{"id":994,"date":"2007-01-11T08:34:31","date_gmt":"2007-01-11T16:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2007\/01\/sophomore_slump\/"},"modified":"2007-01-11T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T16:34:31","slug":"sophomore_slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/sophomore_slump.php","title":{"rendered":"Sophomore slump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Madison&#8217;s $205-million Overture Center for the Arts is bracing itself for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.madison.com\/wsj\/mad\/top\/index.php?ntid=114269&#038;ntpid=2\">budget pothole<\/a> in its coming season &#8212; a $735,000 gap between projected revenues and expenses, against an $11 million total budget. At the heart of the problem is a projected 29 percent drop in ticket sales &#8212; to $4.1 million, about $1.6 million less than 2006 &#8212; along with increased operating and staffing expenses.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not uncommon for a major new cultural facility to face budget woes in the years following its gala opening (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/005219.php\">remember the Kimmel<\/a>?). Just as the &#8221;newness&#8221; wears of, and audience and donor attention drifts elsewhere, the facility staff and leadership are just beginning to realize the true cost of running the space. Costs are invariably higher than expected (especially when external forces drive unavoidable costs like heating and health insurance). And the rosy glow of early revenue and contribution projections smack up against reality. The lack of a major, extended blockbuster show like <i>Lion King<\/i> or <i>Phantom of the Opera<\/i> only makes the numbers crunchier.<\/p>\n<p>And, after all, so many new facilities are &#8221;aspirational,&#8221; envisioned and designed to be bigger, better, and busier than anything the community has experienced before.<\/p>\n<p>To fill the gap, Overture is drawing down the assets of its support foundation, reducing the scope and scale of its artist contract budget, and hitting the pavement for new and continuing sources of contributed support (around $500,000 a year, according to one board member). The Center opened with only a small endowment, and without obvious plans to raise one.<\/p>\n<p>It should be an interesting first week, month, and year for the Center&#8217;s new president, who officially begins on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madison&#8217;s $205-million Overture Center for the Arts is bracing itself for a budget pothole in its coming season &#8212; a $735,000 gap between projected revenues and expenses, against an $11 million total budget. At the heart of the problem is a projected 29 percent drop in ticket sales &#8212; to $4.1 million, about $1.6 million [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}