Stephanie Natale
The state of Wisconsin provides little to no funding to such groups as Children’s Theater of Madison.
COVID-19 tested leaders of Madison’s nonprofit performing arts organizations to their core, forcing them to close the doors and hope for the best while preparing for the worst.
Four and a half years later, some have recovered while others are still getting there. And many have made operational, programming or fundraising changes to counter the challenges they still face.
“The pandemic and shutdown posed an existential threat to the museum, as it did for so many cultural organizations and other businesses,” says Kia Karlen, vice president of education and community engagement at the Madison Children’s Museum, which has been in business since 1980. “In late March of 2020, it seemed uncertain that ‘hands-on’ children’s museums would survive. We did survive. And we are now thriving.”
Other groups tell similar stories. Attendance numbers for Madison Opera have rebounded, as it began the 2024-25 season with the most season-ticket subscribers in six years. Meanwhile, Music Theatre of Madison’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal in August emerged as the second highest-grossing show in the company’s 18-year-history.
But with operating and performance costs increasing, larger audiences might not be enough, according to Samantha Crownover, executive director of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, which presents a wide range of traditional and contemporary chamber music performed by artists from all over North America.
“Our stalwart donors have continued to support us and are sensitive to the fact that we need the resources to maintain our standards of performance,” she says. “Our audience has increased 15% over last year. That said, we’re not to pre-pandemic levels of attendance by any stretch of the imagination.”
As arts nonprofits continue to bring back patrons, they also must confront fundraising obstacles that even in pre-pandemic times threatened their sustainability and vibrancy. They are looking to other forms of revenue to survive, including from foundations, individual donors and corporations. While the city of Madison and Dane County do have programs that support artists, there is little to no support for the arts from the state. In fact, Wisconsin ranks last in the nation for arts funding.
“Like many arts organizations, we’ve faced significant fundraising challenges,” says Allen Ebert, executive director of the Children’s Theater of Madison. “The competition for donations has increased as nearly every organization is addressing similar issues, such as rising costs and operational hurdles. Inflation and a limited pool of government funding for the arts have only added pressure.” The group is exploring new ways to address these challenges, “but it’s a tough environment given that support for the arts remains lower compared to other sectors.”
“We have been very grateful that support from individuals has grown year over year since the pandemic,” says Jen Uphoff Gray, artistic director for Forward Theater Company, which did record-setting business at three of its four 2023-24 productions. “Government funding went way up in 2020 and 2021, with COVID-specific funds, but then plummeted back to the more typical level — less than 2% of our total support. Corporate and foundation giving has been down overall, as many of those entities have reallocated their support to basic needs.”
Shawn Harper
Kanopy is diversifying its funding model.
However, new funding strategies are emerging. Take Kanopy Dance Company, which has brought modern dance productions to Madison for almost a half-century and is now expanding how it does business.
“It is critical that we diversify our funding model, and we have elevated our entrepreneurial initiatives from growing our dance academy to garnering choreographic and dance performance commissions, forging cultural partnerships and optimizing the active use of our studio space to expand earned revenue sources in addition to ticket sales,” says associate director Susanne Voeltz. She says that collaborations with Madison Opera and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra offer “meaningful touches with new audiences.”
A broader approach to fundraising has also benefited the Madison Children’s Museum, which in recent years received major national grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, according to Tom Linfield, the museum’s new president and CEO. Daily average visitation is up, too, after the museum adjusted its calendar to be open fewer days of the year to maximize operational efficiency. And by hosting cultural celebrations such as October’s Hispanic Heritage Celebration, the museum seeks to ensure it maintains relevancy with Madison’s diverse communities.
Forward Theater (one of nine resident companies at Overture Center for the Arts) is in the midst of its “Future Forward Endowment Campaign,” in which Madison philanthropist and American Girl brand creator Pleasant Rowland will provide a dollar-for-dollar match through the end of 2024.
“Unlike our peer resident organizations at Overture Center, Forward does not have a Great Performance Fund endowment to provide financial stability when other funding sources ebb and flow,” Uphoff says, referring to a fund set up at Madison Community Foundation when Overture first launched that excludes Forward because it did not exist at the time. “If we reach our goal [of $2 million] and meet the full match from Ms. Rowland, then this fund will generate an annual dividend in reliable income to help us weather future storms, as well as aid us in growing new programs.”
Ross Zentner
Forward Theater is building an endowment fund.
Reaching a broader audience is also a priority. Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) adjusted its hours — extending them on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings — to make it possible for more people to experience the museum. MMoCA hosts a variety of events, pop-ups and programs designed to engage with visitors to upper State Street, according to director of communications Andrew Rogers. Next year also marks the 50th anniversary of its free Art Cart mobile-classroom program, a partnership with Madison School & Community Recreation.
Another notable collaboration planned for 2025 is between Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society and the Madison Choral Project, which together will stage a performance featuring 24 vocalists and nine musicians. CTM is exploring ways to broaden its impact, too, according to artistic director Brian Cowing. This fall, the organization offered a “Theater for the Very Young” production designed for core audience members between ages 2 and 5. It was such a success, he adds, that more will be offered in 2025.
Music Theatre of Madison, which has often staged performances at the UW Memorial Union’s Play Circle, is “looking at different venues and how we can begin to incorporate outreach back into our offerings, as we were doing before the pandemic,” says executive director Meghan Randolph. Madison Opera has extended its reach with the addition of more online content and a series of in-person recitals by singers in the company’s Studio Artist Program designed to showcase pre-professional performers.
MMoCA’s Rogers sums up the lingering effects of the pandemic for many organizations. “Those difficult times, coupled with the significant social justice movements of recent years, have deepened our understanding of MMoCA’s mission. These events have also underscored the essential role that art plays in helping us to interpret and understand both ourselves and each other.”
This article is part of The Nonprofit Issue, the special November 2024 print edition of Isthmus. See the other stories here.
