An ensemble play: R.I. arts organizations join together to call for state support

A production photo from Trinity Repertory Company’s spring 2024 staging of August Wilson’s 1985 play ‘Fences.’ Trinity Rep is one of three organizations that would benefit from a capital improvement bond proposed by Rhode Island House leadership. But the Providence theater says operating costs are still a major concern. (Marisa Lenardson/Courtesy of Trinity Repertory Company)

Big things come in small packages, the cliché goes.

But a proposed funding package for Rhode Island’s arts and culture economy is even smaller than advocates hoped.

The Rhode Island House’s proposed version of the fiscal 2025 budget was released Friday, May 31, and includes a $10 million bond initiative for arts and culture funding. If the bond makes it to the ballot and voters say yes, then the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and three nonprofits would share the proceeds. Newport Contemporary Ballet , Trinity Repertory Company and the Tomaquag Museum would receive $2 million apiece. RISCA would distribute the remaining $4 million through matching grants for arts-related capital improvement projects, like renovations and historic preservation.

But the costs of being creative aren’t just making facilities newer and shinier. Capital improvement does nothing to address arts organizations’ operating expenses in a post-pandemic economy, arts advocates contend.

“None of this operational stuff has been addressed,” said Lynne McCormack, executive director of RISCA. “It seems like there’s just a deaf ear everywhere about it, and it’s really quite concerning.”

The state budget for RISCA has not changed in 10 years, McCormack said, even as overall state spending grew more than 50%. Most recent nourishment to the arts council’s budget, she said, has come from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), like a $1 million grant awarded in April.

McCormack joined the RI Coalition for the Arts — an assembly of the state’s art advocates and industry leaders — on Smith Hill May 28 to rally around the Creative Futures Fund , a separate bill introduced by Providence Democrats Sen. Jake Bissaillon and Rep. Scott Slater in their respective chambers. The bipartite bill puts a higher price tag on the arts: $14.5 million toward 13 nonprofit organizations and another $3.2 million for RISCA grants, with another $300,000 for RISCA administrative fees, for a whopping total of $18 million. Currently, the bills, which would use funding from the state’s share of federal pandemic aid, linger in committee.

McCormack said she’s happy with the proposed cultural facilities bond since it will continue a program that’s run successfully since 2014. “It’s really helped renovate a lot of buildings that nobody else would touch,” she said, but added “It’s definitely not the fix for what the coalition is asking for.”

David Beauchesne, executive director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Music School, helped form the coalition. What the coalition wants, he said, is a return to the pandemic’s unusual generosity for the creative sector. Coalition members know how to go about stabilizing their organizations, Beauchesne said. But they need the funds to do it.

“Soon as the shutdown ended, the state government seemed to go back to picking which sectors of the economy mattered and which don’t,” Beauchesne said in a phone interview. “I’m not trying to say this should be arts versus other [sectors of the economy]. That’s not it at all. We just want to be treated equally for the jobs we make and the role that we play.”

The arts and culture economy — which includes performing arts, music and visual art — comprised about 3.3% of Rhode Island’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supported 18,481 jobs , according to 2022 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

“For context,” a RISCA annual report offers, “the construction industries are 3.4% of the state’s GDP.”

Despite its prominence in both the local economy (and, of course, state marketing materials), Beauchesne said operating support for the arts has long been scant both federally and statewide, with investments prioritized for more profitable industries. That all changed with federal pandemic aid.

“It was the first time we were measured for our output,” Beauchesne said. “Our worth wasn’t determined by what sector we were in.”

A different economy a decade ago

Past bond initiatives for arts development have performed well in the Ocean State. The most extensive in recent memory was in 2014 , when $30 million to benefit nine organizations received 60% of the vote . A much smaller bond of $7 million for the same purposes was approved in the 2021 special election , once again by 60% of voters.

The 2014 bond may have been a high point of arts funding in Rhode Island, Beauchesne thought. Asked if the state lives up its capital’s moniker of “The Creative Capital,” Beauchesne sighed before answering.

“I would say there are moments where the state has partnered effectively with us,” he said. “The 2014 Cultural Facilities Bond is probably the most significant. But in general, I would say the investment that has generated Rhode Island’s creative capital has largely been private.”

Even when state government does show some love toward the arts, it’s not unconditional. Beauchesne highlighted that the proposed pool of capital grants requires a match, which isn’t viable for all organizations.

Even organizations that can afford to match are still feeling the strain from heavy lifting they did during the pandemic to continue serving audiences. Trinity Rep is one of two organizations represented in both the proposed bond and the Creative Futures fund. Executive Director Kate Liberman said the bond money would support ongoing structural improvements at the theater. That includes an approximately 12,000-square-foot addition and replacing an elevator.

The addition would allow the theater to consolidate all its offices into one building and no longer have to lease space across the street. The Chace Theater would also see “a major renovation, not just a facelift,” Liberman said, one which would impact seating and the stage.

Liberman said the $2 million would cover “just a small portion” of the estimated $35 million project cost.

“There were sort of two asks on the table to our legislators in the State House,” she said. “And, ultimately, clearly, our House leadership chose to go in one direction, but the need is still there.”

While Liberman said she was grateful for the possible bond funds, operating troubles remain. The Providence theater’s subscriber base is still around half of what it was in 2019 , when there were 4,688 subscribers. The theatrical season now consists of five plays, rather than eight. And 75% of the staff has been hired in the last three years, including Liberman. Attendance numbers are better, she said, but the budget is “not yet anywhere near” as stable as it was in 2019.

“The travel industry is back to 2019 or better right now. We’ve all been waiting to get on an airplane and go on vacation. But folks have kind of forgotten what had been a habitual theater-going habit,” Liberman said, and said museums and philharmonics have endured the same losses.

People are apparently eager to grumble and huff as they wait in airport lines. But how could art consumption return to prior levels?

Liberman laughed.

“If you can answer that for me, that would be great,” she said.

The future’s not free

Operating costs might be one way to uplift the arts economy beyond brick-and-mortar efforts. What about supporting the people who may lead tomorrow’s creative economy?

That’s apparently an even bigger ask, Kristen Williams, the executive director of Woonsocket’s Riverzedge Arts in Woonsocket, told Rhode Island Current. The nonprofit offers a fusion of arts education and workforce training to local youth. They get paid wages during their training so they can experience what it’s like to be a working (and, yes, tax-paying) creative person while honing the skills to make them employable. The program takes its blueprint from the Boston-based Artists for Humanity .

“We want to make sure that they have supportive first jobs, and that they have sort of wraparound services that they wouldn’t get at something like Dunkin’ Donuts,” she said.

Riverzedge, Williams said, depends on three already underfunded buckets: arts, afterschool programs and workforce development. Learn365, Gov. Dan McKee’s learning initiative, “is not an adequate substitute,” for afterschool programs, Williams said, and workforce development, when available, tends to focus on technical education and trades.

Woonsocket is one of four cities with highly-concentrated youth poverty , according to Rhode Island KIDS COUNT: 31% of youth there live in poverty and 11% live in extreme poverty. For Williams, that only underlines the importance of an organization like Riverzedge. Properly funded, Williams said arts programs like Riverzedge can address economic and racial inequities in access to arts education — a privilege often limited for kids from low-income backgrounds, who may feel the pressure to enter fields traditionally considered more lucrative.

“[Kids] need to be able to creatively solve problems, and not just quit when they run into a wall,” Williams said. “That’s what the arts do. I know because that’s what I did. And now I run an organization with a very difficult funding model, and I make it work.”

Wrestling with limited funding is another learning experience — it’s something visual artists encounter regularly when trying to make a living within the commercial gallery system. While performing artists can recoup an organization’s money via ticket sales, physical artworks depend on a commodity-based market, which hardly guarantees pay.

Small or individual artist grants working outside institutions can be won from RISCA and are valued from $500 to $3,000. These can help subsidize gallery exhibitions for artists. Organizations like the Interlace Grant Fund also help fund individual and small projects. But Rhode Island has yet to see intensive programs like Creative Futures New York, which paid $65,000 with benefits to participating artists.

The undervaluation of fine arts could be one reason why full-time employment is important to Williams. When she joined Riverzedge four years ago, she pushed back against an organizational preference for part-time positions.

“The gig economy: It doesn’t work,” Williams said. “Ten years ago it was like this sexy idea. What it does is keeps artists poor, and it keeps contractors poor.”

This article has been updated to reflect the correct size of the proposed Trinity Rep construction.

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