Cultural Groups Contemplate the Art of Survival

Local arts organizations are being challenged to improve on what they traditionally do best: be creative. 

The already bare-bones budgets of many Downers Grove arts organizations were further reduced after the village council eliminated the community grants program for 2010. Now beginning their seasons, groups are scrambling to find innovative ways of maintaining the quality of their productions while also working to raise funds and lower costs. 

"The Downers Grove arts community is very hard working and primarily operated by volunteers," said David Humphreys, a founding member of the village's Community Grants Commission. "They've done an amazing job of showing resilience but there's no question that the reduction of funding has had a major impact."

Last year, the grants program, which provided $72,000 to arts organizations in 2009, was terminated as Village Hall sought ways to address its budget deficit. Financial support such as the grants provided is not only traditional, but necessary for sustaining a vibrant arts community, Humphreys said.

"It is a fact that most arts organizations receive a significant portion of operating revenue from contributions as opposed to ticket sales. This is true even with cultural icons such as the Lyric Opera House and Chicago Symphony Orchestra," he said.

"It is traditional for many, many, in fact hundreds, of years for the community to support arts organizations. Therefore when the village cut its funding going against tradition, it obviously had an impact on the arts."

The grants program is not likely to be reinstated in the near future due to continued budget constraints, said Mayor Ron Sandack, despite the fact that cultural organizations "are certainly an asset to the community. There's no doubt about that."

The cuts were prompted by a game-changing $4.5 million deficit that prompted the the village council's tough decision to provide only basic services such as fire, police, public works and infrastructure, Sandack said.

"Absent a massive tax increased of unprecedented proportions, we couldn't afford to fund ancillary services and social services," he said.  "As compelling as they are, they're simply not comparable to providing the core services across the board."

Even before the elimination of the grants, performing arts in the area was severely challenged by escalating costs and limited funding, said Mim Eichmann, founder and artistic director of Midwest Ballet Theatre.

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to present audiences with the same quality and integrity that audiences have learned to expect," she said.

Some arts groups modified their seasons in the wake of the grants cut. MBT scheduled a show that wouldn't require guest artists and allowed the company to use costumes that they already owned. Eichmann said that MBT, like other arts organizations, is working to devise creative fundraising ideas.

Jim Stahulak, president of the Downers Grove Arts Council and a board member for the Downers Grove Choral Society, reported that some arts groups, while maintaining Downers Grove as their homes, are seeking other, more affordable venues for their actual performances.

The Downers Grove Choral Society, which recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary in the community, will perform this year in Naperville. "Groups are finding lower cost alternatives and unfortunately, that leads them outside of Downers Grove," Stahulak said.

New World Repertory Theater, which has been in Downers Grove for almost seven years, has moved out of its former venue in the Masonic Lodge at 923 Curtiss St. The company's youth ensemble kicks off this month meeting at an area church, while the rest of its operations are on hold.

While not willing to say it's completely due to the elimination of the grant funds, co-artistic director Alison Henderson said that everything is "interrelated."  When the grant decision was finalized, "we thought, okay, maybe we need to consider another location," she said.

Eichmann said that even the arts organizations' attempts to promote their events at a reasonable cost have been further thwarted by the implementation of Downers Grove School District 58's e-flyer system.

In former years, MBT and other community partners were allowed to send promotional flyers to district families through the schools. This permitted them to advertise to a target market at a very affordable price.

Hard copy flyers, however, have now been eliminated by the district as part of a green initiative. "It's extremely difficult for groups such as ours that have a good product that families would like to know about," Eichmann said. "It's the most frustrating thing that most of our groups are experiencing. How do you advertise, how do you get the word out?"

The long term impact of the elimination of grant funding will be that sustainability of beloved groups will be severely challenged, Stahulak said. This will in turn have a tremendous impact on the greater community.

"Those cultural gems that we have in terms of theater groups and classical music groups, I think that's going to be lost," he said. Furthermore, he predicts there will be a serious ripple effect on area businesses.

"It's a fact that there's an audience brought to Downers Grove from other communities. People attending live performances and staying in Downers Grove before or after to eat, shop and otherwise," Stahulak said. When performances are moved or cancelled it results in lost revenues for the businesses, he said, adding that the Village Council needs to consider the return on investment from a vibrant arts community.

Humphreys believes that the arts community is tenacious. "Since the caveman first beat a drum, arts have been a part of us," he said.

"To have the funding cut is devastating to the arts community. But does that mean that the arts are going to go away? No," he said. "They're a fundamental part of the human spirit. But to have them thrive and really support the spirit of the community and contribute to the spirit of the community, they need outside support."