Study: Small arts groups at risk
Boston Foundation says some should consider closing

In the midst of the region's unprecedented arts building boom, the Boston Foundation will release a report today with a sobering thesis: While large cultural institutions remain relatively healthy, smaller groups are losing audience and struggling to break even - and some should simply close up shop.

The foundation, which compared Boston's arts landscape in 1999 and 2004, does not state which organizations should resolve their problems by closing or merging with others. The report speaks in general terms, lumping together groups by budget level and discipline.

"Things are not getting better," said Ann McQueen, the senior program officer at the Boston Foundation who cochaired the study. "Things are trending in the wrong direction."

The report surveyed financial and attendance information for more than 600 groups in the area, from organizations with budgets of less than $1 million to the city's largest, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Ballet, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. It found that while the number of arts groups grew 17 percent between 1999 and 2004, from 534 to 624, the average revenue of those groups fell by 16 percent. Among museums, total attendance across the city dropped 18 percent in that period, from roughly 1.6 million people to 1.3 million.

"Proliferation isn't necessarily a positive for everybody," said Mark Volpe, the BSO's managing director. "If the pie isn't growing, it gets more competitive."

Smaller organizations generally struggled more than larger ones to keep expenses in check as revenue fell, according to the report. That led the Boston Foundation to suggest that some arts groups should consider "exit strategies."

The Sugan Theatre Company already has.

Carmel O'Reilly, the Sugan's artistic director, said yesterday that the company, founded in 1992, has not staged a production since April 2006. She said there is a chance Sugan could return, though she said it is also likely it will never stage another production. At its peak, Sugan produced three plays a year and had a budget of a little more than $100,000. But even then, O'Reilly, who did not pay herself for the company's first eight years, earned no more than $15,000 a year.

"For us to develop, we would have needed to have a development officer and a marketing officer, and to do that you need money," O'Reilly said. "It's the chicken chasing the egg."

Those involved in overseeing the study said they suspected a variety of factors - including the state's stagnant population, reductions in government and public support, and the economic downturn - led to the increased strain on the smaller groups. But they couldn't say for sure. The foundation also stressed that many of the struggles are merely a reflection of a nationwide downtown for arts groups.

Paul S. Grogan, president of the foundation, said the report is not advocating that there be fewer arts groups in Boston, but merely that those organizations no longer viable make way for innovative start-ups. The report calls for organizations whose "vision has either dissipated or lost its resonance with its audience or supporters" to consider shutting down.

When asked why the report didn't name specific groups, Grogan said, "If you do it publicly, it seems to me all you do is provoke a defensive response."

Jason Southerland, artistic director of the decade-old Boston Theatre Works, said he won't be surprised if some smaller arts organizations fade away.

"Natural selection or the market economy, some of them will," he said. "We could be one of them. We are hand to mouth much more than I thought we'd be at 10 years. We are always on the verge of great success or total collapse."

One larger organization known to be struggling is the Boston Ballet. The Boston Foundation report comes at a challenging time for the company. It has earned strong reviews, recently toured Spain, and finished last year with an operating surplus of $1.7 million. But a shortfall in fund-raising, and other costs, ate through that, and more. The ballet ended the most recent fiscal year with an $800,000 deficit.

This year, the Boston Ballet says it is on track to balance its budget, but to do that it had to outsource its marketing staff and rent a set for its upcoming production of "Swan Lake" from Ballet West in Salt Lake City. The Boston Ballet's own sets would be too expensive to move into the Citi Performing Arts Center's Wang Theatre, said executive director Valerie Wilder. "It's kind of a bleak report, but on the other hand, it's good to know where you are," Wilder said. "Big arts require big bucks. I think it's kind of a collective decision of a community that needs to say, . . . 'How do we value [the arts] and how can we leverage support for it?' There are some stunning examples."

Wilder noted the massive arts building boom in the region. The Institute of Contemporary Art's $51 million building opened last year, and the Museum of Fine Arts has raised $430 million of $500 million meant for a massive expansion project now underway.

Dan Hunter, the director of the Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, an arts advocacy group, also notes positive developments since 2004, the most recent year included in the foundation's study.

In September, the state's new Cultural Facilities Fund allocated an unprecedented $16.7 million worth of grants for building projects to more than 60 arts and cultural organizations throughout the state. In addition, the Massachusetts Cultural Council has seen its budget rise from $7.3 million in 2004 to its current $12.3 million.

"This study is taking a pulse," Hunter said. "I don't think it's saying you have to go to the emergency room now. It's saying you need to cut back on your cholesterol, and get a little more exercise."

© 2007 The New York Times Company