In Monday’s (11/28) Arkansas Business News (Little Rock), Kate Knable writes, “The 45-year-old Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, like other nonprofit organizations, has faced dwindling audiences and shrinking donations, but its recent evolution—involving blue jeans, bratwurst and $2 beer, among other changes—has helped redirect its financial course. Donations to the symphony, as well as audience attendance, were flat or declining before 2008, but the recession accelerated the declines. Donations and corporate giving slid to $416,625 at their lowest point in 2009, a decrease of 23 percent from 2007. In addition, in the 2009-10 season, the total number of tickets sold was down to 24,031, a drop of 21 percent in just two years. Further, the ASO is carrying a deficit of $650,000, accumulated from overspending from fiscal years 2005 to 2009. … The ASO board hired Executive Director Christina Littlejohn in 2009 and Music Director Philip Mann in 2010, approaching new leadership as an opportunity for a fresh start. … The ASO lowered ticket prices and started efforts to expand the appeal of the orchestra’s concerts, offering free children’s tickets for Sunday concerts and hosting events like a concert called Beethoven & Blue Jeans, at which even the orchestra wore denim. … The orchestra is now able to balance its budget. It finished the 2011 fiscal year on June 30 with a small surplus.”
Posted November 28, 2011
