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PrintArts organizations in Pittsburgh spent 2009 battling for limited resources in tight times.
State funding, foundation dollars and private donations all declined because of the recession, driving arts organizations to cut more deeply than they did in 2008 when budgets already were trimmed to the bone.
Rather than hitting the marrow, Ted Pappas, Pittsburgh Public Theater's producing artistic director, said he was nicking little pieces out of the entire budget to cut $700,000.
"My theory is: Don't cut one thing $700,000, cut 700 things that cost $1,000," he said.
Despite the need to cut costs, Mr. Pappas said the good news is that while subscription sales are down, single tickets sales are up.
PDF"We do a substantial 'night of' ticket sales," he said. "We've had one hit show after another."
Mr. Pappas said the theater also has the benefit of already having its finances in order, so money raised is not going to pay off old debts, but to support the current programming.
"No foundation wants to give money to an organization that is consistently in debt and can't manage its finances," he said.
The theater has remained solid by maintaining the quality of its productions, so that any cuts made are not apparent to the audience. "If you maintain your standards and you keep the doors open and the lights on, people will come for that," he said.
The Pittsburgh Opera has spent the last year, in essence, competing with itself for funding, raising money to pay for its new building in a campaign originally set for $8 million.
"For us the difficulty of the success our capital campaign has raised is the impact on our regular fund-raising," Christopher Hahn, the opera's general director, said. The operating budget for the opera went up by $200,000 for 2009 from 2008.
It was as if Mr. Hahn and Mr. Pappas were reading off the same talking points as Mr. Hahn said, "We have to make sure we have as excellent an artistic product as we can ever offer."
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust last year saw a $5 million increase in its budget to $56 million. The trust's CEO, Kevin McMahon, said the increase was because the trust produced big budget shows for the year that generated huge ticket sales,
For instance, the Radio City Rockettes sold 140,000 tickets during the run in the Christmas season. Much of that money, Mr. McMahon said, goes right through the organization.
Foundation support for the Cultural Trust was down by 35 percent, he said, and corporate support also was down, but individual gifts to support the trust were up by 11 percent.
Rivers of Steel, the organization to preserve and promote the heritage of the steel industry in the region, had a tough year with a 25 percent reduction in its budget to $2.1 million -- the largest hit, percentage wise, of any of the large arts organizations.
August Carlino, the organization's CEO, said it is working on new ways to generate revenue that will promote the mission of the organization, including Tour Anytime phone and Internet tours of the region.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Mar. 18, 2010) The Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera was the eighth-largest nonprofit arts organization in the Pittsburgh area last year. This story and chart as originally published in a Mar. 16, 2010 special section misidentified the CLO.
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