Association of Nonprofits on Friday, January 22, 2021. By posting them here I am able to include links to underlying statistics, research, and resources for your reference. Questions? Need additional info? Please don't hesitate to be in touch with me at lindanelso@gmail.com.
Good morning. Thanks again to you all for being here -- we're all grateful for your interest in and attention to the vital work nonprofits play in Maine, as well as to the impacts the pandemic has had on our work and priorities.
I'm Linda Nelson, Deputy Director of Portland Ovations and founding Executive Director of Opera House Arts in Stonington, with you today from Bath, the homeland of the Sagadahoc of the Wabanaki Confederacy.
As I hope you are all aware, the performing arts in Maine, as around the country, were among the first to shut down and will be among the very last to regain normalcy. Stages are shuttered; hundreds of thousands of events cancelled; millions in event and related revenues are lost.
This extreme shut down is due to one very crucial fact: bringing people together is the heart of the charitable mission of nonprofit performing arts organizations.
Literally bringing people together. To share experiences. Across differences.
We are traversing an historic time when our need to create such opportunities is greater than ever. Learning and understanding each others' stories, perspectives, and cultures through music, dance, and performance -- sitting in the dark beside a stranger with whom you later talk, laugh, and cry; watching live people perform ourselves and others on stages across our great state -- is one of our most powerful, and underrated, tools for uniting us. And for healing.
That's the heart of what we need to acknowledge today: arts and culture are the unsung heroes of the strengths of our Maine communities.
Nationally, the arts generate more revenues than construction or transportation. Fact. Surprising, hey? The latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that arts and culture make up more than 4.5% of the nation's GDP, with over 5 million wage and salary workers.
Here in Maine, the last study of five years ago documented over $150 million in revenues generated by this sector, with over $12 million in state and local government revenue.
Here in Maine, for every dollar spent on a cultural event ticket a local purchaser additionally spends more than $30 in that community. A visitor, who has been attracted to that town by that performance, spends an additional $60 plus dollars.
Maine's nonprofit arts and cultural sector employs thousands of people around the state.
While these numbers generate significant impact, there is also opportunity for growth as indicated by the national figures.
But economic impact is not the only, or perhaps even the best way, to understand the impact of arts and culture in Maine communities.
That, perhaps, was best felt during Wednesday's inauguration.
When Lady Gaga performed a national anthem like no other, gesturing to the flag that still flies above what was a besieged U.S. Capitol.
When J. Lo brought her own amazing heritage to This Land Is Your Land and America the Beautiful.
And most strikingly: when 22 year old U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recited an original poem that returned the light to many hearts.
Amanda reminded me and hopefully everyone here today of Maine's own recent Poetry Out Loud champions, Joao Victor of Lewiston and Allan Monga of Portland.
THE ARTS had people weeping and remembering why we love this country. THE ARTS enflame a passion for UNITY in our HEARTS -- where it matters most.
But this pandemic has stolen many such experiences from us and will continue to do so.
My organization, Portland Ovations, is working almost entirely virtually and despite the optimism of Dr. Fauci, in his recent keynote address to the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, does not see a return to "normal" ticket sales until our 2022-23 season. Like our peers in the cultural sector, we've used our creative ingenuity to pivot -- and our pivot includes investing our budget, greatly supported by recovery dollars, directly in Maine artists, in the form of five commissions of new performances.
State and federal recovery dollars make up ESSENTIAL parts of our budgets: keeping arts workers employed and nonprofits from permanently shuttering. Even the most innovative amongst us -- and I look toward my peers and friends at Portland Stage, Penobscot Theater, Opera House Arts, Celebration Barn and beyond -- are, like the 90-year old Portland Ovations, operating at less than 20% or our usual revenue capacities.
We are all swimming hard to get back to shore -- making up new strokes, including a pilot project called the Cultural Alliance of Maine that unites Maine's cultural organizations for a stronger voice and more visible seat at the table. We can't continue to retain and attract workers and visitors alike to Maine; we can’t continue to support the Maine artists and events that are an important component of what makes Maine a special and unique place; we can’t continue to bring people together across our differences and divides without YOUR continued inclusion of the cultural sector in all that you do for Maine people.
Maine people and communities need the arts to thrive. And the arts need you.
Thank you.
#nonprofitmaine
#MANP
#cultureME
#MaineArts
No comments:
Post a Comment