Arts & Science Council
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What does it mean to be vibrant? Arts & Science Council Charlotte-Mecklenburg 2008 Annual Report Our Vision: Shaping a vibrant cultural life for all. Our Mission: To build appreciation, participation and support for the arts, sciences, history and heritage throughout Charlotte-Mecklenburg. TABle of Contents A Message to Our Community. .1 Cultural Leaders. 13 Excellence. 2 Support . 14 Participation. 4 Cultural & Community Investments. 17 Community. .7 New Public Artworks. .19 Creative Individuals & Cultural Education. 8 Corporate & Individual Donors. 20 Public Art. 10 Volunteer Leadership . 31 page 1 Lee Keesler (l) and Mark McGoldrick (r) A Message to Our Community ASC’s 50th year was our busiest yet as we worked to support Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s cultural community through grantmaking, planning, support services and fundraising. Thanks to our donors, we invested over $14.5 million in 2008 in the cultural community. Those investments supported the operating needs of cultural organizations, cultural education, creative individuals, cultural projects, public art projects and capacity- building opportunities that included board development, risk management and audience-development initiatives. Our 50th year was also one of our most important ever, as we worked to develop a five-year roadmap for broadening the community’s engagement with culture and building long-term sustainability for the cultural sector. When ASC was founded in 1958, the Charlotte community was home to 200,000 citizens. Today, the greater Charlotte area is a global hub of commerce and home to nearly 900,000 residents, nine Fortune 500 companies, a vibrant center city and six bustling suburban towns. As our community has grown, so too has the cultural sector. Our plan outlines ASC’s role in addressing the cultural needs of our growing and changing population. During the planning process, we solicited input from elected officials, individual and corporate donors, creative individuals, and large and small organizations. With their input, we established strategic goals that will define our success. These goals include: excellence, appreciation, participation, emerging creative activity, accessibility, diversity, healthy cultural institutions, a nurturing environment for artists and growing resources. Guided by this plan, ASC is prepared to shape an even stronger, more vibrant cultural community as we move beyond our 50th year into the future. In the pages to follow, we hope you’ll enjoy reading about ASC’s impact and investment of public and private dollars. ASC directly invested 86 cents of every dollar it received to support the cultural community, and ASC’s Board of Directors ensured the organization was a good steward of public and private resources. This is an exciting, formative time for ASC and our cultural community. We invite everyone to participate in the journey to a vibrant cultural life. Read ASC’s new roadmap Mark D. McGoldrick Lenoir C. Keesler, Jr. at ArtsAndScience.org ASC Board Chair ASC President & CEO Lee Keesler and Mark McGoldrick/Nancy Pierce Pierce McGoldrick/Nancy Mark and Keesler Lee page 2 It means, Did you know? 96.4% of Mecklenburg County residents said that arts, science ASC supports excellence and history organizations In 2008, ASC continued to advance its vision of shaping a vibrant cultural life for all through contribute in a positive way to the quality of life. building appreciation of the arts, sciences, history and heritage. Source: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cultural Not only did ASC do this by investing dollars to support excellence in operations and programming Life Survey, UNC Charlotte Urban by cultural institutions, it also explored new avenues for arts, science and history programming. Institute, 2008 One example is ASC’s Arts in Healthcare Initiative which invested $20,000 to support a Prayer Wall at Presbyterian Hospital and a series of paintings at Carolinas Medical Center’s flagship facility. Both organizations established a new smoke-free policy on their campuses, and the new works will help use the arts to transform their non-smoking corridors and support the healing process. Other ways ASC helped build excellence included: • Creating a new investment model focused on high-quality and excellence in programming to help cultural institutions become self-reliant. • Announcing an economic impact of $158* million from the cultural community. • Expanding ASC’s South Advisory Board to include representation from the Ballantyne community. • Awarding Children’s Theatre of Charlotte the McColl Award — a $25,000 grant to support the creation of a new play. • Launching “Celebration of Creativity” — a new initiative to honor and support creative individuals in the community. * Source: Americans for the Arts, Arts & • Partnering with Stanford Financial Group to award Carolina Raptor Center, Festival in the Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts Organizations Park and Wing Haven Gardens & Bird Sanctuary unrestricted funding for exemplary fiscal and Their Audiences, 2007 management through the Stanford Financial Excellence in Culture Award. page 3 Levine Museum of the New South North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center ASC will continue to provide significant unrestricted operating support and broaden its mix of support for individuals and organizations to achieve performance goals and long-term stability. Clockwise from bottom: The Mint Museums/Sean Busher; Levine Museum of the New South/courtesy of Levine Museum of the the of Museum Levine of South/courtesy New the of Museum Levine Busher; Museums/Sean Mint The bottom: from Clockwise Marcus Center/Joan Arts Performing Blumenthal Carolina North South; New The Mint Museums page 4 Children’s Theatre of Charlotte It means, Wing Haven Gardens & Bird Sanctuary Did you know? 92% of Mecklenburg County residents said that arts, science participation grows and history organizations and Building participation is essential for our cultural community, making this one of ASC’s top programming make Charlotte- Mecklenburg more attractive priorities. ASC invested over $300,000 in a variety of marketing efforts to boost attendance. to businesses and individuals Arts and cultural offerings were more visible in 2008 thanks to CharlotteCultureGuide.com, considering relocating to the area. ASC’s Web site for searching arts and cultural events. In its first year, the site: Source: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cultural Life Survey, UNC Charlotte Urban • Earned a $30,000 AdWords grant from Google, which attracted more than 28,000 new visitors. Institute, 2008 • Won the 2008 “Best of the Best” award from Charlotte Magazine as the area’s best site for events. • Grew its subscribers to CulturePicks, a weekly e-mail highlighting events, to over 5,600. For everyone in the community to have access to culture, affordability is critical to boost partic ipation. ASC, in partnership with Metrolina Theatre Association, launched the Two for $20 program, an audience-development initiative that enabled residents to see live local theatre. The program was a recommendation from ASC’s Theatre Task Force created to support theatre offerings and infrastructure in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. page 5 120 120 100 100 $78 $70 80 80 s 60 60 $36 in million $24 40 40 (l–r): Children’s Theatre of Charlotte/Donna Commerce of Chamber Asian Carolinas of Bise; Festival/courtesy Dragonboat Charlotte Wing Haven Gardens & Bird Sanctuary/Jeff Cravotta; $33 20 $31 $30 Charlotte20 Dragonboat Festival$29 0 0 ’08 ’07 ’06 ’05 ASC All Others The Greater Charlo�e Cultural Trust Total Investments In addition, other audience-development efforts included our Connect with Culture card program, providing ASC donors with buy-one-get-one-free offers from cultural partners, as well as WelcomeMat — a direct mailing to new residents that included a variety of discount offers. 4000000 4 Our cultural partners helped build participation through a variety of excellent and diverse 3500000 cultural programming across Charlotte-Mecklenburg: 3000000 3 2500000 • Wicked, presented by North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, was the most s 2000000 2 requested show in the Center’s history and set new records by selling out its two-week run 1500000 in million in approximately five hours. 1000000 1 • The Gunther von Hagens Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies exhibit, 500000 presented by Discovery Place, broke the museum’s 26-year history attendance record with 0 0 ’08’07 ’06’05 nearly 300,000 visitors. 2005–2008 • Chamber Music at St. Peters’ Noon First Tuesday Concerts reached standing-room-only Participation Trends attendance. page 6 Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council Latino Initiative ASC will support cultural activity that is accessible to and reflective of our changing community. Clockwise from bottom: Simmons staff Art Visual for YMCA/Calvin Center McColl of Initiative/courtesy Latino Council; Ferguson; Nest Hornets’ Girl Scouts, Hornets’ Nest Council/Girl Scouts, Simmons YMCA page 7 It means, Did you know? 80% of Mecklenburg County residents said they support local our community is a government funding for arts, science and history programs. Source: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cultural better place Life Survey, UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, 2008 Arts and culture not only provide entertainment, but also tell our stories, spark conversations and build communities. ASC continued to work with our growing Latino neighbors to identify new ways of involving artists and organizations in celebrating the cultural gifts of