{"id":896,"date":"2024-04-12T14:43:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=896"},"modified":"2024-04-12T14:48:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:48:08","slug":"special-post-rewarding-bad-nonprofit-theater-behavior-by-using-trickle-down-just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/04\/12\/special-post-rewarding-bad-nonprofit-theater-behavior-by-using-trickle-down-just-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"SPECIAL POST: Rewarding Bad Nonprofit Theater Behavior By Using Trickle-Down? Just Say No."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest bill wasting resources right now is on the floor of the Senate and House. It will never pass. Thank goodness.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Go to your blackboard and write this 1,000 times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofit arts leaders: I don\u2019t want to pee on your birthday cake or anything, but this idea is ludicrous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times<\/em> reported recently that Senators Peter Welch (D-Vermont), John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), and Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) have proposed legislation entitled the \u201cSupporting Theater and the Arts to Galvanize the Economy (S.T.A.G.E.) Act of 2024. If it were to pass \u2013 which, even the Times<\/em> believes \u201cfaces long odds at a time when a divided Congress \u2014 where Republicans control the House and Democrats lead the Senate \u2014 has had trouble agreeing on anything\u201d \u2014 would provide $1 billion per year for 5 years to the struggling theater industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofit theaters, like their brethren in the dance, music, and museum sectors (who would not receive any of this funding), have been sporting a financial model that has been broken for a number of years. The fact is that even before the shutdown of 2020-2022, there had been several consecutive years of falling revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broken model is nothing new. It is based on such antiquated, ridiculous terminology such as \u201cart for art\u2019s sake,\u201d which translates to Eric Cartman\u2019s infamous \u201cI do what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u201cI’m a theatrical artistic director who only cares about the art. And you can all just pay me and suck it.\u201d (Photo by Richard Riley CC-BY-2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bad behavior of acting like a for-profit business while using tax dollars (if they\u2019re tax exempt, that means everyone in the state is paying for it, whether or not they\u2019re donors or ticket-buyers) is not something to be bailed out. That\u2019s as bad as a child who kicks the airplane seat in front of them and gets a cookie if he\u2019ll stop, for now, and then starts right back up in 5 minutes, knowing that the worst that will happen is that they\u2019ll get another cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you think I\u2019m belittling the plight of nonprofit arts organizations, specifically theaters, (after 30 years in the business<\/a>) by believing that these rewards for bad management are akin to lousy parenting, well, I am. The belittlement is actually emanating from the arts organizations themselves in not measuring worth with real metrics, only commercial ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that money isn\u2019t necessary for artists to do their thing. It\u2019s just that this money will never reach<\/em> the artists who can offer the most help in revitalizing (or in some cases, just vitalizing) their respective communities. This is a Reagan-style trickle-down bill in which all the money will go to the states\u2019 arts agencies and they\u2019ll just give the lion\u2019s share to the failing largest theater organizations in their state because, naturally, those are in the deepest trouble. Those organizations will not change the way they do business, will run through the money like water, and we\u2019ll be back to where we started five years from now \u2013 only then, we\u2019ll have had the experience of giving government money to the arts and failing. That means the arts will never see another dime. And in the wrong presidency or congress, that means trouble for the NEA and the NEH \u2013 yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nancy used to say, \u201cJust say no.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s look at the next big picture. If the nonprofit theater industry in America receives $1 billion in funding per year over the next five years, why would anyone choose to donate to a large nonprofit theater company? After all, a billion dollars is a lot of money, even if 75% of it gets parsed out to the largest 75 companies. (That\u2019s $10 million per company, with the remaining 49,000 nonprofit theatrical organizations in America fighting over the scraps, as usual, even though in large part, they\u2019re doing all the community building \u2013 which is why so many of them are not in dire financial straits.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Might as well. (Photo 136963104 \u00a9 Roman Didkivskiy | Dreamstime.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I read an advocate recently who stated, in some desperation, that it was \u201cbetter than nothing.\u201d First of all, if \u201cbetter than nothing\u201d is your financial strategy, make sure to get a good tent at REI. Something that won\u2019t stand out among all the other tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, in this case, it\u2019s actually not \u201cbetter than nothing,\u201d because another gift is not forthcoming. It\u2019s not a jobs program like the WPA (which put unemployed people to work). With an unemployment rate under 4%, it\u2019s hard to justify a jobs bill on this subject. And, of course, who will end up with the actual money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirdly, and most importantly, we could advocate for a good <\/em>use of $1 billion per year if the money were pooled and used to purchase buildings that would become subsidized artist housing, where the artists (of all kinds) would pay rent based on their earnings. The money could be used as a matching fund for local and state governments (as many federal grants are) in order to increase creativity in each area. It\u2019s a program that works and the money actually helps artists create the kind of creative activity that makes regions not only livable, but attractive to creative people from other sectors of business \u2013 architects, attorneys, doctors, scientists, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, rather than begging for a billion dollars a year, perhaps we can rethink how state arts agencies distribute their money and encourage them only to give to those companies who can prove their worth by providing the metrics of charitable impact \u2013 like health and welfare, education, and other like state agencies are forced to do \u2013 and seed a new time when arts organizations, rather than being the center of elitism in America, become the engine of recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know. That.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
It’s tonight! Free! Live in Atlanta or via stream – click on the image for details.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The S.T.A.G,E. Act is right now on in committees at the House and Senate. It’s a bad bill and really should not pass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,32,19,18,17,99],"tags":[55,10,115,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-book-recommendation","8":"category-charity","9":"category-leadership","10":"category-nonprofit","11":"category-nonprofit-arts-organizations","12":"category-scene-change","13":"tag-backlash","14":"tag-impact","15":"tag-stage","16":"tag-theaters","17":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Money-down-the-toilet.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1647,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2026\/02\/26\/short-and-sweet-teachers-that-teach-teachers-that-educate-arts-nonprofits-that-produce-arts-nonprofits-that-are-worth-a-donation\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":0},"title":"Short and Sweet: Teachers : Educators :: Arts Organizations : Nonprofit Arts Organizations That Deserve Donations","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Back to the basics, because the message is only going so far. 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Wow, Is That Ever a Bad Idea.","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"October 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Desperation can cause bad and even damaging ideas. And then there\u2019s this.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Bad-Ideas.jpg?fit=1111%2C610&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Bad-Ideas.jpg?fit=1111%2C610&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Bad-Ideas.jpg?fit=1111%2C610&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Bad-Ideas.jpg?fit=1111%2C610&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Bad-Ideas.jpg?fit=1111%2C610&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1342,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/03\/25\/nonprofit-arts-success-in-a-changing-environment-tip-6-dont-talk-about-it-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":896,"position":2},"title":"Nonprofit Arts Success in a Changing Environment, Tip 6 \u2014 Don\u2019t Talk About It; Do It.","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. 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