fenty and now hanging as an incomplete thread, there is an opportunity for policy-makers to replace arts investment outside of a capital funding framework and into sustainable community initiatives.

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Published October 13, 2011 on the Huffington Post; click here to read and comment on this text on the Huffington Post website.

My editor didn’t want to publish the following graphic, which is research I did into the expense of creating all of these new theater spaces. If I have time a future post will present the research in a way they can publish.

Dear Neighbor,

As you are probably aware, we are entering an election season, and the Ward 4 city council seat is one of the positions up for election this spring.

I have some real concerns for our neighborhood. Will the opening of Wal-Mart cause more of the small businesses on Georgia Avenue to close, and what’s the plan with that? Will the closing of Walter Reed mean more excess office/retail space for our area, and reduced property values? With Michelle Rhee gone what is the plan for our Ward 4 schools?

I’m interested to hear what the Ward 4 candidates have to say on these and other issues so I’ve invited a few of them to my house, and I’m inviting you to join us.

Join me Tuesday October 18 from 7:00-8:30 to meet two of the candidates: Keith Jarrell and Max Skolnik. Each candidate will have five minutes to introduce himself, and then we get to ask them questions. The formal question and answer period will end at 8pm, and from 8-8:30 we can chat informally.

I’ve never met either of these guys, and don’t know if I like either of them. This is not an endorsement. I just want to hear where they’re at, and why they’re running. I plan to do another one or two of these with more candidates including the sitting Ward 4 councilmember in the months to come. I hope you’ll come by, and let me know if you have any questions. PLEASE RSVP by email so we know how many to expect.

Your neighbor,

Rob

p.s. – In case you’re interested, the website for Max Skolnik is www.voteformax.com, and the website for Keith Jarrell is www.keithjarrell2012.com.

Our event with Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, International Arts and Artist is Wednesday after work, June 8th, from 6:30 – 8:00pm at the Hillyer Art Space, 9 Hillyer Court NW in Dupont Circle. Following the brief presentations members from all three groups are invited to mingle and enjoy free beer and other refreshments. This event will feature presentations from Jay Dick and Walt Steimel. Jay Dick is the Director of State and Local Government Affairs at Americans for the Arts. Walt Steimel is an attorney and partner at Loeb and Loeb. Registration required / REGISTER here: http://bit.ly/ilq3ta

The investigation against Development Committee Chair Thomas (ward 5) just picked up speed. Response from Council and Administration offices indicates that the Chair of the Committee that oversee arts funding could be removed from his committee chairmanship before the summer recess. From the June 6, 2010 Washington Post report: “D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. arranged to have more than $300,000 in public funds diverted to groups he controlled, and used the money as a lavish personal account, purchasing an Audi SUV and taking trips to Las Vegas and Pebble Beach, the city’s attorney general said Monday. In releasing a highly anticipated report, Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan alleges that Thomas’s inappropriate “conversion” of the money for personal use was “willful, intentional and knowing.” http://wapo.st/m76eqS

The agency spending freeze imposed by Mayor Gray means that all ARTS (DCCAH) grant money has been temporarily canceled, and is delayed. See http://1.usa.gov/k6UzLJ The DCCAH has filed their appeal – as other agencies – and you can support their appeal by emailing the mayor and expressing your support. Email your support for DCCAH funding to eom@dc.gov and tell your friends to do the same.

The DC Advocates for the Arts is building coalition to advance DC’s creative communities. In organizing and growing the voice behind this sector, we will positively affect change that will advance the industry and District economically, nurture creative thinking skills in our children and further cultivate a culturally rich place to live. Please help us by forwarding this to a friend, and inviting them to become members of the DC Advocates for the Arts http://bit.ly/eOycMW

Hope to see you Wednesday. Don’t forget to become a member and register to attend for free!

Ward 3 CM Mary Cheh emailed (Word, .doc) her colleagues May 24 to present the budget support act provisions being moved by the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. One item on the list is:

“For the purpose of encouraging the arts in the District of Columbia, the Committee recommends an allocation of $5,000,000 in capital funds to the new Department of General Services to construct an amphitheater along the Klingle Trail in Ward 3. Owing to the efficiency of a much-enlarged agency and the anticipated unanimous agreement among residents, the project is expected to be completed in 90 days. Additionally, $500,000 shall be transferred from the Executive Office of the Mayor to the Commission on Arts and Humanities. These funds shall be used to write, cast, and produce a play entitled Sulaimon Brown’s Service: The Musical. It should be noted, however, that the name is something of a misnomer as the title character, despite much mention, does not ever appear in the production….”

Link to the full word doc is live on Susie’s blog.

Arts education in the District is threatened. Non-profit arts education providers and the populations they serve are like the character in the movie Hustle and Flow who says, “I’m sitting here trying to squeeze a dollar out of a dime and I ain’t got a cent.”

There has not been a single community, or business, untouched by the recent economic decline.  The National Opera was forced to reduce from 7 performances to 5 for the past season, and in 2012 will be absorbed by the Kennedy Center in an effort to stave off further collapse. The budgets of most organizations have shrunk, and non-profit presenters are feeling a trickle up effect; with fewer rentals many theater spaces are struggling to keep the lights on. Washington, D.C. is not at all unique in these struggles. Last week one of the great orchestras in the United States – the Philadelphia Orchestra –– declared bankruptcy. Among surviving organizations, arts programs serving poor communities are in decline, as non-profit businesses focus on earned and donated revenue possibilities.

Sometimes we forget that non-profit businesses are just businesses, subject to the same forces that drive expansion and contraction in the rest of the economy. The DC Chamber of Commerce 2011 Policy Agenda states,  “The past year has proven to be a test for many of our members as they work to survive the economic downturn. And over the past year, the Chamber has been able to stave off legislative and regulatory initiatives that could harm our members’ ability to operate successfully and help grow our economy, create more jobs, and improve the District’s competitiveness regionally.” And that is where the DC Advocates for the Arts find ourselves as we prepare for Arts Advocacy Day – April 27, 2011. We are fighting to maintain support for DC students, and to protect opportunities for DC arts organizations and artists. Will only the wealthiest children in Washington, D.C. have access to the benefits of arts education? The outcome of the current budget fight will provide some of the answer.

Increased funding for DC’s arts agency, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), is necessary to maintain access to arts education for lower income populations. Funding for the DCCAH has been gutted in the last three years, from over $14 million in FY 09 to under $5 million in FY 11. The District’s FY 12 proposed budget contains further cuts; the current proposal is $3.92 million to serve all of the arts organizations, artists, and arts education providers in the District. That is $3.92 million within a total District FY 12 budget of $10.8 billion. Contraction in the non-profit arts community is to be expected in this economy, but policy-makers need to protect those least able to bear additional burden. Just like Homeless services, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and general education funding, arts and arts education funding must be protected.

Music education teaches children discipline as it validates their individual voices. Private schools see how these kinds of opportunities drive student achievement not for individual children, but in the breadth of student populations. We don’t know which children don’t drop out because of music education. We don’t know which children focus that little bit more closely because they feel better about themselves due to music education. DCYOP and programs like DCYOP are reaching families week in and week out, and we need your help.

To support DCYOP and all of the arts providers in the District, on Wednesday April 27, 2011 – Arts Advocacy Day – please take a minute to ask policy-makers to support arts education in the District’s FY 12 budget. Contact Mayor Gray via email at eom@dc.gov or by phone at (202) 727-6300, and Council Chair Kwame Brown at kbrown@dccouncil.us or (202) 724-8032. We need your voice to maintain public support for arts education.  Please ask the Mayor and the Council Chair to support arts education, and to do that by restoring funding for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to FY 2010 level – $5.16million.