Door County Arts Mean Business!

“Must be a pretty cushy gig in the winter, eh?” I’ve given up trying to convince folks I’m not the Maytag Repair Man of the nonprofit world come November. Truth is, during the performance season, it’s all routine and reaction and putting out fires.

Administratively speaking, winter is our creative season – full of planning (short and long term), marketing, scheduling, designing, grant writing, fundraising, lobbying and “sharpening the saw,” so to speak. The off-season is the only time we have to really connect with other arts professionals to learn and bring home the latest best practices for running the place. And we also work to keep AFT and what we do in the public eye. You caught me on my soapbox this month.

Tina Quigley (executive director of Mosaic Arts in Green Bay) and I were recently invited by Arts Wisconsin to give testimony together in support of increased funding for the arts to the Joint Finance Committee in reaction to the proposed 2013-2015 budget for the State of Wisconsin. Here are some excerpts.

Wisconsin is home to 12,953 arts-related businesses that employ 49,526 people with full-time jobs. These organizations comprise a $535 million annual industry, providing nearly $65 million in local and state tax revenues. These businesses play an important role in building and sustaining economic vitality in our communities.

And yet, Wisconsin ranks 46th in the nation in per-capita funding for the arts – behind Alabama and Mississippi. Our neighbor to the northwest, Minnesota, ranks #1.

The arts improve the quality of life in our cities and towns. They enhance community development, spur urban renewal, attract new businesses and create an environment that attracts skilled and educated workers. In tough economic times, cities compete aggressively to attract and retain businesses. From an employer’s perspective, a strong arts and cultural sector and a creative workforce are critical factors in attracting and keeping businesses.

Last year AFT was awarded the first-ever Wisconsin Department of Tourism – Governor’s Award for Arts, Culture and Heritage. We clearly get the link between the business of our art and tourism. More than half of AFT’s typical audience is from outside the state of Wisconsin.

Door County is home to dozens of cultural and arts education organizations. A sampling of just nine Door County nonprofit arts companies represents 2012 revenue of just less than $6 million. These are businesses that in turn support 487 full-time equivalent jobs and generate $1.5 million in local and state government revenue.

This sample includes Door County’s four largest professional theater companies, the largest arts education-related organizations in the county, as well as representative galleries, museums and community arts organizations. Excluding the cost of event attendance, these businesses leverage a remarkable $4.7 million in additional collateral spending in the county by attendees and participants, spending that pumps vital revenue into local restaurants, hotels, retail stores and other businesses.

We are also home to scores of entrepreneurs who make their living as artists, arts educators and arts administrators. This small sample is from just one county out of the state’s 72 counties.

My two sons, who are now pursuing future careers in science, no doubt benefitted greatly by educational experiences filled with art and music and literature. I’m sure most of your kids have enjoyed much the same. While they didn’t aspire to become actors or painters or musicians, involvement in the arts helped shape them into well-rounded community members with 21st century skills for the world and work force.

A broad arts education is essential to the inspiration of new generations of artists, as well as to the development of new generations of appreciative and critical audiences. From a business perspective alone, these critical components – early education and exposure to the arts, and new generations of artists and audiences – form an interdependent loop that needs to be nurtured and sustained and supported for this industry to prosper. Therefore, we should all be concerned that our state is near the bottom of the nation when it comes to per-capita funding of the arts, that we are, in effect, beginning to starve the goose, so to speak.

The Wisconsin arts industry supports jobs, generates government revenue, and helps drive our vital tourism industry. I personally hope that we put creativity to work for Wisconsin and support increased government investment in the arts and cultural sector to generate tax revenues, jobs and a creativity-based economy. If you feel the same, I’d encourage you to make your opinion known to your various representatives.

The door is always open, and I’m ever eager to hear your feedback, your opinions and your suggestions. I look forward to seeing you “under the stars” this coming summer!

Dave Maier

After graduating from the American Conservatory Theater Advanced Training Academy in San Francisco, Dave Maier joined the A.C.T. acting company as an Equity actor, eventually assuming additional roles as conservatory trainer, literary coordinator, and stage director. He was also Managing Director of the New Plays Program for seven years, where he produced over thirty premiere productions by dozens of nationally renown playwrights, many of which he either designed or directed. He also served as Artistic Director for Encore Theatre Company in San Francisco for eight years, an experimental summer repertory theatre which produced over two-dozen critically acclaimed theater productions. He married his muse, Barb, in 1983, and they and their two beautiful sons have been blessed to live in Door County for the past seventeen years.