On July 6, The Denver Post published about the Denver County Cultural Council’s decision not to fund Germinal Stage-Denver with Scientific and Cultural Facilities District monies for 2009. Here is a sampling of some reader response:
John,
Thanks for an excellent article. A few additional thoughts regarding Germinal Stage-Denver’s zero funding by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District:
Public funding of the arts comes about through two very simple impulses. 1) The public indicates through legislation its desire to fund its artists with tax money. 2) The not-for-profit artist indicates a desire to be funded.
This is a very straightforward relationship. However, the relationship has to be “administered,” and this is where controversy occurs. This administration can be very simple or very complicated. Granting boards are set up, staff is hired, application criteria and forms are developed. In the best situations, granting boards rightly consider themselves a necessary but preferably invisible buffer between public and artist, seeking to facilitate the granting process by staying out of its way. In the worst situations, boards and staff love to get in the way, considering themselves judges of who should or should not be funded, attempting to justify their existence by creating ever more complicated and bizarre hoops for artists to jump through. Often they use a social agenda to instruct the artist as to how he must behave.
Most responsible artists bridle at being told how to behave – and this leads either to artistic compromise or to revolution.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 40 years in Denver theater, whether dealing with the NEA, the Colorado Council on the Arts, The Mayor’s Commission on Cultural Affairs, or the SCFD, it’s that when the compromises the artist is called upon to make become unbearable, he must be prepared to tighten his belt and do without public grants.
Now, to two specific points regarding your article:
1) The interview meetings between the applicant organizations and the Denver County Cultural Council are optional. In fact, in past years when I have attended these meetings my grant amount has been reduced. We received the most money when I did not attend to answer questions.
2) Our 2008 application was NOT “incomplete,” as the Denver County Cultural Council representative you interviewed erroneously stated. Rather, as we have in past applications, we answered questions of collaboration, outreach, educational programs, and inclusiveness honestly, but in a way that was judged unsatisfactory by the members of the council.
Ed Baierlein, Germinal Stage-Denver
Mr. Moore,
I’ve always thought of Germinal Stage as a true North Denver treasure, and have been rewarded by each visit. And Ed Baierlein does just what he does, presenting fine theater. From 1996 until 2004, I served on the Denver County Cultural Council, the board for Denver’s Tier III level of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District; I am no longer on that board and am writing in no official capacity.
There are three levels of SCFD – Tier I, for five big organizations; Tier II, for a smaller group of still-large organizations, and Tier III, for the smallest organizations. The Tier I group has its set of rules; the Tier II group has its set of rules.
Part of the genius of SCFD is its recognition that each of its seven counties has its own unique character and needs, and so, each county has its own Tier III process and protocol. One county might promote special events, one might focus on music, one might say that our schools are in a funding crisis and so choose to support cultural programming for school kids. That’s their choice, their right, their responsibility to the citizens of their county and to the councils and commissions that appointed them.
They each post their guidelines, and eligible organizations decide to apply for funds, or not, as they choose. Denver has always used a point system. It has always sought performance in a wide spectrum of areas. It has never tried to judge artistic merit; that is the job of critics. It’s a grant program. Some grants fund fish habitat, some fund arctic research, some fund scientific and cultural organizations. Some grant applications are stronger than others.
Unlike most other granting organizations, the Denver County Cultural Council invites applicants to come in person to answer any questions the board might have about the application. Showing up to answer any questions is optional. Your column indicates that Germinal’s application was “incomplete,” and that Ed did not take advantage of the opportunity to answer questions about it.
Next year, he may turn in an application that is more complete, and he may want to attend the review session in case there are any questions. But, your call for lock-step conformity in all Tier IIIs misses the mark, I think. If each county must have the same guidelines, regardless of community needs, then why did the voters approve three tiers? Why not just lump the Tier IIIs into the second tier, and have one metro-wide board dictate the apportionment of every dollar, based on their metro-wide knowledge of every cultural institution and community? I believe, instead, our strength is in our diversity.
Geoffrey Hunt, Denver
Dear Mr. Moore,
I am a huge fan of your work and always read your Sunday theater column first as well as your reviews. This is the first time I feel compelled to write to you following your story about SCFD and rejection of Germinal Stage as a recipient.
We have been admirers of Ed and Sallie since their days at their Market Street location pre-LoDo and their move to northwest Denver. Sometimes we have left the Germinal Stage productions shaking our heads, knowing that we did not “get” the message of the play. However, we continue to attend his productions as we are able and want very much to protest this decision by SCFD.
If this spells the demise of Germinal Stage in these difficult economic times, it will be a huge loss for the Denver community. Ed’s standards and literate choices raise the quality of theater and public discourse in Denver. We need to hear his voice.
To whom should we send a letter? It is probably a fait accompli but we still feel that our voices should be heard as we are active supporters of SCFD and think that it is a travesty to deny funds to Germinal Stage. Thank you for making us aware of this situation. I hope there is a groundswell of support for Germinal Stage, but I know that in this sound-bite age and dumbing down of our population – this decision may go unnoticed except for your publication of the information.
Thank you.
Kent and Susan Oakes
Mr. Moore,
I was distressed to learn that Germinal Stage-Denver will not receive funding from the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District this year. Apparently, out of some $35 million to be distributed in 2008, SCFD could not squeeze out a little less than $10,000 for one of Denver’s most respected theatrical venues.
The reason? Not because Germinal Stage has lost its commitment to performing arts since its founding in 1974. Its productions are as sharp as ever. Not because Ed Baierlein, Sallie Diamond and others who have kept the theater alive have operated Germinal Stage inefficiently. Their website makes it clear that they have gone above and beyond the call to be financially responsible and compensate their actors and backstage folks fairly. Not because Germinal Stage has failed to connect to the community. Again, their website provides numerous examples of how Germinal Stage has reached out beyond its facility. No, SCFD has changed the rules with its “point” system. Now, Germinal Stage must demonstrate activity that appears to be outside of its core mission, under new rules that are open to fuzzy, subjective criteria.
Germinal Stage is a theater, not a social service agency, but SCFD seemingly would like it to behave more like the latter.
Jack Farrar, Denver
Mr. Moore.
Your article conflated two different issues: the decision of the Denver County Cultural Council not to fund Germinal Stage-Denver this year, and uniform funding guidelines for small arts groups (Tier III) in all seven counties of the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
Germinal Stage-Denver is a Denver County organization, and the funding decision is up to the Denver County Cultural Council. Funding guidelines in any other county are entirely irrelevant to that issue. While I agree that different funding guidelines can be confusing for organizations that apply for grants from more than one county, I completely missed the reasoning that led The Post to conclude that uniform guidelines would have helped Ed Baierlein and Geminal Stage-Denver.
For the record, I serve on the Arapahoe County Cultural Council (although I speak only for myself), and my husband and I are longtime fans of Ed Baierlein and Germinal Stage-Denver.
Linda Berry, Aurora
Mr. Moore,
If Germinal is one of 10 Teir III arts organizations denied funding this year – it would seem to me that the criteria the committee is making their decisions on is stacked against smaller organizations (not just Germinal Stage). Which is sad – as they are the organizations whose livelihoods most depend on public funding. Larger organizations can command more private donors and corporate sponsors.
A.R.
Mr. Moore,
I read with great interest your article. The timing of the story was ironic, as my husband and I were just discussing an issue today that we wanted to bring before the organization. But from your description, it sounds like that will be no easy task.
We have been going to the concert series at the Botanic Gardens for years now. With each ensuing year, it has become more and more of a financial hardship to enjoy the unique setting and special artists that the venue attracts.
Each year, the Botanic Gardens has made it harder for ordinary people to obtain tickets, by offering the first days of the on-sale to those who hold memberships. We understand that logic, and the importance of supporting the facility, so each year we have purchased a membership at a level that we can afford (“Family Plus,” at $160), and one that allows us to buy tickets within the first few days they go on sale.
While we have been fortunate to obtain tickets to the shows we want to see up to now, the Botanic Gardens has continued upping the ante. It seems that over the past few years, the on-sale date for “Family Plus” has been pushed back/ (I think we had to wait until the third day of ticket sales this year.) It’s also a crapshoot, because you have to renew your membership before you see the lineup for the year.
This year, there was only one show that we had even the slightest interest in seeing. Had we been able to learn in advance of the lineup, we would have purchased a lower membership level and taken our chances in securing tickets.
When we attended the one show we planned for this year, we followed our typical M.O. for a Botanic Gardens concert, which is to show up an hour before gates to secure the seating locale we prefer. However, when we got inside the venue, we were astonished to see it at least three-quarters full with people who clearly had been inside for some time. (They were fully set up, enjoying their picnics and wine.) We had to struggle to find a place to sit, and were nearly forced to watch the show from behind the stage, despite waiting in line an hour before the gates opened.
We learned that those who purchase membership at the highest levels are now allowed into the venue early, along with their guests. They have special parking privileges and enter through a special gate, which gives them a decided advantage over the rest of the ticket-holders. So apparently, if one wants to see the acts (rather than their rear ends), one must purchase a membership in the neighborhood of $1,000 or more. That is simply not affordable for our family of three, even though we have a good household income.
It seems to me that a facility that enjoys taxpayer support at the SCFD Tier I level should not be able to turn a family concert series into something that only the elite among us can enjoy. I could understand offering special privileges to the highest membership levels for one or two shows during the year, but the new rules apply to all shows. It seems the Botanic Gardens is no longer interested in the “rank and file” of Denver having the ability to enjoy these special shows.
If you look around the crowd, it is reflective of their values: No diversity, either culturally or economically. If the SCFD is truly interested in diversity and community service as strong qualifiers for funding, I think they would be interested to learn of the deteriorating audience situation at Botanic Gardens concerts. Rich white folks have plenty of options for entertainment around Denver. The average taxpayers whose dollars support the operating of the Botanic Gardens are left out in the cold when it comes to enjoying one of their most special offerings.
I have spoken to others who are equally disillusioned. Hudson Gardens is becoming the new “it” venue for summer picnic shows, as they seem to cater to all their supporters equally.
Can you recommend a strategy for me to express my dismay over this situation? I would appreciate any feedback you have for me, as well as any recommendations for steps to take I plan to pursue this issue as far as possible.
Best,
Anne Smith, Littleton
