Making the Impossible Possible: The story of Lynchburg’s (pop. 79,697) 30 million dollar dream.

A colleague of mine recently shared that he asked Chat GPT to write a case statement for a historic theatre in a small city. I did the same and here is part of what I got back:

“Investing in the restoration of the historic theatre in [City Name] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve an important part of the city's history, while also revitalizing the area and providing a host of economic and cultural benefits to the community. With a solid investment plan in place, and a commitment to sustainable and responsible operations, this theatre has the potential to become a cornerstone of the city's cultural scene for generations to come.”

Chat GPT is correct, but I can share from personal experience and observations of the wider American arts and community planning sectors that building belief around this statement can be difficult. In Season 1, Episode 6 and 7 of the Small Town Big Arts podcast, I speak with a group of key community leaders in Lynchburg, VA, where at the Academy Center of the Arts, we were able to build belief, raise funds, and complete a 30 million dollar construction project on a historic theatre originally built in 1905 and that closed in 1958. Proudly, we re-opened the theatre in 2018 after it had been closed for over 60 years.

Now, I want to pull out some of what Chat GPT put together in the above statement and dive in a bit. To begin, “Investing in the restoration of the historic theatre in [City Name] is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve an important part of the city's history, while also revitalizing the area and providing a host of economic and cultural benefits to the community.” Easy enough, right? Well, if you are in a smaller community you know that building belief around all of this can be very difficult. This was the case for our project in Lynchburg. I joined the Academy Center of the Arts in 2015 and by that point the capital campaign to restore the theatre had been underway for 17 years. So clearly, it was very hard.

So what changed in the final three years of the campaign? In Season 1, Episode 6, a common theme arises from our conversation and this was community credibility. How does an organization gain credibility with its community? Well some of that depends on your community and its constituents but I do believe most communities share some common barriers to credibility. The first is trust. Whether we like it or not many in the arts are on the outside looking in when it comes to local politics, business development, real-estate development and financial investment. Of course, this is a broad statement and I know there are exceptions but the Academy was not. Sackett Wood, a former Academy Board President said that often he heard back from potential donors that the project was a “boondoggle.” (Noun meaning: work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.) So how did the Academy’s theatre go from being a “boondoggle” in the eyes of the community to having credibility? Well, it was incremental but it was by building a board that included individuals with two important qualities. The first was strong community reputations outside the field of the arts and second was expertise that would aid the project directly.

One by one, servant leaders in the community were recruited to take on critical parts of the fundraising, construction management, historic tax credit acquisition, and financial planning. This didn’t happen over night but as more joined the project, momentum was built and more and more joined. As more community leaders with strong reputations outside of the arts joined the project, the belief from the corporate, government, and private donor sectors increased. The project went from being a “boondoggle” to being a viable project. In 2018 fundraising completed and the theatre was restored with zero debt… and the servant leaders had fun and grew a deep connection to the Academy as an organization.

Going back to Chat GPT: “With a solid investment plan in place, and a commitment to sustainable and responsible operations, this theatre has the potential to become a cornerstone of the city's cultural scene for generations to come.” As the team of servant leaders grew, so did cultural changes to the institution. When I arrived at the Academy in 2015, the financials were in shambles and there was a culture of austerity built on years of faulty strategic plans. It was the project itself, both the fundraising and the construction that changed the organization, helping it meet the moment of the building we were about to occupy. As an organization we were pushed to the meet the moment and rise to the level of those that were supporting the project. Our finance committee meetings became transparent and pro-active, our strategic planning had be savvy and researched to answer the questions of tax credit investors, local government, and local corporations investing in the project, and our programming had to live up to what we said it would be, a wide ranging inclusive catalogue that provided real economic impact to our developing downtown.

In our fifth year of operating the theatre (with over 2 years of pandemic interruptions) we are in a place where our trust in the community has grown and we have in place effective board governance. We also have a skilled and dedicated staff and comprehensive strategic planning process. We are not out of the woods yet, but know the path to long term health. Referencing Chat GPT, “this theatre has the potential to become a cornerstone of the city's cultural scene for generations to come.” To meet that potential we will need a considerably endowment. Today our endowment sits at about 2.5 million. I firmly believe that if our institution is going to remain resilient for decades to come, we will need to see that endowment grow by about 10 million dollars. Not easy, but we now have the community trust and the vision to see a path there. This is all thanks to our small community “boondoggle” and making the impossible, possible.

I also imagine that the subject of endowment growth will be featured on Small Town Big Arts sometime in the near future…

“Artist Thrive” is here to help.

Artists Thrive is an initiative that began in 2016 when a group of arts professionals and artists produced the first draft of a field-wide assessment rubric. Through multiple rounds of feedback, Artists Thrive was publicly launched in 2017. Artists Thrive is driven by a leadership team of artists and diverse collaborators from different sectors and communities across the country and is supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation has a focus on supporting artist careers. Their website states, “Since 2002, EHTF directly expanded career opportunities for artists by increasing access to business development expertise, entrepreneurial skills, and related professional practice and career supports.” Through Artist Thrive, the foundation aims to identify the things that help artists pursue their vision and to enable communities to benefit from the arts in all aspects of life. Resources and tools within Artists Thrive help artists, arts organizations, and other groups that work with artists collaborate and craft meaningful stories about why art-making matters. 

Why is this important? Well, I wish that people and communities all inherently understood the importance of arts organizations and artists in a community but sadly we often have to make the “case” for their importance. Let me frank though, the organizations and stories that we have focused on through our blog and podcast are successful because they are valuable to their communities. This means the case that they make to funders and partners is understood, felt, and very very true. What Artists Thrive provides are invaluable tools to help guide you down a path of creating community value while also providing you metrics and narratives to articulate that value back to new and existing constituents.

Artist Thrive draws heavy inspiration from “The Social Profit Handbook” by David Grant. He states, “If you measure what you value, people will value what you measure.” A common theme I am finding with successful small town organizations is that they have clearly identified true value they can provide their community and that value is understood by the community and funders. Artist Thrive has a set of tools to send you on this path.

Artist Thrive also holds an annual summit which I strongly encourage you to engage with. Artists, arts leaders, educators and funders from across the country come together annually, in-person and online, to collaborate, gain inspiration, engage and align.

They have re-opened registration for those interested in joining thier community.  New registrants have access to all the on-demand content, session recordings, art breaks, and all the new opportunities that will continue to roll out through the virtual portal. 

To learn more, visit: https://www.artiststhrive.org/

Riverzedge Arts: Woonsocket, RI (pop. 43,000)

Woonsocket, Rhode Island is home to Riverzedge Arts. The community resides in Providence County, Rhode Island with a population of about 43,000 according to the 2020 census. It is Rhode Island's northernmost city and lies directly south of the Massachusetts state line and constitutes as a part of the Providence metropolitan area with a population of 1.5 million, which makes the locale unique from some of the other organizations we have spoken with. The client base, many of whom are economically challenged youth, don’t have access to the larger metropolitan areas because of transportation and income barriers and must have significant services in their immediate locale. Riverzedge’s adult workforce is also drawn from a larger geographic area. There are positives and negatives with this but it serves as another interesting example of how a small community can serve the realities of their community while also drawing on skilled labor from beyond their borders.

Riverzedge was formed in 2002 by artists, youth development professionals and community leaders concerned about patterns of violence among disaffected youth in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Riverzedge is built on the philosophy that art is a powerful force for social change, and that creative entrepreneurship through the arts is a productive and life-changing opportunity for teens. Riverzedge has garnered national attention and awards for the academic success and artistic achievements of their youth, and for their consistent performance and innovative approaches to youth development. In November 2013, The Wallace Foundation cited Riverzedge as one of 8 exemplary organizations nationwide in their research on out-of-school time arts programs for low-income urban teens. Riverzedge also was awarded a President’s Council on the Arts and the Humanities National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award in 2010.

Riverzedge is creating the next generation of entrepreneurs in Rhode Island through workforce development programs. Now, this may not be what you would initially associate with an arts organization but perhaps you should. Through training (students are paid for their work) in graphic design, multi-media, screening printing and public art design and execution, youth of Woonsocket, RI are instilled with workforce skills while also finding community and a positive outlet for expression and exploration. The model involves an Artistic Director and trained instructors who mentors a team of youth who execute multiple creative projects for the private and public sectors. To top it off, these projects provide earned revenue for the organization. Riverzedge works with clients to design and create merchandise and apparel, execute public art projects, design logos and marketing materials, and create multi-media services through photography and video work.

To begin, this youth workforce is not only improving the lives of the youth but also improve the lives of the wider community. The services they execute are at a significantly reduced price point for their clients, lowering cost barriers for many running small businesses, non-profit organizations or government departments in Woonsocket. Second, the organization’s focus on public art as a part of their services is improving the aesthetics of Downtown Woonsocket, which is a community that struggles with blight and poverty. Finally, they are building civic and community pride in Woonsocket by making merchandise that celebrates the city and the state of Rhode Island.

As a business model their set up is brilliant. The value their youth workforce development provides is worthy of private and public grant funds. The clear effectiveness of their programs also provides them a 65% retention rate with annual individual donors. At the same time, they are able to pay their youth (and staff) for their time because the work they do provides real dollars for the institution through commissions, service fees and merchandise sales. It is an example of how a non-profit business model can truly combine their workforce and mission delivery into a symbiotic relationship.

I really encourage you to visit their website and learn more. They are truly making big art in small town America.

http://riverzedgearts.org/

Sitka Fine Arts Camp: Sitka, AK (pop. 8,500)

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp was founded in 1973 to provide isolated Alaskan communities with little or no youth arts programs exposure and training in the arts. Because of remoteness and low population density, Alaskan youth are at a severe disadvantage in access to high quality arts. For the majority of their students, SFAC continues to be the only opportunity they have in the State to work with and learn from professional artists. Building from its original mission, SFAC has become a nationally acclaimed program. They serve approximately 1,000 students annually from Alaska and throughout the world.

In 2011, SFAC was gifted the historic Sheldon Jackson College Campus. This college campus had been closed for four years and was in a state of complete disrepair. SFAC has since overseen one of the most extraordinary grassroots volunteer stories in our country: the revitalization of this National Historic Landmark. Between 2011 and 2015 one thousand volunteers (one ninth of Sitka’s population) logged over 45,000 volunteer hours rebuilding the campus, demonstrating unprecedented community support and giving the Sitka Fine Arts Camp a permanent home. Strong volunteerism and donor support continue, demonstrating the value that Sitka Fine Arts Camp holds for their state.

We have a lot to learn from Sitka Fine Arts Camp and their leader, Roger Schmidt (listen our interview with Roger, Episode 3 of our podcast series). The first is the importance of the value an organization provides its community. The second is a lesson in community buy in and how to galvanize a community around a cause.

Value:

What Sitka Fine Arts Camp has done so well is to constantly evaluate the value they provide their community because without that value they don’t survive. Their mission and their services must mean something significant to those they serve. They do this by truly being responsive to their students and constituents as opposed to simply providing what they think is valuable. Now, sometimes the value the institution understands and the value the students and constituents understand line up but SFAC has always evolved with what the community and the market tells them. If classes or performances they present are not engaged with, they discontinue or change their approach. They don’t blame the community for not engaging nor do they solely blame their marketing efforts.

They have also, existing in a very small community, looked to where their value extends beyond their town border. They have found a space where they are serving state wide needs and not just Sitka needs. Because of the remote nature of much of Alaska, the ability to engage in the arts as a youth is limited. They can fulfill a need the entire state has by providing arts access to all Alaskan youth and this positions them well for geographically wide engagement in tuition based programs and also propels their charitable giving, which comes from the entire state and not just the town of Sitka.

Galvanization:

The story of Sitka’s home on the former Sheldon Jackson College campus is a story in three parts. 1. How the arts can address community decline, represented in abandoned spaces. 2. Organizational growth in small communities (and perhaps in any community) can benefit from slow and deliberate growth. 3. Having something the community can constantly be directly involved in (in this case, renovating and restoring campus buildings) is extremely beneficial for engagement, support, and longevity.

1. In my podcast interview with Roger (Episode 3), Roger talks about how big structures tide to institutions like Sheldon Jackson College become a symbol for communities. They tell a story. Is this community thriving or declining? When the college closed and the campus was boarded up and regular maintenance stopped, the campus became a symbol of town decline. It was an arts organization that came in and changed that narrative. Through the arts, this community symbol illustrates to the rest of the world, a thriving community and not a declining one.

2. Roger also talks about his determination to avoid debt as they took on the responsibility of renovating their new campus home. Because of this, the organization took on the renovation one plywood piece, one window pain, and one building at a time. The organization had time to keep pace as they scaled up their operations and services.

3. Finally, Roger jokingly said that in some ways the renovation of buildings have become their mission. Obviously their mission is to serve Alaskan youth through the arts, but there is a lesson to be learned in creating direct community involvement in tangible projects to keep a community engaged, involved and supportive. Taking on the restoration of an abandon college campus, a historic landmark and town symbol, has been a tool for community involvement, understanding, and connectivity. Volunteers continue to give their time to restoration, repairs, and grounds upkeep. This is extraordinarily powerful.

To learn more about Sitka Fine Arts Camp, visit their website at:

https://www.fineartscamp.org/

Wormfarm Institute: Sauk County, WI (pop. 65,000)

I had the honor of meeting Donna Neuwirth through the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program in 2014. Donna is the founder and Executive Director of Wormfarm Institute in Sauk County, Wisconsin (pop. 65,000 ). If you have heard of Wormfarm Institute that is because they are a national leader in rural creative placemaking. They have received NEA Our Town funding as well as an ArtPlace America grant (two of the most prestigious awards for creative placemaking). They describe themselves as “an evolving laboratory of the arts and ecology and fertile ground for creative work.” Their work explores the links between urban and rural communities within and beyond the food chain, creating opportunities for cross-sector collaboration. They have brought together farming, conservation, and the arts in a beautiful way. Their goal; to “rekindle the cultural and enhance the economic possibilities of our region while celebrating its unique natural and human history.”

If you don’t know about Wormfarm Institute and you are delivering the arts in a smaller community, you must. They are a fantastic model of how to approach artistic work work in a rural setting. The approach as Donna stated in our podcast episode is one of “abundance” and not scarcity. It can be easy to fall into a scarcity mindset when producing the arts in a smaller community. One can get pulled into a narrative that there are limited resources to produce work and that there are fewer people to engage with the work. Wormfarm Institute at its core has embraced what it has lots of. This includes beautiful landscapes, local agriculture, and a unique location and by embracing who they are and what they do have their annual Farm/Art DTour attracts 22,000 people to rural Sauk County each year.

Also at their core is bringing together the rural and the urban. I think this is an important model for those who are providing the arts in smaller communities. The reasons for this are many.

1. Cultural Value. We are at a moment when the divide that exists between rural and urban communities is dangerous. This divide is being exploited by politicians and media outlets for fleeting power and money but is not good for the longterm health of our country. The arts are a fantastic means to create meaningful engagement and force all of us to reevaluate our perceptions of those from other cultures (which I think exists unfairly on BOTH sides of the political spectrum. Donna mentioned the idea of being in the “radical middle”). A mission built on closing this dangerous cultural divide provides meaningful value to our society.

2. Inspiration. Urban artists and audiences will be inspired and rejuvenated by rural settings. Urban life is hard. Rural communities provide a respite from the everyday hustle, noise and energy of living in a city. People want to escape, breath, and unplug from their everyday. You are living in an important asset, not just for your local community but to those from the outside. These outsiders could be visiting artists or visiting audiences and serve as a boost to you and your local economy.

3. Funding. So much of our funding comes from the value we provide those who are providing the funds. If your mission serves both your locale and those in major urban markets, your funding sources just expanded. To my first two points, your mission of arts delivery could be serving a larger cause of bridging cultural divides and could draw the engagement of artists, audiences and funders from outside your own community.

All in all, please visit the Wormfarm Institute’s website and explore. Above all, visit them and attend their inspiring Farm/Art DTour. Their use of fermentation as a metaphor for the transformative qualities of the arts and agriculture is truly inspiring.

Appalshop: Letcher County, KY (pop. 22,000)

*As a preface to this post and the podcast interview, the day after our interview with Alex, Letcher County was struck by major floods that made national news. Appalshop was flooded and major damage occurred to their facility and archives. It was devastating to learn. The staff and team are okay and are in the process of recovery but their community suffered greatly. What was most admirable about their response was how it was focused on the larger community they serve and not on themselves. They released information both for the community and those outside the community to aid them in navigating the damage and devastation. Do consider supporting them and the Letcher County community:

https://appalshop.org/news/appalachian-flood-support-resources

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In our first podcast (release Friday, August 12th) we interviewed Appalshop Executive Director, Alex Gibson. I am a huge fan of Appalshop and it was deliberate that this organization was the first to be featured on the podcast. They are a perfect model of an organization meeting the needs of their community and establishing significant value to those they serve. They are also unique in that they receive 70% of their operating revenue through grant sources. This means their programs have value to foundations and government that move beyond their locale.

Their mission is to enlist the power of education, media, theater, music, and other arts to:

● document, disseminate, and revitalize the lasting traditions and contemporary creativity of Appalachia;

● tell stories the commercial cultural industries don’t tell, challenging stereotypes with Appalachian voices and visions;

● support communities’ efforts to achieve justice and equity and solve their own problems in their own ways;

● celebrate cultural diversity as a positive social value;

● and participate in regional, national, and global dialogue toward these ends.

Appalshop operates a radio station, a theater, a public art gallery, a record label, an archive, a filmmaking institute, a reproductive justice program, a community development program, and an incredible array of other initiatives, all in a renovated warehouse in downtown Whitesburg, Kentucky.

In 2019 Appalshop installed the largest net-metered renewable energy system in their region and helped community partners install their own. They installed a Letcher County walking trail, supported a music education camp for girls and gender nonconforming teens, and created a community fund for small businesses like Black Sheep Brick Oven Bakery.

The location’s the thing: Amherst County, VA (pop. 33,000)

I have been thinking a lot about what the opening blog should cover on my new endeavor, Small Town/Big Arts.

Where I want to start is with the story of a theatre company I founded in 2006, the Endstation Theatre Company. The company was incorporated and initially based in Amherst County, VA (pop 32,000). This decision was done out of convenience rather than out of a deep desire to serve the residents of Amherst County. At the time, the company made up of recent and eager Florida State University graduates, needed a home base with a scene shop and rehearsal space. Amherst was my childhood home and my father was on the theatre faculty at Sweet Briar College which happened to be in the county. Because we had free access to the campus amenities, our initial thought was that we would rehearse and build our work in and on the campus but tour our theatrical work beyond the county’s borders. At the time, I had little to no intention of specifically serving the community where we were incorporated. Our location was merely a means to an end.

After the first year of touring a production (which was exhausting and logistically difficult) the notion of having a permanent home became more attractive. Knowing that our rehearsal and production resources were at Sweet Briar College, we started to think of how we might produce theatre on the campus and end our touring approach. From here we launched an annual summer theatre festival on the college grounds.

Serving as the Artistic Director, I started to ask myself the question of how we would attract audiences to this new venture. Because I grew up in Amherst County, I was aware of community’s culture and history but was also aware that a professional theatre festival had never existed in the county and we were going to need to build an audience that did not exist yet. With our first season we launched two shows. The first was an original play about Hurricane Camille that tragically impacted neighboring Nelson County in 1969 and a site specific Romeo and Juliet staged outside and on the front of a historic building on the Sweet Briar College campus. With this first season, we found enough success to continue on because audiences were engaged in something that felt relevant to them. The festival grew each year, built a loyal fan base, and remained on the campus for 8 years. Endstation Theatre Company (which I am no longer associated with, but remain personally close to some of the artists) continued to grow and is still producing a summer festival but now on the Randolph College Campus in neighboring Lynchburg, VA (pop. 90,000).

That first summer season became the model for the company during my entire tenure. The formula was basic and was based on a simple question; What value could we provide the community that would also feel true to our artistic mission and aims? We didn’t simply think about what we wanted to do as artists but thought about what we could do to provide real value to Amherst County and its surrounding region (with specificity). I know if we had simply produced my favorite playwrights and created theatre with subject matters that modeled my previous life as an artist in Philadelphia, we would have failed. We knew we loved original work and we knew we loved site specific theatre. We could remain true to this and harness these loves to put a spotlight on Central Virginia, exciting the residents of our community. With this approach in mind, we started a playwriting laboratory that produced original plays about and for Central Virginia and also staged imaginative outdoor site specific work with recognizable titles that highlighted and embraced the beauty of the Sweet Briar College campus and later the region itself.

With this localized approach, the community connected to our work and in turn they felt it was about and for them. Our board had great pride in representing us, supporting us, and engaging with our work. Our revenue (earned and charitable) grew each year and in 2012 we were honored by Virginians for the Arts with the “Rising Star” award. Not only were we recognized locally but those in Richmond and throughout the larger state recognized what we were doing was special.

Producing the arts for smaller communities can be tough. Often the resources are scarce (human and financial) and the supply and demand side of the work can feel upside down. Our slogan for Endstation in those early days of serving Amherst was drawn from a Washington Post article about the company in 2011. The reporter stated, “at Endstation, the location’s the thing.” I loved this. Even a journalist from outside saw that we took pride in where we were and who we were serving. I also knew that our long term viability was built on the value the community saw in our mission and presence and for our future success we had to reinforce, replenish, and build upon this value.

So, what real value can you provide your community that is true to your mission and goals?