PROVIDENCE – The financial picture that is being painted at AS220 is not a pretty one.
And the nonprofit that supports local youth artists on Empire Street is seeking emergency help from the community while waiting for potential further help from the state.
AS220 in an email to the community states it needs to raise $100,000 by June 30 – the end of its fiscal year. The organization is asking for immediate community financial assistance so that AS220 can avoid making “pretty drastic cuts” to its operations, Co-Executive Director Shauna Duffy told Providence Business News on Wednesday.
Duffy says AS220 has made “a lot” of changes since emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, including restructuring its programming and staffing, and creating new strategies to increase its revenue. Realistically, Duffy says about $700,000 would put AS220 in a “strong position” to function.
“That $100,000 will help [us] keep rebuilding, working on this and to survive,” Duffy said. “We’re borrowing; we’re looking toward our board [of directors].”
Duffy declined to elaborate as to what those cuts would be to AS220’s operations if the $100,000 isn’t fully raised by June 30 but did say there are “a lot of things on the table.” She also didn’t say that AS220 is on life support when asked by PBN.
AS220 is just one of several arts and culture organizations across the Ocean State that have told multiple news outlets of their financial struggles and disappointment in a lack of monetary help from the state. Duffy says the state needs to recognize that this is a crisis and that arts nonprofits are “just not going to be able to figure it out” on their own.
Duffy says AS220 has seen its operating costs jump more than 30% since before the pandemic and revenue last year still down about 15%. After earning $3.4 million in revenue in the 2019 fiscal year, AS220’s 2021 fiscal year revenue dropped to $1.95 million before increasing to $2.4 million in 2022, according to the organization’s 990 filings.
Duffy also said there was an expectation both at AS220 and other local arts and culture organizations that they would receive a portion of the $1.1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds to help the arts community recover from devastating impacts they suffered during and from the pandemic, hoping for a continuation of the state “stepping up” for the arts community as it did during the health crisis.
But that has not happened. When asked if she is disappointed the state’s help for the arts community hasn’t continued, Duffy said it was both disappointing and also “negligent.”
“The economy in Providence is built really on it being a creative capital,” Duffy said. “Restaurants, bars, arts and culture organizations, residents, all of these things are an ecosystem that need each other. If there isn’t arts and culture, then the bars and restaurants don’t do well and no one wants to live downtown. We don’t want to go back to the 1980s in downtown Providence.”
AS220 was one of
24 organizations that received earlier in May $2.7 million in federal grants from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation program. However, that funding is for creating new attraction and destination events, not for general organization operations.
Local arts organizations have recently advocated on Smith Hill for needed assistance to remain afloat. According to the Rhode Island Current, the Rhode Island Coalition for the Arts – an assembly of the state’s art advocates and industry leaders – on Smith Hill May 28 to rally around the Creative Futures Fund, a separate bill introduced by Providence Democrats Sen. Jake Bissaillon –
also the CEO of local nonprofit Justice Assistance – and Rep. Scott Slater in their respective chambers.
The bill, per the Current, calls for $18 million to be directed toward the fund. That includes $14.5 million toward 13 nonprofits and another $3.5 million to the R.I. State Council on the Arts for grants and administrative fees. Duffy says the Creative Future Fund would be the one-time recovery “runway” arts nonprofits need to get to that needed stable future.
On June 7, though, the R.I. House of Representatives will hold a floor vote on
the $13.9 billion 2025 fiscal state budget proposal, which includes a $10 million arts and cultural facilities bond. That bond, if part of the budget and voters approve in November, would provide money for a select few arts organizations to make new capital improvements.
RISCA Executive Director Lynne McCormack told the Current the bond proposal doesn’t address operational costs. Duffy agrees, adding that nonprofits would have to raise matching funds to cover bond costs.
“It’s not particularly helpful with this need,” Duffy said. She also said arts organizations are currently working with the R.I. General Assembly to make changes to the bond structure to “give it more flexibility” to better assist such nonprofits and provide clarity of what arts organizations really need.
As of early Wednesday, AS200 has raised $520 and donations can be made online on
the organization’s website. Duffy says AS220 is speaking with its donors, but also knows that it can’t just go to a “small number of people” for help – something she says the organization “has historically been bad at” in past years.
“We as an organization work with tens of thousands of people in the community, we often don’t let people know that we’re a nonprofit and we need your support,” Duffy said. “We need to tell our community that we need help right now.”
(UPDATED to add 12 graph noting AS220 received a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration's Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation program.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
