Chicago, Illinois Buckingham Fountain, Photograph by Willy Schmidt, Courtesy of the Chicago Office Tourism
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Chicago, Illinois Buckingham Fountain, photograph by Willy Schmidt, courtesy of the Chicago office Tourism ecause Chicago is one of the country’s ple, the more than 150 organizations that belong largest cities, and because it sustains an to the Chicago Dance and Music Alliance contin- “A generation is B established and varied cultural life in ue to offer 2,000 concerts a year, this in addition coming of age virtually every art form—from opera to architec- to the group’s in-school programs, which reach ture, jazz to standup comedy—what might more than 3.7 million students. that doesn’t amount to a seismic shift in the cultural land- Yet despite the economic strength of non- scape of a smaller city seems to register here as profit arts organizations—a substantial $1.96 bil- believe in the little more than anecdotal change. lion statewide industry that grew 12 percent a importance of It is therefore possible to report that the arts year between 1996 and 2002, and during that scene in Chicago is the same as and yet com- time brought in $10.2 billion to the state and the arts. New pletely different from what it was five years ago, $8.8 billion to the Chicago economies—the last when we issued Reporting the Arts. There have three years have been difficult and have posed money is being been welcome changes, ranging from a new financial challenges for many large as well as made. That’s Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier to the expan- small institutions. Established organizations like sions of Symphony Center, the Mexican Fine the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera have what you want Arts Center, Adler Planetarium and Shedd faced deficits and/or drop-offs in corporate and Aquarium. There were also renovations of dor- individual donations. Many groups have endured to find.” mant downtown theaters like the Selwyn and the what Julie Burros, director of cultural program- William Mason Palace and the building of neighborhood facili- ming for the city’s Department of Cultural general director ties such as the Beverly Arts Center on the far Affairs, calls “huge money problems and severe Lyric Opera South Side. New downtown destinations include money woes.” the Harris Theater for Music and Dance—a Stagnating city subsidies only marginally headquarters for many smaller music, dance and helped the strained operating budgets at many theater companies—and a Frank Gehry band- institutions. Chicago’s City Arts program gener- shell near the Loop in Millennium Park. There ates less than $2 million a year, an amount that are statistics of all stripes that register the sheer hasn’t changed since the program’s inception in amount of cultural activity in the city. For exam- 1990. At the same time, the city’s lakefront muse- 44 REPORTING THE ARTS II ums have had their budgets undermined by reduced funds from the Park District, which dis- tributes money from property taxes, providing roughly 15 percent of the total revenue for 10 museums. While operating subsidies for this group remained constant at about $43 million between 1999 and 2001, there was a catastrophic 75 percent drop-off in subsidies for capital proj- ects—$4.8 million, down from $20.7 million. Chicago, with its seemingly incalculable number of arts organizations, is thus constantly in flux. To say that many music groups or dance companies or galleries or storefront theaters will not be around in five years is only to recognize that those that disappeared over the last five years were replaced by others, and that this loss and replenishment will continue. With the advent of tight times, managers of the city’s var- ied institutions are learning that they must quickly find ways of dealing with financial, mar- keting and development challenges. Constant change in the Chicago theater is emblematic of the permutations in the city’s arts scene. According to Marj Halperin, director of the League of Chicago Theaters, an organization representing approximately 150 of the metropol- itan area’s 200 commercial and nonprofit the- aters, the city reached an artistic milestone in the last five years. Media, corporate funders and individual donors, along with the theater indus- try, all “increased their recognition” of Chicago’s importance during this period, she says. Chicago Sun-Times According to Halperin, the 2001 pre-Broadway run of The Producers was a “big signal” that Chicago could become a key city for commercial never recover.” And while the number of theater producers, as was the successful transfer to companies in the city—including neighborhood- Broadway of the Goodman Theater production based storefront theaters as well as world- of Death of a Salesman, starring Brian Dennehy, renowned groups like Steppenwolf—has which won four Tony Awards. remained fairly constant, Halperin notes, “they’re But those artistic successes were a high-water not the same theaters.” Significant groups such as mark for the city that promised a prosperous Roadworks, which Halperin calls “one of the future, yet was ultimately undermined by a bright, upcoming theaters,” announced a hiatus. weakening economy in 2000 and 2001, and by The city has lost iconic companies like Wisdom the economic fallout of September 11. Halperin, Bridge and Body Politic. And a starker shift and in common with other civic and arts-institution more telling effect of the economic downturn is leaders, is cautious about the financial future. that companies once producing five shows a year For even though the live-theater industry in may now do only three or four. Chicago generated approximately $823 million Such cutbacks and closings do not necessari- in direct spending for the city between 1996 and ly mark a trend, however. “Theaters do close, 2002, many theaters have been hobbled by the even the great ones,” Halperin says. “I get calls recession. Production and attendance are both every time a theater closes asking, ‘Is this the end down. “The major issue is the economy,” says of avant-garde theater in Chicago?’ If a year goes Halperin. “It was in a tailspin before 9/11, but by and there isn’t a hot new company from 9/11 pushed it over the edge. Private, government Northwestern or University of Illinois, that’s the and corporate funding sources were all hit. year something significant has changed in Though we’re better off than either coast, we may Chicago theater.” NATIONAL ARTS JOURNALISM PROGRAM 45 Though the Lyric Opera and Chicago mutated. Now many corporations donate only in Symphony Orchestra have larger endowments return for marketing and branding opportuni- than other city institutions, they too have been ties. facing economic hard times. In 2002-03, the Corporate giving is also down at the Art opera had a deficit of $1 million, its first deficit in Institute, one of the city’s premier institutions. “I get calls every more than 15 years. The symphony was similarly Such philanthropy, though, has not been as cru- hobbled. Corporate contributions to the Lyric, cial to that organization, says James N. Wood, time a theater according to general director William Mason, fell the museum’s longtime president, who is retiring significantly during the last five years, from this year. The institute is in the midst of expan- closes asking, ‘Is about 19 percent to 13 percent of the annual sion plans and has commissioned a new building this the end of budget. The decline was exacerbated by corpora- from the Pritzker prize-winning Italian architect tions’ moving out of the city and directing their Renzo Piano. “We’re not there yet,” Wood says of avant-garde money elsewhere. The shifting direction of the concerted efforts to raise the projected $198-mil- remaining corporate giving indicates troubling lion price tag. “Depending on the pace of theater in long-term problems, Mason says. Young execu- fundraising, we may break ground in a year and Chicago?’ If a tives with money to give might not even have tra- finish three years from that.” But even though the ditional art institutions on their philanthropic Art Institute appears to have been spared many year goes by radar. “The direction of corporate giving changes of the hardships felt elsewhere, Wood knows when a company changes its CEO. A generation money is tight not only in Chicago but also and there isn’t a is coming of age that doesn’t believe in the across the country. Echoing the thoughts of hot new importance of the arts. New money is being many others throughout the city, and summing made. That’s what you want to find.” In addition, up the challenges of the recent past and perhaps company from the older idea of corporate giving as community even the long-term future, he admits, “These are and artistic support for worthy organizations has difficult times. We are all struggling.” Northwestern By Bill Goldstein or University of Illinois, that’s the year some- thing significant has changed in Chicago theater.” Marj Halperin director League of Chicago Theaters 46 REPORTING THE ARTS II The Chicago Tribune was the only one of the newspapers we moni- run articles averaging longer than 16 column inches. tored to increase its overall arts and culture newshole since 1998. All The Tribune’s daily arts-and-lifestyles section, Tempo, received the increase was to be found in its weekend arts supplements, little prominence, representing only 5 percent of the paper’s pagi- variously titled Weekend Entertainment, Friday, A&E, Books, Movies nation in both 2003 and 1998. Tempo may have been a small and TV Week. These articles represented almost half the newspaper’s section proportionately, but among the metropolitan newspapers entire volume of journalism devoted to A&C, a higher percentage we studied, only the daily newshole of the A&L section of the San than in any other newspaper in October 2003.