A trio of arts organizations from New London and Norwich celebrated Wednesday the state grants they received to help them through their pandemic-induced financial struggles — even as they spoke about ongoing difficulties and ways they have had to pivot.

The leaders of the Garde Arts Center and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, both in New London, and of Artreach in Norwich spoke at a virtual news conference held by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz. It followed on the heels of a similar virtual news conference earlier this month focusing on the grant that went to Goodspeed Musicals.

The news conferences highlighted the grants given out through the state’s COVID Relief Fund for the Arts, which supports local arts organizations in the face of the pandemic’s destructive impact.

All told, 154 nonprofit arts organizations in Connecticut received a total of $9 million in grants through this program. The list of organizations and individual grant totals were announced in November.

The Garde Arts Center is receiving $182,800; ECSO, $56,700; and Artreach, $9,400.

While everyone from these organizations expressed deep gratitude for the grants, they and government officials also made clear that the financial challenges are ongoing.

Bysiewicz said, “This funding is critical literally to keeping the lights on for these arts organizations and helping them to keep people employed and on their payrolls. Because you can't raise money, you can’t offer programs, even if they’re virtual, without people. ... We know that it’s not enough and that it’s not a permanent solution, but it is a start.”

Garde Executive Director Steve Sigel said the grant money “really is to make up for the expenses or skeletal operations that have been incurred since the pandemic. This is not money that allows us to do more than we’ve been doing. For most of us, this is catch-up money that allows us to take another breath to get through the remaining months of our closure.”

Losing 60% of their income 

Caleb Bailey, executive director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, said the grant has helped the ECSO give its musicians some pay during a year when those musicians have seen 60% of their income disappear.

Funding for musicians is the ECSO’s biggest expense in a normal year and, Bailey said, “They’ve also suffered the most out of the artists that we are in contact with because their very job, their lifeform, is to gather around a lot of their peers — 60 to 70 peers — and then play to a theater of 1,200 people. In pandemic times, that just sounds like a nightmare almost because of how packed they have to be onstage.”

The ECSO has pivoted in various ways since March. It turned its Music in Schools program to Music in Homes, with musicians recording videos at home that are then sent to schools. The ECSO created an outdoor concert series of very small ensembles. The latter helped ECSO establish new partnerships with the various venues where those ensembles performed. The ECSO also recently recorded its musicians at home playing “Sleigh Ride,” with the resulting video going up on its YouTube page.

As the coronavirus vaccine becomes more readily available, arts leaders are optimistic that audiences will return, but Bailey also noted that arts patrons tend to be older and more at risk.

“There may be a lag effect in when people actually start coming back to the arts in full force as we’re used to seeing them. So we’re preparing for that. ... There needs to be some more stopgaps in the way of funding from either the state or federal government to help us get through the spring and try to bounce back to whatever the new normal is going to be,” he said.

Critical to the economy

During the news conference, officials emphasized that the arts are vital to Connecticut’s economy. Bysiewicz said that they create more than 57,000 jobs. The arts and culture sector of the economy is about 5% of the state’s GDP. And the arts generate more than $9 billion in economic activity in the state every year.

“Arts organizations are also very critical to our vibrant downtowns and to bringing people into our downtown areas, and they’re critical for attracting tourists from outside of our state. ... They bring people to our restaurants and to our retail establishments, as well. We know that the pandemic has presented some huge challenges for theaters, most of whom have had a 99% drop in their ticket sales and their revenue,” Bysiewicz said, adding that that is why she and other officials were thrilled to announce these grants.

New London Mayor Michael Passero offered his perspective, saying, “I can’t tell you what this (grant) means for New London because so much of our local economy and identity hinges on the arts and cultural sector. ... (During the pandemic), we’ve lost so much of what our lifestyle represents here in New London and really what drives our economy.”

He said that having these institutions strong coming out of the pandemic means everything to the city’s economy and to the cultural life of the region.

As for the Garde in New London, Sigel said the venue is, in many ways, the regional town green, a county convention center. It brings together many diverse communities not just for the arts but for things such as political debates, social education programs and school assemblies. 

Garde and Artreach

Sigel said that arts institutions have always been struggling in a way, always looking for new ways to get new programs to new audiences. He noted one upside of the pandemic, though: The Garde, like the ECSO, has been partnering more with other institutions during this period.

As for Artreach, Executive Director Rebecca Atkins noted that the organization focuses on arts and health, particularly mental health, and said, “Right now, I feel like people who perhaps did not understand how important the arts are for maintaining your wellness and your well-being are really getting it.”

Artreach is a small agency, and the grant is helping it keep its employees. Atkins said it took a risk less than a year before the pandemic to double staff from two to four; “That’s a pretty big leap for an agency of our size.”

Artreach provides performing arts opportunities and classes for low-income adults who have mental health issues. When the organization had to shift offerings online because of the pandemic, it had to get laptops to its low-income adults and teach them how to use the computers.

Emma Palzere-Rae, associate director of Artreach, spoke about how the group’s Second Step Players has been working on a new comedy titled “Stir Crazy.” There were writing sessions and auditions on Zoom, and the production will go public in January.

$34 million in private donations

Qualifying organizations for the COVID Relief Fund for the Arts include performing arts centers, arts schools and performing groups, and they each got a base grant of $5,000. If an organization raised money on its own between March 10 and Nov. 1 of this year, the program would provide them with a supplemental match of up to 50% of that total.

Bysiewicz noted that this program helped to generate an additional $34 million in private donations and pledges. “So, this truly was a collaboration between the private sector, the federal government, our state government and our arts organizations across the state,” she said.

The money for the grants comes from the federal CARES Act funding from the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund.

k.dorsey@theday.com