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Business & The Arts-Part 1
A special BNH community forum examines areas of convergence and conflict between New Haven's cultural and corporate communities
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Business New Haven
6/9/2003
By: BNH
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When the economy catches a cold, the arts get pneumonia. And when a small city like New Haven stakes its reputation on its cultural attractions, the business community ought to be - and is - deeply involved.
That's why on May 20 Business New Haven hosted a community-wide arts/business "town meeting" event at the Olde Blue Publick House on Chapel Street to examine and advance the continuing dialogue between the greater New Haven business and cultural communities. The idea was that what is good for the arts in New Haven is probably good for business - and that the business community, both retail and institutional, plays a key role in maintaining New Haven as the cultural capital of Connecticut.
Business New Haven has over the years worked to foster better understanding and communication between business and the arts - two groups that are historically mistrustful of one another but have a lot more areas of overlapping self-interest than probably either would readily admit.
To explore both convergences and conflicts we invited a number of prominent representatives of New Haven's cultural community and the business community. Some of these individuals we invited to remarks; others were prompted with questions or spoke extemporaneously.
What follows is an edited transcript of that event.
Betty Monz, executive director, Arts Council of Greater New Haven: The last time this [discussion took place] it gave rise to the Arts Industry Coalition so that the arts could speak collectively when interacting with the business community. That in turn gave rise to great collaboration through the Regional Cultural Plan, which brought about widespread recognition of the value of the arts and the organized way we, as a community, convene, plan, support and lead the arts today.
Our capacity to get things done is unparalleled in any other city throughout the state and we have rightfully earned the undisputed reputation as the 'creative capital of Connecticut.' This groundwork has provided a level of insurance for the current tough economic climate.
The state, which provided record funding for the arts during those wonderful surplus years from 1999 to 2001, has managed to avoid steep budget cuts to the arts, holding arts funding to $2.4 million. [This is] down from $2.8 million, albeit a far cry from those record surpluses of $6 million to $11 million in additional funding just a few short years ago. This is in stark contrast to many other states where arts funding is being cut drastically and even eliminated.
Likewise, our city has maintained its steadfast support of the arts in spite of its own budget constraints. The city recognizes and values the tremendous contribution of the arts to the revitalization of New Haven, and hence the region, and is a model in its unwavering support of the arts.
New Haven has six outstanding non-profit theaters: Long Wharf Theatre, Yale Rep, the Shubert, the Palace, [Southern Connecticut State University's] Lyman and the Paul Mellon Arts Center [at Choate Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford].
We have five fabulous museums downtown: the Peabody Museum, the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the New Haven Colony Historical Society, the Eli Whitney Museum and the Knights of Columbus Museum.
We have world-class festivals. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which opens June 12, followed this summer by the [New Haven] Jazz Festival, Hot Sounds in the City, Elm Shakespeare's Shakespeare in the Park.
Then there's the fall with Film Fest New Haven and Artspace's Citywide Open Studios, which brought record numbers of people to the Pirelli building last year.
We enjoy symphonies, orchestras, ensembles too numerous to count, and an ever increasing number of art galleries. We have tremendous educational institutions and resources.
Witness the economic impact that the arts have on the city of New Haven, where arts organizations employ over 1,000 full-time individuals and afford countless numbers of part-time job opportunities, internships and training programs.
Each year, the arts bring 1.5 million people to attend as many free events as they do ticketed events. In fact, the arts generate more than $160 million of direct and indirect economic activity annually. And greater New Haven is home to more than 5,000 arts organizations, artists, architects, designers, arts educators and more.
According to the New England Foundation for the Arts' most recent economic impact study, 40,000 people are employed in Connecticut in the non-profit arts sector. The sector itself contributes a $1.6 billion [annual] economic impact.
Results of the Market New Haven survey presented in November show that greater New Haven residents are feeling better about their core city today than they used to. They credit top-notch cultural activities and an abundance of shops and restaurants with this change.
In fact, New Haven was ranked eighth in the nation for its cultural credentials, according to the art index of Money magazine's "Best Places to Live" listings.
I applaud the business community for its historic relationship with and support for the arts. Our expanding business community, especially a growing high-tech and biotech sector, rely on the arts as one of the primary resources critical to the quality of life needed to attract and keep quality employees.
A constricted economy brings forth many new challenges since we as a non-profit community can no longer depend on a few select corporations to continue to provide for us all, and the corporate community has [effectively] told us that. But that doesn't let them off the hook. In fact, I think a tight economy brings about new opportunities for us all, but it means that we have to work a little harder and do things a little differently. We need to engage the entire business community, and the entire business community must be responsible for becoming engaged in our efforts.
What do we need? First we need to increase philanthropy at all levels, from both the businesses and the individual employees who make this community so vital. From the [perspective] of audience participation and development, many doing a little is better than a few doing a lot.
We also need governance. Board development and diversification along with strong leadership is vital to the future successes of our arts organizations and our community. Most of all, we need participation, and the business community certainly has the capacity to encourage increased participation.
Good business skills develop from creative thinking, and the arts of any discipline, be it a play, arts class or musical performance, are all about developing and stimulating creative-thinking skills.
It's [no] accident that the most successful business leaders have a passion for the arts. Good strategic leaders are prevalent in this community and we challenge the business community to encourage the cultivation and development of their own.
We ask that they suggest, promote, enable and encourage participation in the arts. They should begin by setting an example from the top leadership, and arts organizations will respond. There are plenty of opportunities and there is certainly something for everyone if you just look at and get involved in all the arts this community has to offer.
Mary Miller, director, International Festival of Arts and Ideas: Despite everyone's problems with funding in this tempestuous year, I'm delighted to say that our program is undimmed. We have a world premiere this year [Hilda Paredes' chamber opera Phantom Palace], which is a six-country collaboration and we are extremely excited about it.
We also have five U.S premieres this year. We have an unprecedented range and diversity of programming. We have artists from 28 countries, more than 400 events and around 1,500 artists.
The economic impact of the festival last year on the state was more than $33 million, a 67-percent increase over the previous year. That impact and everything the festival does shows that not only can we market the festival, but we can market New Haven worldwide as well, giving the city a context for all extraordinary artistic activity.
I am very privileged to travel a great deal on the festival's behalf and I am really beginning to hear [New Haven's] name being spoken. I don't hear people talking about just [festivals in] Edinburgh, Spoleto or Salisbury, they are now talking about New Haven.
The festival is very much about partnerships between city arts organizations, companies, individuals, professional organizations and small businesses.
This year we are launching a producer's program, the point of which is a partnership strategy to showcase small businesses in New Haven as a remarkable and outstanding community-minded group. Small businesses and all the generous people that fund can choose their [sponsorship] connections. They can choose to have an international connection with the festival, they can choose for it to be regional, to be a community connection, to be connected with kids and families, to be connected with things that are educational, challenging or popular.
We all acknowledge that this is a tough economy. The festival starts every year from scratch with an empty begging bowl. We believe that this is an absolute magical city in which to run a festival; it is not a city that is a conventional tourist resort, as yet people do not buy package holidays in New Haven. We have to create a festival in a challenging situation, but the challenge is extremely exciting. It forces us to create something that is highly individual and has a very unique identity.
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