Photo credit: Mike Miller
Florentine Opera: The Marriage of Figaro
Last year, the Milwaukee Ballet opened its new Baumgartner Center for Dance in the Third Ward with a crowd of distinguished onlookers watching as the mayor and county executive cut the ribbon. This fall, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) was scheduled to open the Bradley Symphony Center in the rehabbed space once called the Warner Grand Theater. The MSO’s old home, the Marcus Performing Arts Center, laid ambitious plans for varied and community-oriented programming once its anchor tenant had departed.
The performing arts were on a roll in Milwaukee until COVID-19 struck the Midwest. Although some of the city’s smaller groups improvise their performance schedules month to month, for the larger companies, planning a season involves coordinating schedules and logistics on a scale comparable to a military operation. Especially when productions involve out-of-town directors and cast, programmers are faced with assembling a season from a puzzle of possibilities.
In the early days of the pandemic, postponements were often counted out in months, but as COVID spiked again, many Milwaukee companies are reaching for their 2021 calendars in the hope of resuming after a vaccine is available.
Museums and art galleries are having an easier time. They can institute reasonable protocols involving advance ticket sales, physical distancing—even regrouping prime pieces of their permanent collections for easier viewing. But not unlike restaurants, the limits of accommodation mean fewer visitors and less revenue.
Hard Numbers
Theater, dance and classical music are on the same track as rock and hip-hop performers; their venues face the same challenges as the Pabst Theater or Shank Hall. Sure, audience members can wear masks, but how to seat them at safe distance in confined halls for an hour or more? And what about the performers? Rigoletto with masks on? Many groups have been innovative, turning to multi-media events whose performers Zoom together from their homes. I had the privilege of participating as a talking head in Present Music’s recent “Sounds of Silents” virtual evening. It was fun, but it was not the same as being there.
The quality of life provided by Milwaukee’s vibrant and growing arts scene over the past quarter-century has been a factor in transforming our city from a Rust Belt casualty into a destination—not only for tourists but as an attractive place to live for young professionals. And for the fiscally minded, distrustful of fuzzy-talk about creativity and lifestyles, there are hard numbers to contemplate. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that cultural activities added $10.1 billion to Wisconsin’s economy in 2017, accounting for 3.1% of the state’s GDP, higher than hotels and food services (2.4%). In that same year, 96,651 Wisconsinites were employed part or full time in the cultural sector, according to a report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
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Those are the good statistics. The bad numbers arrived with the virus, triggering an unemployment rate of 33.9% among people employed in arts, entertainment and recreation in the state. The 13 Milwaukee organizations supported by the United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF) cancelled a combined total of 483 performances this spring. Alarmingly, another 1,090 shows could be cancelled in the 2020-2021 season.
In recent years, Wisconsin has been the begrudging Ebenezer Scrooge of Midwestern states, treating performing arts groups like Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve. In 2020, the Wisconsin Arts Board doled out $770,000 to arts groups compared to the Minnesota board’s donation of $41 million. But despite the Policy Forum’s estimate that Wisconsin ranks last in the nation for state funding on a per-capita basis, Milwaukee has experienced a cultural renaissance in recent years, led not only by larger companies such as the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Florentine Opera, but also by a host of young people determined to make a mark here in Milwaukee rather than to follow the creative brain drain that once was characteristic of our city. As the Policy Forum’s recent report puts it, the availability of cultural activities contributes to our “quality of life and helps ensure the state can attract and retain both businesses and talent.” One question remains: Does the GOP-controlled legislature care?
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