February 12, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, has started a $500,000 program designed to help struggling arts groups by providing them with free consulting and emergency planning advice.
As the economic crisis has unfolded, the endowments of arts groups have fallen sharply, and their ticket revenues, contributions, and other sources of income have been dropping fast. Several organizations have already gone out of business or come close to it.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” says Michael M. Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center. “We’ve lived through recessions before, but this one is different because it is so deep and so broad, and no one has a sense of when it is going to end.”
Boards and Budgeting
The Arts in Crisis program, which Mr. Kaiser says will run at least a year and a half, will provide confidential counseling in how to raise money, build more effective boards, and improve budgeting and marketing during a troubled economy.
Two donors, Adrienne Arsht, a Florida banker, and Helen Lee Henderson, executive of the HRH Foundation (created by her late mother) have provided the money for the effort.
Mr. Kaiser says in some cases organizations may benefit just by getting answers to simple questions; in other instances, more comprehensive consultation may be required.
The team of consultants will consist of Mr. Kaiser and the heads of the Kennedy Center’s development and fund-raising, marketing, finance, information-technology, and education departments. Those officials will provide assistance through e-mail messages, phone calls, and visits to organizations.
Through the program’s Web site, the Kennedy Center is also soliciting other senior arts managers from across the country to volunteer as mentors for troubled arts groups.
Mr. Kaiser says the program is designed to help arts officials understand how best to make budget cuts. “Where they make the cuts will determine how well they weather the storm and how they will recover,” he says.
Any nonprofit performing arts group may apply for aid online.
