Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | October 10, 2022 31 More than commercial banking. CONNECTICUT COMMERCIAL BANKING from a bank that can take your business to the next level. Call us at 860-200-2440 or visit washtrust.com/ctbusiness. Member FDIC Julia Anne M. Slom Senior Vice President, Team Leader, Commercial Real Estate Edward O. Handy III Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James M. Hagerty Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer Anthony A. Botelho Senior Vice President, Team Leader Kevin M. Hanrahan Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Thomas D. Pizzo Vice President, Market Leader, Commercial Banking Brett W. Eagleson Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Lee J. Fernandez Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Money issues That theaters are able to continue at all financially is due to the signif- icant funding offered through the federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which doled out $14.6 billion nationally to thousands of arts organizations. Connecticut arts and culture institutions collectively received $150.7 million from the program, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Bushnell received $8.7 million, while Hartford Stage received $3.8 million and TheaterWorks $472,651. The Bushnell and other arts groups were also helped by federal Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans. Fay was critical of the state's lack of support during the shutdown. "State government in Connecticut doesn't support the arts anywhere near what other states do and that is largely because we have no county government, which is the number one funder to the arts," he said. The budget for the state Office of the Arts was $3 million for all cultural and historic groups during fiscal 2022, and another $3 million for 2023. The Bushnell gets $190,000 annually in a special line item in the state budget. "My counterparts around the country running theaters of our size get between $1.5 million and $2 million a year," Fay said. "The state needs to step up and fund the arts better than they do. It's a crime." The federal funding is what kept the Bushnell and other theaters from running deficits last season, he said. "But that federal money expires at the end of this year "and then we go back to our measly $190,000 of state support," he added. "If the other [audi- ence] trends haven't gotten us back to where we were pre-pandemic, that is going to be a real problem." Outlook cloudy But for some, even getting back to pre-pandemic levels is not enough. "Pre-pandemic (ticket revenue) levels were not great for (not-for- profit theaters)," said Seery, of Yale Repertory Theatre. "None of us would be smug about coming back to that. Long before the pandemic we were talking about struggling with ticket sales. I think we have to understand what we mean to our community. We may need to mean more to them than just putting on a show. It's much more of a grassroots approach that we have to have." Without larger audiences, Rider foresees a crisis. "It's not sustainable if we can't get more ticket revenue," she said. "I think you're going to see a lot of theaters close." When asked if any Connecticut theaters will be ending their runs, she said: "I can't tell you exactly who. There's a lot of inspired work going on at all the Connecticut theaters, but you can't sustain yourself when your ticket revenue is half of what it was." Cynthia Rider is the managing director of Hartford Stage. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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