Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • November 27, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 11 FOCUS Bank deposit, transaction banking services, and lending products and services are provided by Santander Bank, National Association ("Santander Bank, N.A." or "Santander"), a Member FDIC. Services such as securities underwriting and securities sales and trading are provided by Santander Investment Securities Inc., a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. This material does not constitute an o„ er to sell or a solicitation of an o„ er to buy any investment product. Important Investor Information: Brokerage products are: • Not FDIC Insure • Not Bank Guaranteed • Not A Deposit • Not Insured By Any Federal Government Agency • May Lose Value. Santander Bank, N.A. is a Member FDIC. ©2017 Santander Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Santander, Santander Bank and the Flame Logo are trademarks of Banco Santander, S.A. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. 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Students from elementary school through college visit to take the new interactive tour, which connects Stowe's life and 19th-century issues to things that are relevant today. The "Stowe to Go" pro- gram goes to schools, community centers and libraries facilitating conversations that bring young people together to talk about topics affecting them. At the annual Student Stowe Prize event, we honor one high school and one college student writing for social change. The win- ning students will receive their award at the Big Tent Jubilee in June. We are accept- ing applications until Feb. 2. And, of course, the Stowe Center is ac- tive on social media. Q. The Stowe Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018. Are there any special events planned? A. Founded by preservationist Katha- rine Seymour Day, Stowe's grandniece, the Stowe House opened in 1968, a year of turmoil around the world. It was one of the first museums centered on a woman. In 2018, after 50 years of public service, the Stowe Center has a lot to celebrate. We'll be announcing details soon. Q. What's the biggest challenge the next Stowe Center executive director will have to deal with? A. Museums are not repositories for old ideas and objects, they are vibrant community anchors helping people un- derstand how history informs today and shape a positive future. Stowe Center programs are more meaningful than ever, providing direc- tion for people who want to be civically engaged. With cultural fragmentation, things that were once bipartisan are now divisive. We present multiple perspectives and encourage critical thinking. The best way to recognize Stowe is continuing to work on issues she wrote about. Q. What do you plan to do during retire- ment? A. I'll continue my volunteer role as board chair of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) and will accept some consulting invitations. And I look forward to interesting travel and time with family and friends. "Forty-six years ago, our founder put the parade in Hartford," said Eileen K. Moore, a member of the Central Con- necticut Celtic Cultural Committee, which organizes the event. "And we want it to remain in Hartford, and it will remain (there)," including this coming March. But making sure the parade happens has become a more difficult task. The parade costs up to $90,000 to put on, including nearly $60,000 for police and other staffing support. In previous years, the city subsidized a large portion of those expenses. In fiscal 2017, most of that support was cut. "They just don't have [the money] and we're cognizant of that and we under- stand that," said Moore, the parade chair. In 2017, the parade did receive $25,000 from a special transition fund adopted by the city council. The West Indian Day Festival and Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz also re- ceived some of that special funding, which is not expected to be available moving forward, a city official said. This year the parade committee also had to raise about $17,000 from local businesses. Concepcion helped with the outreach ef- fort and local business owners like Johnny Vaughan, owner of Vaughan's Public House on Pratt Street, also rallied support. "Bar and restaurant owners downtown are a very tightknit and strong group," Moore said. While organizers were successful in drum- ming up sponsorship money, Moore admits she worries about the sustainability of that model, particularly for an event that she de- scribes as a "unique niche" and perhaps not a good fit for some potential donors. "We rely on smaller businesses, which are also tapped out," she said. "The risk is always there that they may just not have that extra cash in the budget to give to us. It's always going to be a crapshoot." Fireworks, cultural events Nonprofit Riverfront Recapture, which puts on myriad Hartford events, has also had to deal with funding cuts. In fact, the group's annual Riverfront Fireworks festival on the Connecticut River was scrubbed in 2016 after the city and East Hartford cut off financial aid. The fireworks made a comeback this year, said Riverfront Recapture CEO Mike Zaleski, thanks to support from various individual and corporate donors like Travelers, Mohe- gan Sun and Hartford Steam Boiler. A grant from the "Summer in the City" program, which was funded by United Technologies Corp. and administered by the Greater Hartford Arts Council, also helped. Zaleski said Riverfront Recapture, which operates a $3.2 million annual bud- get, 37 percent of which is from donations and grants, has had to figure out ways to cut costs without city support, which used to pay for police and fire services. This year's fireworks display, for ex- ample, operated with a $155,000 budget, down from $200,000 a year earlier. "We worked hard to rework the event to decrease costs," Zaleski said. "The Hartford Police Department and East Hartford Po- lice Department were especially helpful in crafting a public safety plan that decreased costs but maintained public safety." Tightening municipal and state budgets and a changing corporate landscape have made funding events more difficult, Zaleski admits. Events, large and small, are feeling the pressure and some, including a couple Riverfront events, have not continued. Other Riverfront Recapture events include the Riverfront Dragon Boat and Asian Festival and the Taste of the Carib- bean and Jerk Festival. Zaleski said there is still strong busi- ness community support to prop up events, which benefit the economy. "These companies understand the importance of supporting local organiza- tions and the events that enhance our quality of life in the region," Zaleski said. Mayor Luke Bronin said he's been pleased to see the private support for cultural events. He's even helped whip up some of that funding. He also acknowl- edged it's a model that likely should have been adopted sooner. "I think this probably is how it should have been all along," Bronin said. "(These events) should have the capacity to be privately sustainable and attract private investment, and they've shown the ability to do that."

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