Arts groups target donor matches

SOUND IDEAS: David Beauchesne, executive director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra Music School, and Annette Mozzoni, music school director, examine a boiler that needs replacing. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
SOUND IDEAS: David Beauchesne, executive director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra Music School, and Annette Mozzoni, music school director, examine a boiler that needs replacing. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

This year, most of the 2nd Story Theater’s year-end fundraiser, which usually nets about $30,000, will be put toward a match to access more than $1 million in much-needed arts bond money.
“This accelerates what we’ve been doing piecemeal and gives us the opportunity to address major needs,” said Lynne Collinson, the nonprofit’s executive director.
Voters approved $30 million for cultural, arts and economy grants, the bulk of which – $23.2 million – will go toward nine specific facility projects, of which Warren’s 2nd Story Theater is one. The remaining $6.8 million will be allocated for as-yet undesignated projects whose proponents must apply.
The Warren theater’s two buildings need basement refinishing and mold remediation at 28 Market St. and a roof and gutters at 10 Liberty St., plus plumbing improvements at both. Collinson is hoping a $125,000 grant from the Champlin Foundations to replace Liberty Street building windows will count toward the match, but even if it doesn’t, her board is taking steps already to meet that match.
“The project has many components, so we’re going to try to do the big-ticket items first, the ones that would have taken us years and years to accomplish,” she said. “And we’re going to make sure we do everything right to protect the taxpayers’ investment. One of the benefits of this is that the taxpayers will see the results: it’s beautifying and it’s tangible.”
Most of the eligible nonprofits reached by Providence Business News hope to apply some project funding that was obtained before Election Day to the dollar-for-dollar match that the state is requiring, while coming up with other ways to match the remaining money.
What will be allowed remains to be seen, said Randall Rosenbaum, executive director of the R.I. State Council on the Arts.
Rosenbaum’s agency is writing the rules and regulations that will govern how the bond awards are made and define what is acceptable in terms of a match. He expects public review and vetting to take until March or April. Funds cannot be dispersed before July 1, 2015, he said.
The arts council will need to negotiate agreements with the nine arts organizations that will include benchmarks they are expected to reach, timelines, documentation for matching dollars and other guidelines. “Each of them knows they’ve got a challenge ahead of them,” Rosenbaum said.
That fact didn’t escape Alison Vareika, chairwoman of the Newport Performing Arts Center’s board of directors. The project at 19 Touro St., which involves renovating a former opera house built in 1867 as a theater and performing arts center, has been awarded just over $4.2 million, and is unlike most of the others, because it’s just beginning. She began writing to donors right after Election Day, she said.
“Letters have already gone out to major donors and we already have a quiet-phase event planned,” she said.
Simon Holt, executive director of the United Theatre, which is owned by the Westerly Land Trust and has been awarded more than $2.3 million, is eager to find out what types of previous fundraising can count toward its match for a project estimated to cost just under $10 million.
Of two buildings that will contribute to a renovated, multiuse arts complex, the one that would be a performance space is nothing more than a shell at the moment, he said.
About $2.5 million has been spent already on the two buildings. That money could potentially count toward the match. The organization will also hold fundraising events as various stages of the project are completed to continue matching the $2.3 million, Holt said.
That “cumulative leverage [is] pivotal to get us going,” he said.
“There’s been so much growth in Westerly and Watch Hill funded by very few people … so we’re looking for outside funding opportunities,” Holt said.
More-established projects, like the ones at the Trinity Repertory Company and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Music School, will likely be able to put money already invested in their projects toward the match, Rosenbaum said, because the work that has been done was critical to their ability to operate.
“Trinity Rep had to pay upfront to do fire-code upgrades,” he said by way of example, “so, the fundraiser for that would probably count [toward the match].”
Trinity Rep’s project involves mostly infrastructure improvements to the Lederer Theater Center and smaller Dowling Theater. The Rhode Island Philharmonic is likewise in need of a new roof, boiler, and repaved parking lot. The nine projects, all told, are expected to create 612 temporary and 568 permanent jobs in the state, in addition to the 1,900 existing already, with an added $47 million economic impact to the $200 million worth of economic activity currently generated, according to the website “YesOn5.” In addition, $2.4 million in annual tax revenue could be generated over the life of the bonds.
Philharmonic Executive Director David Beauchesne said his $12 million project, which needs to match a bond of more than $2.3 million, is expected to generate 49 additional full-time-equivalent jobs, in addition to the 163 FTEs already in place within the next five years.
“We’re going to have to hustle,” said WaterFire’s Managing Director Peter Mello, who hopes a $600,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant might be put toward a more than $3.1 million match for the proposed WaterFire Arts Center in Providence that will serve as an administrative home and public face of the nonprofit.
“We’re all out there trying to raise money at the same time and Rhode Island is a limited market,” he said. “But we all have our stakeholders that we are confident are going to support this initiative.”
The arts organization fastest out of the gate in pursuing a match is the Ocean State Theatre Company in Warwick, which hopes to apply for some of the $6.8 million allocated for “other” arts organizations.
Proposed by a donor, who prefers to remain anonymous, their “Take a Seat” Challenge, which began in early November and concludes on May 17, the end of the theater’s season, allows participants to “purchase” seats of their choice for $500, said Amiee Turner, producing artistic director. Then, the anonymous donor matches the purchase and, hopefully, the state matches the $500, too, tripling the impact, she said.
The money would be used to help retire debt for the nonprofit’s state-of-the-art theater, which launched its first season in 2012-13.
“The best-case scenario,” she said, “is: For every seat, we’re actually going to see $1,500 worth of return. And that’s hard to argue with.” •

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I am thrilled that these valuable organizations that add so much to the communities and culture in the state will be receiving these funds. My major concern is that these groups are required to follow all Historic Preservation Guidelines both at the state & local level in order to receive these funds.

  2. I support the arts. I have bought tickets and attended performances of five of the groups identified in this bond issue. I have made small contributions to two of them.

    A condition of receiving a grant from the state is that there is a 1:1 match. The bond issue was approved on November 4th. No funds raised prior to that time should count against the match.

    Less than a month after the referendum passed, the State and some of these grantees are already coming up with schemes to shirk their obligations. This is just wrong.

    Rhode Island is about to do for the arts what Studio 38 did for entrepreneurs.