You don't know what you got til it's gone

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone…” Joni Mitchell

I apologize for the lack of fresh copy from this blog for the past two months, as it’s been a busy time at The Music Settlement, and other priorities have jumped up to crowd blog writing off of my to-do list. Curiously, my lack of output has not been greeted by a great wailing and gnashing of teeth from the ether-world demanding new posts, but I will soldier on nevertheless and attempt to get back on track with more regular entries.

This week I noticed a story on the website of Americans for the Arts - www.americansforthearts.org , a national association of organizations and individuals advocating for quality arts and culture throughout our society - concerning the relative vigor of the arts industry in the face of the recession from which we hope we will soon emerge. The article concerned an update to Americans for the Arts’ annual appraisal of the health and vitality of the arts industry in America, the National Arts Index. The NAI was designed to measure a variety of socio-economic factors that indicate the success of arts and culture as economic engines of vitality and innovation in relation to the greater economy. The headline of the story was “Vitality of the Arts Industry Hits 12-Year Low.” Uh-oh….

As I read the article, it became apparent that what many of us know to be true locally is certainly true nationally - that the past four years have been very difficult for the arts in general and nonprofit arts in particular. Several NAI findings jumped out at me: the vitality of the arts sector dropped 6.2 points since the onset of the current recession, cutting in half the gains made from 2003-2007 and dropping a record 3.6 points in 2009 alone. Some notable results of this drop are that in 2008, 41% of nonprofit arts organizations reporting to the IRS failed to achieve a balanced budget, and that total public spending on the arts dropped almost 5% in relation to all expenditures. In addition, overall philanthropic giving to the arts during this period was down in relation to the past by $2.5 billion nationally.

Conversely, the number of college arts degrees conferred annually over the past decade has risen steadily from 75,000 to 127,000, and the percentage of individuals personally participating in or volunteering to support the arts has jumped by 11.6 %. During that same period, SAT results indicate that the high school-aged population interested in pursuing employment in the arts has risen from 15% to 20%. One additional dynamic to consider is, paradoxically, that the number of nonprofit institutions grew by 3,000 over the period of 2007 to 2009.

What does all this mean? It means that nonprofit arts organizations are currently trying to meet equal or greater demand with fewer resources and, in some cases, greater competition. It means that the margin for error is much smaller than even five years ago and the sustainability gap for this sector is widening. At the same time, the NAI indicates that enthusiasm for employment and service in the arts is growing and, to me, it seems critical that this development should not be blunted. The nonprofit arts sector needs to be able to support the next generation of creative artists and administrators, especially in a time when innovation can be the difference between success and failure.

Yes, that’s a lot of statistics and scenarios, but in every community there are real stories and examples that illustrate this same situation in our backyard. We’ve certainly had our share in the Cleveland area. A significant number of valuable arts and culture organizations have folded up their tents and several appear on the verge of doing so. Many programs designed to deliver quality arts experiences to our community are being scaled-back or suspended, and many funding sources have had to reduce or redirect support away from arts and culture-related projects.

At The Music Settlement, we have remained active and committed to our community partners and outreach efforts by inviting independent arts organizations to share our campus and administrative resources, in an effort to provide a more comprehensive experience for our community and preserve grassroots creative assets. We’ve also worked hard to stay within our means while strengthening our offerings, which is not an easy thing to do when many of efforts involve ramping up technology and communication methods.

In the past three years, The Music Settlement has been a primary partner in the development of a new comprehensive online registration and operating system for community schools of the arts. We have created a flourishing new American music and jazz curriculum in our Department of Music that has been chosen as a featured partner of the Berklee College of Music’s City Music national network. We have added new program offerings, such as post-stroke rehabilitation services in Music Therapy, and “Music, Math, and Movement” and Mandarin Chinese studies in Early Childhood Education. We’ve continued our commitment to supporting and producing academic-level research in the departments of Music Therapy and Early Childhood. At the same time, we have nearly doubled our financial aid resources and introduced innovative service options to better meet the greater demands of our students and their families. During this time we have not only hosted a variety of interns and students who seek future employment in the arts, but we have also hired them and created opportunities for them to keep their innovative ideas and energy right here in our community.

I believe that when the dust clears from the economic downturn or the “great recession” (or whatever it is we are living through right now), one of Northeast Ohio’s strongest contributors to recovery will prove to be the arts and culture sector. The Music Settlement will continue to be a part of that story, as it has been for more than 98 years and running.