Will Sacramento arts organizations become the next COVID-19 victim?

by Liv Moe and James Wheatly, SacBee

Organizers of the "Standing Against Racism with Art" show in Placerville talk on July 17, 2020, about race in the city – including the noose in the city seal and its 'Old Hangtown' nick name. Racist flyers were recently posted on downtown businesses. BY ALIE SKOWRONSKI

The announcement last month that the Sacramento Ballet would have to cancel their 2020-21 season and let go of their artistic director, Amy Seiwert, because of COVID-19’s financial blow not only underscores the impact of the coronavirus emergency on our local arts organizations but the stunning loss.

Beyond the annual beloved Nutcracker performance that has been a staple of Sacramento’s holiday season for 64 years, the Ballet’s Seiwert had made it a priority to commission and license works by all voices. Three scheduled world premieres in the 2019-20 season, cut short because of the pandemic, were to be by choreographers of color and Sac Ballet tied with American Ballet Theater for programming the most works by women.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis in July identified the arts and entertainment sector as the industry most impacted by the pandemic, even outpacing losses suffered by hotels and restaurants. Nationally, according to an ongoing survey by the Americans for the Arts, more than 40% of arts organizations believe they will not survive the impact of COVID-19.

In the Sacramento region, the coronavirus emergency’s sudden, devastating impact has forced organizations to close their doors, cancel or modify programming and cancel exhibits, concerts and performances. They have had to furlough hundreds of full-time and seasonal employees — actors, designers, musicians, stagehands, concessions workers, box office staff, management and arts educators. Consider, for example, Folsom’s Harris Center for the Arts, a regional jewel of a performing arts venue, which was forced to temporarily and indefinitely cease operations July 1.

Faced with the very real prospect that mass gatherings may not be possible until 2021, local arts organizations and artists will spend almost a year with very little, if any, income. Celebration Arts, for example, trains artists and offers performance opportunities telling African American stories from a historic and contemporary perspective. The pandemic forced Celebration Arts to temporarily cease operations. While it has pivoted to offering online performances and classes for adults and youth, these offerings reflect its desire to stay connected with the community but do not come close to making up lost revenue. Few organizations and individual artists, of any kind, could survive under these circumstances.

Consider what’s at stake for our community:

▪ Local arts organizations provide avenues for shared experiences and cultural understanding. Sacramento’s Latino Center for Art and Culture, for example, maintains and promotes the cultural traditions of the Latinx community through their programming such as El Panteón de Sacramento/Día de los Muertos each November. One of the region’s largest employers of Latinx artists, in a typical year their exhibitions, performances and festivals draw together 15,000, predominantly low- and middle-income latinx and other families in a shared cultural experience.

▪ Local arts organizations are a partner in youth education. The B Street Theatre, for example, partners with local school districts to provide hundreds of playwriting workshops and after school activities, touching the lives of well over 150,000 students each year. These partnerships include opportunities for children in underserved communities to experience a performance, tour the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts and discover a new joy in theatre.

▪ Local arts organizations are an essential tool for rebuilding our local economy and community. Over 3.2 million people attend arts and cultural events every year in Sacramento County. Every time someone attends a musical, visits a museum, or sees a concert, they spend an average of $31 per person beyond the ticket cost on event-related items such as meals, retail, parking and lodging. This can provide vital income to local merchants, energize downtown and put people to work. Organizations like the Verge Center for the Arts nurtures over 300 individual artists annually through low- or no-cost studio space and by providing opportunities for teaching and exhibiting their craft, helping to support the thousands of jobs attributed to Sacramento’s creative economy.

On August 25th, Sacramento City Council members are scheduled to consider an additional $7.5 million in grants from federal CARES Act funding to support the creative economy. We urge them to approve this funding, and to ultimately allocate the full $20 million proposed by the Mayor’s plan for economic support for the Arts, Culture and Tourism sector.

Ultimately, without more financial support from the City Council and our community for the organizations that support arts and culture, many more are likely to succumb to COVID-19. Please learn more about supporting our local arts organizations at artsforsac.org.

Liv Moe is Founding Director of Verge Center for the Arts and can be reached at liv@vergeart.com. James Wheatley is Artistic Director of Celebration Arts and can be reached at celebrationarts@att.net. Both are founding board members of the Sacramento Alliance for Regional Arts (artsforsac.org).