The rules were clear for the Colorado arts groups applying for funds through the federal government’s economic stimulus plan: Each grant had to be tied to an actual job. Real positions had to be created or preserved directly with the money.
When the grants were announced last week, 47 arts groups made the cut, splitting a total of $568,040 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Their promise is to keep 313 people gainfully employed either by preserving workers laid off or threatened, or by restoring reduced positions to full-time.
For the organizations that received grants, the cash infusion means keeping valued programs running. For the employees who keep their spots on the payroll, it means maintaining regular paychecks. Here’s a look at four of them and why their employers believe their work is crucial.
Jim Denton, technical director, Su Teatro
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At the planning meeting before every play goes into production, artistic director Anthony J. Garcia razzes technical director Jim Denton by sliding him a piece of paper and saying, “This is your budget.”
It always has a big zero on it. For lights. For sound. For everything that gives a play its technical sophistication.
Jim Denton has been on Su Teatro’s team full-time for 14 months, but his position was in danger before the call went out for applications to President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Su Teatro won by far the largest grant among 47 Colorado arts organizations — $33,040. Denton’s annual salary.
“When Tony applied, he said, ‘We’re going to save your job,” said Denton, 23. “This makes me ecstatic.”
Part of the application process was proving the jobs that would be restored or preserved by the stimulus money were essential.
“Art is to society as my job is to theater,” Denton said. “People wouldn’t miss either one – until they are gone.”
Preserving jobs in the arts, he said, is just as vital as in other industries like construction. “It’s basic, and it’s good,” he said. But he knows some won’t see equivalence.
“They don’t believe it if they don’t see it,” he said. “They can see a highway. They know that it was put there by a man who was paid. But you can’t drive past a theater and see what was made there.”
You have to go inside and see.
In all, nine Colorado theater companies will receive grants totaling $126,000. Each grant has an actual human being attached.
At Curious Theatre, it’s Community Affairs Manager Mare Trevathan. Her hours had been cut from 20 per week to 10 last year, and now will be restored thanks to a $21,000 grant.
Her job is to plant and cultivate positive relationships in the community, and to develop partnerships with other theater companies. It’s not technically a revenue-generating position, said Curious founder Chip Walton. It’s a fulfillment of a founding principle for any nonprofit organization.
To be without her, he said, “would be a recipe for disaster.”
Trevathan, and many others in her position, had heard there might be stimulus funds coming to save the day, but five months of waiting had forced them to make contingencies.
“I planned my year as if this was not going to happen,” she said. “Now that it has, it’s just … excellent gravy.”
John Moore; photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post
Kathy Beeck, director, Boulder International Film Festival
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Dedication is a hard thing to put a price tag on. After all, Kathy Beeck admits she would have had a wrenching time walking away from the Boulder International Film Festival, which she and her sister, Robin, founded.
So the festival director offers another way to grasp the value of her position: She raises money, making her worth a lot more than the $10,000 the Colorado Council on the Arts gave to the fest’s parent organization, the Colorado Film Society, to keep her on.
“We just nailed a new gold-level sponsor,” Beeck says.
With corporate sponsorship down, she says, the $25,000 commitment from Premiere Credit Union is more than a boon. It’s a sign of how pivotal Beeck’s job is.
Sister Robin is responsible for the butts-in-the-seats programming. Kathy Beeck’s fiscal efforts ensure there are actual seats and theaters and rooms for filmmakers.
She’s in charge of sponsorships, marketing and publicity. Beeck also heads perhaps the most vital operation at any film fest: its volunteer force. BIFF has two paid staffers and more than 200 volunteers.
“We’re a lean and mean organization,” she says.
Evidently not so mean. In late August, indie film mag MovieMaker named the Boulder event “one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals.”
Lisa Kennedy; photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post
Claudia Moran, education director, Museo de Las Americas
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Claudia Moran faces a daunting task each year, regardless of her job’s financial resources.
As education director at the Museo de Las Americas for the past three years, she has been responsible for teaching school kids through workshops and tours that expose them to the Museo’s unique Latin American cultural treasures.
“There were two full-time positions in the education department, but unfortunately, with the recession the director needed to cut one and make me part time,” Moran said. “It really complicates things because we are teaching between 25,000 and 30,000 kids a year, and we would have had to cut half our education programs.”
The Denver-based Museo was one of the 47 arts nonprofits to get a chunk of the federal recovery funds. Granted, the $24,000 the Museo garnered is only 4 percent of the larger $568,040 recently doled out to arts organizations, but it’s enough to keep Moran on full time at $30,000 per year and enough to bring back the community-research position.
“I was really sad because education is always one of the first things to go when you see (organizations) affected like this,” said Moran, 33. “I know everybody is trying to keep their jobs, but community education is one of the most important things a museum can do.”John Wenzel; photo by Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post
Kathy Brantigan, executive director, the Denver Brass
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As the bottom was dropping out and the bubble was bursting last fall, ticket sales for the Denver Brass were holding steady. But then March and April 2009 happened.
“It was then when we realized that every single grant we’d written since the previous October had fallen through,” said Kathy Brantigan, executive director of the popular ensemble.
Panic mode for Brantigan meant less money — and more programming. After cutting her own salary by 33 percent, from $45,000 annually to $30,000, she announced pay cuts for her staff (10 percent) and musicians (5 percent). And then she added more shows.
“We’re taking a different approach than most arts groups,” said Brantigan. “We’re expanding our family offerings and lowering ticket prices.”
Roughly 45 of the 200 Denver Brass shows in 2008 were self-produced; in 2009, 55 will be, Brantigan estimates. It’s a unique strategy, but she has faith. It helps that her salary has been restored, thanks to a $17,200 grant administered through the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs.
“I have a strong sense that people really want to be entertained and smile and surround themselves with the bright side of humanity,” said Brantigan. “It’s our job to make it easier for them to do that.” Ricardo Baca; photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post
The stimulus grants: Who gets what?
Here are the 47 Colorado nonprofit arts organizations that will receive $568,040 in federal recovery funds to preserve or restore 313 salaried and contract positions as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grants were administered by the Colorado Council on the Arts,
the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the Western States Arts Federation.
Western States Arts Federation grant:
El Centro Su Teatro, Denver, $33,040
Denver Office of Cultural Affairs grants:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, $25,000
Museo de las Américas, Denver, $24,000
Curious Theatre Company, Denver, $21,000
Denver Art Museum, $20,000
Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Denver, $20,000
The Denver Brass, $17,200
Denver Botanic Gardens, $16,640
ArtReach, Denver, $12,000
Chicano Humanities & Arts Council, Denver, $12,000
PHAMALY (Physically Handicapped Actors & Musical Artists League), Denver, $12,000
Friends of ArtStreet, Denver, $10,660
Mizel Arts and Culture Center, Denver, $10,000
Colorado Chamber Players, Denver, $8,500
Harmony A Colorado Chorale, Denver, $8,500
The Spirituals Project, Denver, $7,500
Colorado Council on the Arts grants:
Adams State College, Alamosa, $10,000
Anderson Ranch Arts Foundation, Snowmass Village, $10,000
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, $10,000
Bas Bleu Theatre Company, Fort Collins, $10,000
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, $10,000
Bravo! Colorado at Vail-Beaver Creek Inc., $10,000
City of Longmont Museum, $10,000
Colorado Children’s Chorale, Denver, $10,000
Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, Wheat Ridge, $10,000
Colorado Film Society, Boulder, $10,000
Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra, $10,000
Colorado Symphony Association, Denver, $10,000
Creede Repertory Theatre, $10,000
Delta Montrose Youth Services, Inc., $10,000
Denver March Powwow, Inc., $10,000
Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, $10,000
Durango Latino Education Coalition, $10,000
Fort Lewis College Theatre, Durango, $10,000
Gunnison Council for the Arts, $10,000
Imagination Makers, Boulder, $10,000
International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, Denver, $10,000
Koshare Indian Museum, Inc., La Junta, $10,000
PlatteForum, Denver, $10,000
Rocky Mountain Children’s Choir, Denver, $10,000
Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, Colorado Springs, $10,000
San Juan Symphony, Durango, $10,000
Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Boulder, $10,000
TheatreWorks, Colorado Springs, $10,000
Vail Jazz Foundation, Inc., $10,000
Western Colorado Center for the Arts, Grand Junction, $10,000
YMCA of Boulder Valley, $10,000
