There are times when not making a profit can be a lot harder than making one.
The problems of running a non-profit business may be different, says Ken Hill, newly named president of Ballet West, but they are no less challenging. Particularly in a recession.As do all non-profit, performing arts organizations, Ballet West survives on the discretionary spending of its patrons and the largesse of the business community, both of which tend to falter when times get tough.
That means, said Hill, that managers of non-profits - always scrambling just to keep the bills paid, never mind creating and expanding - must work even harder to raise revenues and prune expenses during an economic downturn.
"It's been a revelation to me," said Hill, who retired last year after 31 years with the Salt Lake office of US WEST (formerly Mountain Bell). "In a for-profit business, you spend your time promoting the business and controlling expenses in your area. In a small organization like Ballet West, your key concern is simply meeting your payroll on a week-to-week basis."
Still, the latter is not without its rewards. For one thing, your work isn't lost in the corporate cacophony. "You get to see the effects of your efforts much quicker," he said. "You have the very rewarding feeling that you're making a difference."
But before you can make a difference, you must simply survive. Many Utahns who wouldn't dream of sacrificing a pair of Jazz tickets for a night at the ballet, symphony or opera, would be shocked if any of those institutions were to fold for lack of public support.
But just as Auerbach's, Dinwoodeys, Tracy-Collins, Bennett's and many other venerable Utah businesses are no more, the state's non-profit cultural institutions have no guarantees, either. Bad things happen to even the well established.
"The existence of any arts organization is fragile, and remains a crisis, nationally," said Hill. "We rely on the generosity of patrons and corporations, and we only need look at the loss of some major arts groups nationally, such as the folding of the Denver Symphony, to know the realities."
Ballet West depends on contributions for a third of its revenues. Major contributors include the George S. and Delores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation. The generosity of the late Glenn Walker Wallace, Utah's "First Lady of the Arts," who supported the ballet during her life and left a sizable portion of her estate to the company when she died, is also inestimable, said Hill.
"It was her gift that really saved us from going out of business," he said. "It enabled us to get our financial budgets in order."
Another third of the company's revenues come from earned revenues, mostly ticket sales, and another third from government grants.
Salaries for Ballet West's 40 dancers and 30 staffers are the largest expense for the company, even though no one pursues ballet for the money (Hill says the average dancer's salary is about $22,500 for a 40-week year). Salary costs are followed by expenses incurred in scheduling live music for its performances.
Culture is very labor-intensive. Of Ballet West's total budget of $4.3 million, $3.35 million is expended on production and artistic costs.
"A recession such as we've had the past year or two hurts, but it's my view that there is plenty of opportunity for organizations such as ours," said Hill. "But it will be based on making broader appeals to a wider range of people and businesses if we are to survive in the future."
Still, it's not all worry and anxiety for Hill, general manager Susan Barrel, artistic director John Hart and board of trustees chairman Stephen Swindle, who form the management corps for the company. Last year was the first in the past four that Ballet West has balanced its budget, thanks in part to a 26 percent increase in ticket sales. Fiscal matters are under control this year as well.
Historically, said Hill, Ballet West and other such organizations have depended heavily on the generosity of the largest corporations. But after a decade of mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, down-sizing and bankruptcies, the golden goose of big business has stopped, or at least scaled back, its golden egg production.
That means, said Hill, that arts organizations must look to smaller companies for financial support.
"For the size of our market area and the lack of national corporate offices in our city, we get excellent support from our business community. But we have to do a better job in getting the word out as to how important the arts are in the broader context of economic development."
Along with such traditional lures for new business as world-class ski resorts, national parks, clean streets and well-educated workers, Utah's cultural entities contribute to the "quality of life" that the state and city say results in new jobs, people and money.
"The Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce lets economic development prospects, meeting and convention planners, and visitors know that Utah is an oasis for the arts in the West," said Fred S. Ball, chamber president. "We feel Ballet West helps us in a very dramatic fashion sell Utah to the world."
It would seem that Ballet West and the state's other performing arts organizations are in competition with each other for patronage and corporate/government support. Perhaps, but Hill declines to view it in those terms, noting a history of cooperation among the state's arts groups. The result is entertainments to satisfy all tastes - a surprising variety for a market of modest proportions.
"Utah is an anomaly in terms of the support we get for our size," said Hill. "We rank 40th nationally in market size and for us to have the caliber of cultural opportunities we have is very unusual. Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Omaha . . . they don't have what we have here."
Hill believes the real competitors for performing arts groups are network and cable television, movies, videos, touring concerts and stage shows, sports teams . . . a growing array all scrambling for the public's discretionary time and money.
For a generation growing up on rock, rap, high fives and "You got the right one baby, uh huh!," the special joys of classical ballet can be a hard sell. Wooing a younger audience is the challenge - mandatory for future survival - of all arts organizations.