Like just about everything in life, the arts community here in West Michigan has seen some huge shifts over the past five years.
There was a time where it felt like the spotlights may never come back on and galleries would remain empty. Fortunately, not only is that not the case, but people here seem more excited about the arts than ever. We’re looking for ways to connect, to feel seen, and even just to get out and have some fun. The arts provides all of that and more.
To talk more about this, we invited some local organizations to chat about what they see as the state of the arts. We could have talked for hours longer, and we could have invited dozens of other amazing groups to join, but there’s only so much time in the day and only so much room on the page. Looks like we’ll just have to host another!
Here’s who participated in our roundtable, graciously hosted at St. Cecilia Music Center.
PARTICIPANTS
- Christopher Klapwijk, Marketing & Communications Manager, Grand Rapids Ballet
- Noddea Skidmore, Director of Marketing & Communications, Grand Rapids Civic Theatre
- Jennifer Onuigbo, Senior Director of Community Engagement & Education, Grand Rapids Symphony
- Cathy Mott, Assistant Director, Muskegon Museum of Art
- Cathy Holbrook, Executive + Artistic Director, St. Cecilia Music Center
How would you describe the state of the arts in West Michigan right now?
HOLBROOK: I’ll just say that I do hear a lot of boo-hoo for the arts right now, but we are not feeling that. We did feel it, yes, Covid was sort of traumatic. But I feel the people that are coming out to live music for us, they want that, they missed it, they’re happy to be doing it, and they’re happy we’re doing it. So, the challenge is still a lot of fundraising and filling seats, but I don’t feel that people aren’t going out anymore, which I think was sort of this plight everybody was having. Now, people really want to have that opportunity to see live music, to go to the art museum and things like that.
KLAPWIJK: There’s an economic tracker put out by Cambridge, starting from 2020, following the effects of Covid on the economy. They have it broken down into different sections, and most have kind of leveled out, like retail sales and a few others. But really interesting, the one that’s completely accelerated is experiences and activities. I think we were all stuck inside, and we’re in kind of an economic environment where we don’t really know what next year is going to look like. Therefore, people are saying, “Let’s get out now instead of waiting to see.” Right now, people would rather buy smaller, little experiences and get that bit of dopamine versus trying to save up for a house, which seems unrealistic to most people. And all of these things that are disheartening, they need some bit of culture just in them to feel human.
SKIDMORE: I think something really similar to that, is that we are seeing across the board, season subscriptions just continue to go down, but one-time-only tickets are going away up.
KLAPWIJK: That’s interesting, because we just had our best subscription year ever. We got maybe 100 more subscriptions than last year.
ONUIGBO: Our subscriptions are up too.
SKIDMORE: That’s fantastic. What we are seeing is that there are so many people that are coming to this musical or this play, and it’s like, okay, can that be your gateway to get you here for the whole season? But it’s fascinating, because overall, we’re seeing some base numbers dwindle, but then other things spike, and a lot of first-time theatergoers. But I think that also has to do with our accessibility efforts, welcoming you as you are for relaxed environment nights, or for pick your price nights. That’s giving people more motivation to show up, where you don’t have to spend a huge amount of money on a ticket to try something you’ve never done before. And it’s our hope that would maybe turn people into subscribers, or bring people through the door for even more.
KLAPWIJK: I’ve been trying to turn the ballet into a lot more data-forward, look-at-the-numbers situation, and a lot of analytics on that. One big thing is, we have the census data available to us, it’s just very messy, but I’ve been trying to build a cultural heat map of Michigan, based on about 40 different variables out of the census.
MOTT: That’s brilliant. Muskegon had one that looked at who is coming to various spots in Muskegon. The visitors bureau had it, and it would tell us where they were coming from and where they were going to following their experience, which was really helpful, because we always thought that we had heavy Chicago, but we actually had heavier Detroit. So, that led our marketing for that.
KLAPWIJK: I think it would be valuable if we could make a hub of information, so we all show where our traffic is coming from, which ZIP codes are really into the arts, and any interesting sort of facts, such as subscriber trends, the donor level. If we can all come together and kind of show this cultural dataset, I think it would help all of us.
MOTT: For us, in the past five years, we started our capital campaign prior to Covid and then launched it the month of Covid, and then there’s lots of great price increases to that expansion. So, $9 million went to $15 million. But I think the positive of it is that people showed up, and we were successful in creating the program in the building that we needed and wanted, and so now, as we opened it this year, it’s been amazing to show people that it can be done and what a driver it is for each community and for why people want to be here. It drives the breweries and the restaurants and those types of things. And the way in which we program has always been very conscious of partnership. When we launched a Julia Child exhibition this summer, we partnered with the Playhouse at White Lake, and they did the Julia opera, and then they partnered with a restaurant who made a Julia-inspired meal, and they sold out. So, we could see how as a community we can make one program become bigger and really support us as a collective whole.
ONUIGBO: I recently heard the phrase “collaboration is the new currency.” That really related to me because, I mean, even at this table, the partnerships and strategic work that we’re doing, we’ve got a performance coming with the ballet, we use St. Cecilia, and hopefully in the future, we can do something with Civic. So, I think when we pull our resources and each do what we do well, bring it together, we create some synergy that is really unmatched.
SKIDMORE: I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that an organization that provides grant dollars or sponsorships, they’re much more likely to fund something like a big collaborative effort and programming, with a lot more dollars, than to fund the same project they’ve funded again and again. And in pre-pandemic times, we were extremely lucky, where we’re putting out a really solid product, but we didn’t have to think a ton about strategy. Things were just happening for us. And it is a different ball game now. It used to be that usually 60 to 65% of all of your costs are covered by ticket sales. And in post-pandemic times, it’s 35% for us. It is a very, very different ball game, because the audiences are smaller, and while we’ve had to increase general ticket prices, we’re doing a lot of accessibility programming as well with lower ticket price points. So, that money coming in is a little bit less, even though we’re seeing some really exciting new patrons and younger patrons.
What are you seeing that works in connecting with the younger generations, or people who don’t feel the arts are “for” them?
HOLBROOK: I think it’s programming. If we bring Judy Collins, everybody’s over 60. We bring The Lone Bellow, they’re 40, and it’s a party. Those folk shows have been very interesting because they are very artist driven. Whereas our chamber music, those are the older folks, they’re buying subscriptions and coming to those. The jazz is a little older, too, and we sell pretty decent subscriptions to that, because they’re of that mindset that it’s okay to buy a subscription and commit.
MOTT: I think for us, it’s twofold. It’s savvy marketing, various lines of social media, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, whatever. Our marketer Kristina Broughton is creating more lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek stuff that doesn’t feel so heavy. Sometimes that can draw people in. An experience will draw them in. But also, you have to meet people where they are, and we have a community where the arts might not be their biggest priority. There are other really hard things in their life that coming to the art museum is not a priority, but whenever we have family events, I always say to the staff, “Someone needs to be at the door and someone needs to be greeting them.” Because it’s like going to a party that you don’t know anyone, and you don’t know where you should go. And if you’re not comfortable in our space, then you don’t want to be there. So, it’s always, “Welcome. We’re so glad you’re here, the classroom is here, the galleries are upstairs, the bathrooms are over here.” And then you can see this weight kind of come off them.
I think it feels like there are boundaries and rules to the places that we’re in, but there aren’t. They’re there for everyone. And I always say to kids too, the beautiful thing about the arts is that you get to like what you want, and it doesn’t have to be what your friend likes. I think helping them to understand that the arts are about fulfilling you is also a huge part of welcoming in that next generation.
ONUIGBO: For us, we start young. We start with our Lollipops series, which is for pre-K, and then we go all the way up to 90, 100 year olds. So, we really have a wide breadth. We have like 16 different educational and community outreach programs right now. And I think a lot of it is kind of demystifying what the symphony is. People have this image of it, and just realizing, no, it is Ben Folds, it’s Mariachi, it’s the Lollipops with the ballet. There are just so much different things we do that are really cool.
HOLBROOK: If you can get young adults who have children, that’s a big thing, because kids aren’t going to do that on their own. Their parents have to bring them. So, that’s where you really need to focus. And we go into the schools and all that too, and that’s so meaningful, I think. If there’s 50 kids watching this, and we’ve sparked and opened a window in their mind for two of them? Success.
SKIDMORE: 100 percent.
KLAPWIJK: We’re very lucky to have the school with us too, and having our matinees, that gives the opportunity of our older audience, grandma, grandpa coming and taking grandkids to something. It’s an experience that they can go to together, that also shouldn’t break the bank. The issue with the ballet is it’s very much on a pedestal. It’s very unattainable mentally to a lot of people, and very Eurocentric. If we look at Grand Rapids demographics, it’s actually quite cosmopolitan, and our stats are still like 80 to 90% white, just because that’s what ballet is. We are trying to fix that, but the art form itself is difficult to break that mindset. So, we are trying with different shows, but you do need the programs that are really going to blast, like how we have Sherlock coming up. The name itself has almost sold out completely before we did any ads.
SKIDMORE: One of the other things that I think is really interesting, as a community theater, there’s huge, huge benefits to the people that you see on stage. It’s your neighbors, your doctor, your barista, your bartender, your server. It’s just very cool. And so, it’s exciting for us to watch the peer to peer enthusiasm. Like, this is literally your community performing onstage, and we offer all of our cast members a friends and family discount, where it’s like, please share this with your close colleagues. It’s really neat. I am a patient at Grand Rapids Women’s Health, and one of the lead doctors on the team is one of our onstage performers. Like, I have watched her throw on a baseball cap and stealthily walk out of the green room after a show to go deliver a baby and come back the next day and do a show again. It’s a really cool thing.
How does this all affect how you interact with donors?
KLAPWIJK: When people are following 10 of our dancers, that’s coming up a lot more on their social media, and they grow a lot more attached, and that’s when they donate, when they have an emotional trigger attached to whatever part of it. One of our donors this year, as an example, we told them how much new ballet shoes for the year costs for the dancers. It’s about $45,000 for the year just in shoes. And that was like a big light switch to some of our donors and board members. They were like, checkbook right there.
SKIDMORE: Because you can’t do it without that. It’s such a core piece.
MOTT: For us, it’s also educating about operations, because I think that’s kind of the unforeseen things that sometimes grants might have covered or other things might have been covered that are now very different. For example, we had one woman who was like, “I don’t want to name anything after myself. Just, what do you need?” And we were like, “Well, we’re doing this new building, and we need a scissor lift, and it’s $15,000.” And she said, “That’s what I want to do.” So, we jokingly called the scissor lift Linda, because that’s her name. She just thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. There are different ways that we can engage them for giving that really help us function in a completely different way.
HOLBROOK: We can’t do the programs here if the building doesn’t exist. I mean, we have this wall thing, where we had to fix some brick on there, because it was literally falling off, because the little brick ties rolling into the inner wall were loose. It seems so unsexy, right? But it’s super expensive.
SKIDMORE: It’s historic, so it’s also doubly expensive.
HOLBROOK: Right. We own this building, and it is our responsibility to keep this National Register of Historic Places building functioning and maintained and in good condition. And so when something like that happens, we have to hire a forensic engineer to come and take a look, and then we have to hire the company to do it, and it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some of you aren’t from West Michigan. How are we unique in the art world?
ONUIGBO: I’m from Iowa, I just moved here in January, and I worked at a performing arts center there. So similar, but different. I’ve been so impressed at Grand Rapids, the art scene here. There’s just so many vibrant arts organizations here. Yeah, these are our neighbors, but this is also world-class art. I mean, the quality and caliber of the art that’s being produced here is phenomenal. I went and saw The Color Purple at the Civic, and I was blown away. I’ve seen Broadway a lot, and I’m like, this is phenomenal. I’ve seen the ballet, I’ve seen shows at St. Cecilia. I mean, it’s really phenomenal. Iowa has an art scene, but Grand Rapids is really pretty special.
KLAPWIJK: I’ve been in Grand Rapids just under two years. Now, I’m from South Africa originally, and my wife went to Kendall, so she knows Grand Rapids well, and I did have perception of Grand Rapids being quite an art city, yet also fairly conservative at the same time. And I am very amazed to see how many people care. The arts is happening because there’s so many groups trying to keep it going. It feels the public isn’t supporting as hard as they could, for how strong Grand Rapids is. There’s world-class art in your backyard. But I’ve been blown away by how inspired and motivated every group that I’ve met is about the arts.
HOLBROOK: I was here as a high schooler, then I went to California for almost 20 years, and I wasn’t going to land here when I came back. It was sort of a stop gap. My initial feeling in coming back was like, it was a ghost town, and there wasn’t stuff going on. It wasn’t a vibrant downtown, and everything was closed on Sunday. I think now, it’s so different in such a positive way. It is a community that’s engaged, and there are people doing things, and they want to be doing things.
