AS220 expects revenue boost with consultancy

Leaders at AS220 are working on a new consulting venture dubbed “Practice, Practice” that will codify and share policies and practices that have helped the nonprofit center for the arts grow.
Founded in 1985 with $800 supplied by Umberto Crenca, the nonprofit’s co-founder and artistic director, AS220 today has a budget of $4.1 million and has been credited with contributing to the creation of the Providence Arts and Entertainment District.
With 58 artists living and/or working in residence at three different buildings in downtown Providence, and 60 full- and part-time employees, AS220 provides a home not only for unjuried and uncensored art, but also for four exhibition spaces, a print shop, media lab, fabrication lab, stage, black-box theater and dance and recording studios. AS220 also features a bar and restaurant.
More than the sum of those parts, says Crenca, AS220 has evolved over the years to the point where he and other leaders are sought after for the insight they can provide into how to meld core values with business practices that help sustain the arts organization and make it thrive. Some of those beliefs include equal pay for all and shared responsibilities through stewardship.
Crenca has lectured and consulted for years, most recently with organizations from Memphis to Philadelphia and New Zealand, with little or no compensation, save covered travel expenses. However, other community organizations are reaching out to AS220 with such frequency that a consultancy with a business plan and fee structure will formalize what has been, to date, an informal practice, said Crenca.
“They’re finding AS220,” Crenca said, referring to other arts organizations, individual artists, and like-minded groups who might seek out consulting services. Crenca said “Practice, Practice” is “in beta,” but could be formalized as a working model by spring.
A consultancy also could generate a new revenue stream. Earned income has stayed the same while AS220 has grown dramatically, requiring, in addition to more philanthropic contributions, the examination of new and creative ways to help the organization sustain itself, Crenca said.
Sam Seidel, an AS220 board member who also runs his own private educational consultancy, has drafted a concept paper breaking down the four types of materials and services an AS220 consulting business would offer. These include a “Storybox” with, among other things, case-study narratives covering the values, principles, policies and watershed moments that AS220 uses to promote community-based arts.
“Practice, Practice” would also include a “toolkit” of tools and “how to” guides for potential customers. Consulting would also include in-person and virtual, weeklong residencies and individualized services, the paper states.
“We’re already doing the work,” said Seidel. “I’m very confident from what I’ve seen in this field that there is the potential here to generate revenue for AS220. When it’s really humming, it’s going to be bringing resources that help the organization and give the organization more to experiment [with] and try new things, because that’s how we give others value.”
Crosstown Arts in Memphis, Tenn., is one fledgling, community-based arts organization that has already benefited from the informal consultations Crenca has provided and is willing to pay for more.
In 2010, when Christopher Miner founded Crosstown Arts, a friend connected him to Crenca, who offered an “exhaustive” three-hour tour of AS220, Miner said.
Early on, Miner considered hiring three different workers for property management, facilities and accounting. After getting feedback from Crenca, Miner ended up hiring a director of operations that could handle most of that, while deferring to a CPA for tax needs and the like and minimizing the money he spends on salaries. In another instance, when Miner’s first thought was to hire a moderator for a public arts critique, Crenca advised culling volunteer participants first and spending money on a moderator as a last resort, Miner said.
“What makes their organization authentic,” Miner said, “is the way they balance planning and evolving organically. … They’re constantly balancing those two paths to growth simultaneously, and it can be complicated. They have followed their instincts at every turn.”
In 2010, Crenca also advised Miner to consider opening a performance space ahead of gallery space, not the other way around, because of the potential the former has to bring in community events more frequently.
“Two years later, we opened both spaces simultaneously,” Miner said, “which wouldn’t have happened without the input from him.”
When Crenca visited, Miner’s organization paid his travel expenses, but subsequent visits to Providence have been informal with no fees exchanged, and Miner said he understands the need for that to change. He’s hoping to arrange for his entire staff of 10 to come to Providence this spring “for a formal exchange,” in which AS220’s staff counterparts can share information and insights with his employees.
New York City-based Ford Foundation has provided more than $600,000 over the past six years to AS220 to develop capacity and grow, Crenca said. Some of that grant money has supported development of “Practice, Practice,” he said.
“There’s a hunger … to experience what AS220 in Providence has created,” said Seidel. “It is about hard work, ingenuity and luck. It’s playing a major role in the city and that’s compelling.” •

No posts to display