Stunning new survey reveals almost $34 million in losses among 57 Dallas arts organizations — so far

Dallas’ nonprofit arts and cultural community suffered $33.65 million in losses in the first 2½ months of coronavirus-related closures, including layoffs and furloughs of 649 artists and staff members, according to a survey of the city’s arts organizations released Wednesday and shared with The Dallas Morning News.

“The study also strongly signals these financial losses are rising and, with the expiration of federal small-business support such as Payroll Protection Program, or PPP, loans, more job losses are ahead,” the report notes.

The survey was conducted in early June by The Arts Community Alliance, or TACA; the Dallas Arts District; and the Dallas Area Cultural Advocacy Coalition, or DACAC. The survey covered 57 Dallas-based arts and cultural organizations that “reflect a diverse range of size, age and genre serving every corner of the city.” Survey questions covered the period from March 13 — when the United States declared a national emergency over the spread of the coronavirus, prompting shutdowns across the country — through May 31.

The closures, according to the report, provoked the following:

• Performing arts organizations had to cancel or defer 804 performances.
• Visual arts organizations were forced to close, collectively, for 747 attendance days.
• All groups combined had to cancel or reschedule 2,609 workshops, classes and programs.

Collectively, groups surveyed projected lost or deferred attendance of 1.3 million for the 2½-month period.

“These survey findings reflect the significant damage the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the arts community in Dallas,” said Terry D. Loftis, the president and executive director of TACA, which has raised $705,500 in emergency funding for area arts organizations.

Loftis called the results of the survey “truly staggering. The Dallas creative community has been impacted in ways we might never have anticipated, and without private and civic investment, we’ll be challenged to reverse the damage caused by the pandemic.”

Through its findings alone, the survey goes beyond calculating problems that have already arisen. In the main, it appears to suggest that Dallas arts organizations — not to mention the rest of the country — may have trouble having any kind of future at all.

“I wish I had a crystal ball,” Loftis said. “I don’t think any of us are under an illusion that shutting down is not going to be a high probability for some organizations. That said, no one has yet to hit our radar that gives us an indication as to who and when.”

The findings of the survey also suggest that perhaps the only way out of this morass is not through government, but rather massive amounts of individual and corporate philanthropy.

“All of the organizations in the cultural arts are already hitting up their donor base,” Loftis said. “Then there has been funding from the government. There has been funding from institutions that fund and grant money to the arts, such as TACA, the city of Dallas and the Moody Fund. But beyond that, to really make a dent in this is going to require extensive support from the general public, corporations, foundations — a combination of those three.”

As Loftis noted, many of the organizations surveyed reported that, under the best conditions, they don’t expect “any sense of normalcy” for at least 24 months.

“Grim is an understatement,” said Jennifer Scripps, director of the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, which was forced to furlough about half its workforce in early May. “I think we are going to have an arts sector that will look radically different any way you cut it over the next three months, six months, two years. You think about Broadway closing until next year. The Dallas Opera has announced there’s no fall. And we’re going to have a holiday season that’s going to feel really different.”

Before she became director of the Office of Arts and Culture, Scripps worked for Lincoln Center in New York and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in her native Dallas.

And in her opinion, “Nothing the government can do and philanthropy can do and the corporate sector can do will make a dent if people are not allowed to resume behaviors” that add up to “earned income” for arts organizations that desperately need such income to even think of surviving.

Scripps’ comments about earned income are buttressed by one of the survey’s most shocking findings — that the projected value of lost or deferred admission revenue already exceeds $26 million.

As for federal money, 40 of the organizations surveyed received federal loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, many of which are forgivable. But to qualify for forgiveness, recipients were required to keep a number of staff at certain pay levels “for a period of time, usually eight weeks,” the report says. “Most of those loans began expiring this month. This is already causing some groups to implement new furloughs or layoffs. Some are implementing salary reductions for the staff that remain.”

The impact, warns the report, is “threatening local arts organizations of every size, age and genre, many of which operate on a shoestring.” Most rely heavily, the report says, on ticket and program revenue, fees from classes and ancillary revenue that comes with attendance, including food, beverage and alcohol sales, concessions, gift shops, parking, ticket fees, sponsorships and more.”

As the report concludes, “All of these dried up.”

In addition, the surveyors said, “The groups face refund requests from patrons, further depleting cash — though some patrons are willing to take a credit for their ticket or donate the value back to the nonprofit organization. Included in the losses are $2.36M in increased and unanticipated expenses, including the COVID-19 costs of making offices and cultural facilities safe for patrons, staff and artists before they reopen.”

Adding to the grimness of the situation are, the report says, “severe projected budget cuts to the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture as officials grapple with millions of dollars in lost revenue due to the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.”

The impact came at a time when, according to the report, “the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Dallas alone was generating an annual economic impact of $891 million supporting 13,000 jobs,” based on a study conducted in 2015. “The sector drives tourism, boosts property values and helps attract corporate relocations and talent,” according to the report released Wednesday. “It also generates $45 million in local tax revenue,” the loss of which would have a negative impact on the city of Dallas budget.

“The arts sector is made up of small businesses and an important part of our city’s economy,” said Joanna St. Angelo, president of DACAC, a political advocacy group representing a wide range of the city’s cultural organizations. “We felt nobody had a handle on what was happening to our arts community. This study gave us a pulse rate, and right now the prognosis isn’t good.”

Additional Data Points

Respondent Budget Category

Small Organizations (65%)

• Under $249,999 ... 15
• $250,000 to $499,999 ... 12
• $500,000 to $999,999 ... 10

Large Organizations (35%)

• $1,000,000 to $4,999,999 ... 8
• Above $5,000,000 ... 12

Financial Losses

The survey was conducted during the second and third week in May so the losses are both realized and projected. By that point in time, most organizations had already canceled or deferred programs.

• $26,243,127: Projected value of reported lost/deferred admissions revenue
• $5,047,419: Projected value of lost/deferred non-admissions revenue (food & beverage, retail, parking, ancillaries, etc.)
• $2,362,691: Projected value of increased/unanticipated expenses
• $33,653,237: Total projected financial impact for the period including lost/deferred revenue and unanticipated expenses.

Responding Organizations

Academy of Bangla Arts and Culture; African American Repertory Theater; Art House Dallas; AT&T Performing Arts Center; Avant Chamber Ballet; Beckles Dancing Company; Big Thought; Bishop Arts Theatre Center; Blue Candlelight Music Series; Cara Mia Theatre; Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas; Creative Arts Center of Dallas; Crow Museum of Asian Art at the University of Texas at Dallas; Cry Havoc Theater Company; Dallas Arts District Foundation; Dallas Black Dance Theatre; Dallas Center for Photography; Dallas Chamber Symphony; Dallas Children’s Theater; Dallas Heritage Village; Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum; Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture; Dallas Museum of Art; Dallas Summer Musicals; Dallas Symphony Association; Dallas Theater Center; Deep Vellum; Echo Theatre; Fine Arts Chamber Players; Indian Cultural Heritage Foundation; Lone Star Circus Arts Center; Lone Star Wind Orchestra; Lumedia Musicworks; Nasher Sculpture Center; Olimpaxqui Ballet Co., Inc.; Orchestra of New Spain (of the Pegasus Musical Society); Orpheus Chamber Singers; Over the Bridge Arts; Perot Museum of Nature & Science; Prism Movement Theater; Sammons Center for the Arts; Second Thought Theatre; Shakespeare Dallas; Soul Rep Theatre Company; Teatro Dallas; Texas Ballet Theater; the Black Academy of Arts and Letters; the Cedars Union; the Dallas Opera; the Mexico Institute; the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza; the Women’s Chorus of Dallas; Theatre Three; TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND; Turtle Creek Chorale; Uptown Players; USA Film Festival.