courtesy of the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com).

To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34860-2001Dec28.html

A Blight on the Town: Attendance and Giving Fall Off

By Jacqueline Trescott


In the lobby of Arena Stage stands a red bin for recycling theater programs. It's one small example of efforts by local arts groups to cut costs since Sept. 11.

The fourth quarter of 2001 has been among the saddest, most frustrating and apprehensive for Washington's arts groups. First the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, then the disappearance of the tourists, then the anthrax deaths, then the government's warnings more attacks could be coming, all set against the tumbling economy.

People have stayed away in droves. In the weeks following the initial tragedy, the numbers of people using the Smithsonian Metro stop dropped by 52 percent. But now this has leveled off to a 7 percent decrease from last year.

For many arts groups the early part of the year was a banner time of bigger audiences and swelling cash reserves. The fall looked like a time for ambitious projects and accelerated fundraising goals. But the attacks changed forecasts instantly. Anthrax worries slowed mail, disastrous because so many letters announcing the last push for fundraising in 2001 were sent out at the time the mail contamination was discovered.

The Smithsonian has been hurt gravely. The largest museum complex in the world, which has 30 million visitors in a good year, has seen attendance since September plummet 40 to 45 percent.

Those who do visit notice changes at the front door. Guards now examine  everyone's bags. Crowds are thinner, even at popular spots like the Air and Space Museum. The Smithsonian closed one cafe at the National Museum of American History, and there have been layoffs in the gift shops and eateries.

In the three weeks after Sept. 11, sales at the cafeterias, stores and Imax theaters were down 64 percent. Inching back,  revenues are still down 35 percent. If people don't return in waves and spend, the Smithsonian's business unit expects to contribute $5 million less to the Smithsonian's coffers in the current fiscal year.

Cancellations of school trips to Washington have been disastrous, especially at the Smithsonian. But others are feeling that vacuum. At Arena Stage, about 2,000 reservations from school groups were canceled, greatly affecting the theater's adaptation of the required-reading chestnut "Of Mice and Men." Steven Richard, the theater's executive director, says, "Much of that business is gone." As a start, he trimmed $200,000 from the budget. Color is gone from the programs and fewer are being printed.

Not knowing when and if things would return to normal, Arena's board decided to be blunt about its nervousness in its current appeal. It described theater as a community place, especially in times of crisis. It beat the drums philosophically, quoting John Kennedy: "The life of the arts . . . is very close to the center of a nation's purpose."  And then they were frank: "The theater has been hit with a sudden and unanticipated loss in ticket revenue from the decrease in tourism and single ticket sales as a direct result of the terrorist attacks."

Some arts groups recovered quickly from the Sept. 11 setbacks. Others have not. Security concerns closed the Corcoran Gallery of Art for 3 1/2 days because it is  near the White House. It is now drawing a steady 5,000 to 7,000 visitors a week, the average of years when there is no blockbuster show. (Last year, when the museum had its popular Norman Rockwell show, attendance was much higher.) At Round House Theatre, the company lost $60,000 on "Problem Child,"  which opened Sept. 10, but its current Christmas farce is selling out. At Ford's Theatre attendance was up 28 percent for its fall production, with  "To Kill a Mockingbird" beating  last year's "Inherit the Wind." That brought almost a quarter-million dollars into the theater at a time when contributions are flat.

Faced with circumstances they couldn't control, the League of Washington Theatres and the Helen Hayes Awards foundation predicted their members might lose $20 million by next September if these trends continued. They spearheaded a "Go to the Theater" campaign, printed 50,000 fliers and inserted them into programs.

It's hard to tell whether this worked. Audiences have been unpredictable. At The Shakespeare Theatre, the loyal subscribers kept "Hamlet" at near capacity. The Kennedy Center, now flying huge American flags  off the sides of the building, has seen almost full houses at theater, ballet and jazz programs. The Washington Performing Arts Society's presentations of Yo-Yo Ma, Herbie Hancock and Sweet Honey in the Rock sold out.

Theatre on the Run, a new facility in Arlington, went ahead with its premiere in October.  It had booked a play called "Danny and Sylvia," an upbeat story about  Danny Kaye. It had good audiences at American Century Theater in Rockville and transferred nicely across the Potomac. "It did quite well and I think things are turning around," said Jon Palmer Claridge, an official with the  Arlington Arts Alliance.

At Arena, "Agamemnon and His Daughters," playing at the time of the attacks, lost money. But "Eleanor: Her Secret Journey," opening later in September, was a hit. "It sold out 102 percent of capacity. It was the right event at the time, two stars onstage -- Eleanor Roosevelt and Jean Stapleton," Richard says. "We lost students for 'Eleanor' but because it was so popular we were able to sell the tickets for the adult price."

On Friday nights the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History decided to inaugurate an evening program of jazz, food and movies,  hoping to appeal to the date set. It worked, but  it also had to add pizza to the menu because families were taking advantage of the festivities.

At other places attendance has been off slightly. "Normally we are at 90-95 percent capacity. Right now we are doing 80-85 percent. People aren't going out as much," says Sam Sweet of the Signature Theatre.

And there is worry about the reluctance of people to buy tickets ahead of time. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company just registered its third consecutive year in the black. Box office sales have been steady but sales for the future productions have slowed dramatically. Kevin Moore, the theater's managing director, says he's noticed people don't want to plan ahead: "People seemed to be concerned about what are we going to do this weekend or tonight, but down the line, there is a cessation of sales."

What runs through conversations with arts administrators is a fear that patterns of giving will permanently change. Since September, donations to victims of the terrorist attacks have been the primary concern of both individuals and organized charities. The floundering stock market is also shrinking how much individuals and foundations have to spread around.

Douglas Wheeler, longtime president of the Washington Performing Arts Society, says, "It is a moment of anticipation because arts groups are wondering what year-end giving will be like. There is a nervousness about that. It is not clear how that is going to play out."

Marie Mattson, development director for the Kennedy Center, talks constantly to all types of donors. "What I have noticed most in the last year is that corporate giving is much more tight than it has ever been. We have the same corporate supporters but not the major gifts in the past. We are compensating with more gifts from individuals," she says.

As a precautionary measure, the center eliminated $3 million in expenses, mostly administrative items, such as out-of-town trips and new furniture. "We had two people call and give us more money. They said they were afraid organizations like ours would suffer. One doubled a gift from $5,000 to $10,000 and another raised theirs from $10,000 to $25,000," Mattson says.

Brian Marcus, development director at Shakespeare Theatre, agrees. Corporate giving was going down before the attacks. Then the mails stalled the process. On Sept. 8 the theater mailed its 17,000 subscribers  a call for donations, and the results were 20 percent below  expectations. So the Shakespeare folks got on the phone. As a result, Marcus says, "individual giving is up and closing the gap. And the average gift is up. People are receptive to the call."

Yet the mail delays are troublesome.

Mark Blackmon, director of marketing at Round House, wanted area theater lovers to know "Problem Child" had gotten good notices. It had opened Sept. 10 and the reviews ran on Sept. 12. "Obviously that was a day when no one was buying theater tickets. I sat in the box office that day and we had no telephone calls," says Blackmon. He decided to send out a mass mailing. Then the first anthrax case occurred. "My own mailing got to my mailbox at home  3 1/2 weeks later, and one week after the play closed," Blackmon says.

For six weeks after Sept. 11, officials at Wolf Trap Park for the Performing Arts didn't see any mail with donations. They did well with their annual fundraising ball, matching the previous year's take. "But with individual giving, we just didn't see any donations coming in. Frankly we were nervous," said Terrence D. Jones,  president of the Wolf Trap foundation. In recent days,  corporate donations have been on the decline, but individual gifts are increasing. Before Sept. 11, the reverse was true.

Arena has had some pleasant surprises, too. It didn't have many RSVPs for its annual wine and food auction, but when it was held the event made $40,000 more than last year. Yet Arena was also losing a lot of subscription sales, which are initiated through the mail. "We had a decline in subscription sales in September and October. There are some things we are powerless to impact," Arena's Richard says. The theater lost $100,000 in subscription sales compared with September and October last year. "We don't know what mail didn't get to us," he says.

At the Kennedy Center, president Michael Kaiser found out what could be  in that mail. On Dec. 6 he received two envelopes with sizable checks. They had been mailed Oct. 26.

But like gardeners, arts officials are hoping the work they are doing now in looking for new approaches will bring changes in the spring. There are plenty of opportunities. McDonald's, the fast food emporium, is coming to the National Air and Space Museum, which may generate more traffic. Ford's Theatre is bringing back "Hot Mikado," usually a hit with local audiences. In April, the smash show about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis comes to the Corcoran. When it was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the show sold more tickets than the King Tut exhibition in 1979. A few thousand tickets have been sold already, and books of her favorite poems and recipes are completely sold out  at the gift shop.

But are these enticements enough? The arts can't do much by themselves about the national hesitation to travel, much less trepidation at visiting a city where the White House is still off-limits. And no one knows what will happen in the spring with school groups and family reunions if the general fears aren't eased. Any economic slowdown hurts the arts because the budgets for these organizations are fragile, with little set aside for emergencies.

The local arts scene  has shown some enviable muscle. Just this year the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington surveyed area arts organizations and found that the 292 arts groups that form the alliance spent $1.24 billion. The Studio Theater reported it had a $600,000 surplus and had raised half of its $9.5 million capital campaign.

Years ago, the arts were a whimper in Washington. Yet in the past 30 years things had changed enough in this city to have a critical mass of healthy arts groups. The National Endowment for the Arts was pumping money into organizations to help them grow from fringe elements to centerpieces of stability.  The opening of the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap in 1971 marked the  area's emergence as a cultural destination. Arena continued to make its mark, and the National Symphony and Washington Opera expanded. But just as important, the vitality of Washington theater grew with more than 78 nonprofit theaters putting on productions. This added the arts to the list of things that helped attract an educated, entertainment-seeking population to Washington in the 1990s.

And now the slump, with a unpredictable pattern of giving and sales, could change that. The word from arts leaders is: Hold tight. Wheeler of the WPAS has seen Washington change from scarcity to plenty. 

"Everyone that I know is cautiously optimistic," he says, "but we are also being conservative."

  

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