Performing arts groups use personal sponsorships to build bridges ...

Art needs money and money needs art.

Money allows the arts to flourish. Art allows wealth to be a positive cultural force.

It?s a relationship you can trace to, well, to the invention of money itself.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, for example, has ancient funereal statuary and monumental sculptures that are thousands of years old. And it?s a safe bet that they were underwritten by someone with access to large numbers of Babylonian shekels, Greek drachmas or Roman sesterces.

Performing arts organizations in Kansas City are largely funded by our local equivalent of the Medici banking dynasty of Renaissance Italy ? foundations, corporations and wealthy private donors ? but there?s another option available to people with means and an urge to help the arts: personal sponsorships.

Open a program for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City or Kansas City Repertory Theatre and you?ll see that many of the actors, singers and perhaps even directors and designers have been sponsored by individuals. Often the sponsors are on the organization?s board, but not always. It?s a way for donors and artists to rub elbows, enjoy some private time with performers and get to know one another as human beings over lunch or dinner.

Denyce Graves, an internationally famed mezzo-soprano, will make her Kansas City debut in April when she appears in the Lyric Opera?s production of ?The Mikado.? But without personal sponsorships, neither she nor bass-baritone Dale Travis, who will play the title role, might be appearing at the Lyric.

Deborah Sandler, the Lyric?s new general director and CEO, said she actively pursued Graves but wasn?t sure she could meet the opera star?s fee. Sandler found a way to get her to Kansas City.

?I came here and I inherited a budget and not everything was cast and the role of Katisha was not cast,? Sandler said of plans for staging ?The Mikado.? ?So I negotiated with her agent, and we were still a little bit apart. And I wondered: What else could she do that would have a great impact on the company and the community that would allow me to go to a donor??

Sandler turned to attorney Jon Gray, a member of the Lyric board?s executive committee. Gray said he?d help sponsor Graves if she could do something substantial for young people in the community.

So Sandler decided to ask the singer to make a commitment beyond her performance. Graves agreed to conduct a master class for the company?s apprentices as well as Frost Honors Artists ? high school students showing vocal promise ? and observers from the Musical Bridges program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City?s conservatory. The program provides musical instruction to talented at-risk students in the Kansas City area.

?So that?s pretty much a win-win,? Sandler said.

Gray and his wife, Valerie Chow (who serves on the Youth Symphony board), had previously sponsored an out-of-town actor in Kansas City Rep?s production of ?Broke-ology,? and they have thrown cast parties in their home. Gray had a special interest in sponsoring Graves because she, like Graves, is African-American.

?If I want an opportunity to see people of color performing at the highest level, I need to do more than buy a ticket,? Gray said.

Chow helped found Musical Bridges, and Gray said he wanted to include kids from the program.

?We mentioned some things we hoped for in respect to Ms. Graves,? Gray said. ?We hope to meet her. But one of the things we asked for was for the Musical Bridges students to have the opportunity to, if not participate in a master class, at least be in the room to watch it.?

The Lyric?s annual budget is about $6.4 million, and sponsorships help the organization buttress the bottom line. Sandler said an individual sponsor could contribute $5,000 to $25,000 for one artist and could spend as much as $75,000 to underwrite more than one artist. Artists have been sponsored by private donors at the Lyric for at least five years.

Sandler said the money helps but it has a greater value. It?s a way to enrich relationships between the organization and its supporters.

?They are people who already have a relationship with the company, but this gives them an opportunity to forge a deeper relationship,? she said. ?And from our perspective it sometimes makes the difference between having a particular singer here or not having them.?

And if there were no sponsors?

?We?re in the business of producing opera,? Sandler said. ?It?s not that absent the sponsorships we wouldn?t do the opera. Of course we?re going to do the opera. But the more money we can raise, the higher production values the production will have.?

At Kansas City Rep, which has a budget of about $7.5 million, sponsorships for artists and others involved in the first show of the current season, ?Pippin,? came to $27,000, according to former managing director Cynthia Rider, now with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. That helps the bottom line a little, but an individual sponsorship doesn?t cover the total cost of hiring a single actor or director.

?I think there are two primary benefits,? Rider said. ?One is that it really connects philanthropy with the artists and that in turn leads to greater stability and financial support for the Rep. The other is really supporting the artists in a personal way. It?s one of the ways we can make the Rep a place for artists to do their best work.?

Eric Rosen, the Rep?s artistic director, said the sponsorships began in a small way about four years ago as part of a company plan. They?ve grown since then.

?When I got here it was a very disconnected world between the people who gave us money and those who made it work,? Rosen said. ?It?s much better than I thought it would be. We thought we?d do it for one show and see how it went. And now it?s a major board strategy.?

Rosen, like Sandler, said one of the benefits of the sponsorship program was creating a positive experience for the visiting artists, who will then spread the word about the Rep and the Lyric to their colleagues in New York and around the world.

?It sounds like a small thing, but it?s in our strategic plan, the goal of making this a more exciting experience for all of our artists, so it becomes their top choice in the future,? Rosen said.

In almost every case there?s a social event in which sponsors and artists meet face-to-face. A leisurely lunch, a late dinner, a reception at someone?s home or a visit to a Kansas City barbecue joint are all in the mix.

Elizabeth Caballero, a soprano who played the title role in the Lyric Opera?s production of ?Madama Butterfly,? said the private time is a chance for sponsors to get a sense of who the artist really is.

?It?s always nice because you can meet them and thank them in person,? said Caballero, who was sponsored by Lyric board president Richard P. Bruening and his wife. ?They ask questions about how you got started. They just want to know who you are as a person more than as a singer. They get to know you more as an individual.?

Ann Baum and husband Kenneth sponsored the Kansas City Symphony?s opening weekend this season with featured guest violinist Vadim Gluzman. After the first performance the Baums dined with Gluzman and music director Michael Stern.

?In the case of the Symphony, the most fun aspect of it is we have an intimate dinner afterwards with Michael, with Gluzman, with some of the leaders within the Symphony family,? Ann Baum said. ?It?s an opportunity to really get to know people behind the scenes in a much more intimate way.?

She said a major sponsorship could yield another benefit: inspiring others in the community to follow suit.

?I think Kenny and I would support the Symphony anyway, but it is an opportunity to lead by example,? she said. ?We all know how much money it takes from the private community to support the orchestra.?

No matter which organization you consider, the dynamics are basically the same: A small universe of donors, supporters and subscribers embraces the organization. Social relationships between the artistic leadership and the donors are integral to fundraising. Baum, for example, described Stern as a personal friend. Bunni Copaken, a Rep board member, described Rosen as a friend and attended his wedding in upstate New York last year.

Frank Byrne, the Symphony?s executive director, said donors are regularly offered opportunities to sponsor concerts or specific artists.

?This is a very common structure to connect artists and donors,? Byrne said. ?For the people who have done this for the Symphony, I think they find it particularly rewarding.?? It?s part of creating that connection.?

Sponsorships are not exclusive to the major institutions in town. Just this season Quality Hill Playhouse, the intimate downtown theater that specializes in musical revues showcasing iconic American songwriters, began offering sponsorship opportunities. They include $5,000 to sponsor one performer for one show, $15,000 for an instrumentalist for the entire season and $30,000 to cover pianist and executive director J. Kent Barnhart for a season.

Managing director Rick Truman said all five performers in the company?s inaugural show this season were sponsored.

?It connects the sponsor to both the organization and the performer in a more special way than just that person attending or that person giving to the organization,? Truman said. ?It gives them a broader awareness of what?s involved. People have said to us before, ?Do they wear their own clothes?? ?Do you rehearse a couple of days and then do the show??

?I don?t know if anybody understands anybody else?s job, even in corporate America, but in theater there is a sense of, ?Oh, you just get up there and do it.? It?s nice for them to have an appreciation of what that person does, not just in this one show, but in general to keep themselves working artists.?

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/26/4033052/sponsorships-match-money-music.html

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