In the aftermath of the pandemic, arts groups are struggling to survive. Live theater has been hit the hardest, with the Dallas Theater Center among companies across the country that have reduced staff. The rise of streaming, the decline of season subscriptions and the desire of many Americans to simply stay home have taken a sharp toll.
In other words, money is hard to come by.
So, the recent request by the Dallas Office of Arts and Culture to “reallocate,” in its words, $190,000 to move its offices has left some in the cultural community shaking their heads.
The proposal says the office’s home, in the 102-year-old Majestic Theatre, falls short of standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The request has provoked a kerfuffle among arts leaders and city officials, who, under the best of circumstances, are known to squabble about money, especially in the fractious days leading up to a new city budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Come Wednesday, it will be up to the Dallas City Council. If the measure passes, Arts and Culture staff would leave the upper floors of the city-owned Majestic for new office space in a location yet to be announced. The agency has occupied the downtown building since 1989.
In an interview last week, Martine Elyse Philippe, who became director of the Office of Arts and Culture late last year, said the $190,000 would come from $816,000 in savings generated by the city turning over management of the Meyerson Symphony Center to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
“The $190,000 is sourced in cost savings,” Philippe said, “that we will have in the transition from the Meyerson.” The bulk of the $816,000, she added, “is going in direct support of our artists and arts stakeholders. And then that portion — that $190,000 — we have carved out to support our initial plans to relocate our headquarters.”
The growth of her staff, she said, is a factor. “We actually don’t fit in the Majestic Theatre, as it’s configured. It’s configured for about 19 bodies, and we are hovering approximately at 30. And so, we are seeking space for that team that will allow us to better deliver on the office’s mission and vision.”
Parking, she said, is also an issue, with her employees now having to pay $150 a month for privately owned spaces in nearby lots. By comparison, city employees who park at City Hall or the Convention Center, according to Philippe, pay parking fees that hover between $20 and $30 a month.
“I want to make sure,” she said, “that we are not creating barriers for staff to do the work they’re charged to do.”
“We intend to maximize use of this space,” Philippe said, regarding the Majestic. “As noted in the Cultural Plan, we are looking to better use the facility in expanding options for affordable space for our stakeholders to use.”
She said a recent report on “the public-facing spaces across the Majestic Theatre” noted 160 improvements “required at that facility.”
On top of funding the move, Philippe said she hopes to use a portion of the $190,000 to make improvements to the Majestic’s office wing, even after new groups have moved in. Bigger maintenance issues, like the building’s aging elevator and alleged accessibility problems, she aims to address with $2.5 million her office is seeking from the city’s 2024 bond program.
Philippe cited further reasons for wanting to move, visibility being one of them. “We intend to land in a city facility that allows us better access to engage with our community stakeholders to see our mission and vision through,” she said.
On that point alone, she won support from David Lozano, executive artistic director of Cara Mía Theatre Co., who in 2022 enthusiastically endorsed her hiring.
“I have spoken to director Philippe about relocating the OAC offices, and the way she explained it to me makes complete sense,” he said. “She wants to be located within a neighborhood community, so that community members can walk right into the Office of Arts and Culture from the sidewalk and meet with members of the staff.
“Currently, they have to pay for parking in the downtown area, walk to the century-old Majestic building and take one old elevator up to the fourth or fifth floor.”
The prevailing view of nine arts advocates and city officials who spoke to The Dallas Morning News about the plan is that the $190,000 the agency proposes to spend would be drawn from funding for artists — at a moment when they’ve never been more vulnerable.
“I am disappointed that the director of the OAC would bring something forward that seems to be an unnecessary fiscal expense, at a time when there’s so much pressure on the city budget,” said Katie Robbins, president and CEO of Hoblitzelle Foundation, which gifted the Majestic Theatre to the city of Dallas in 1976.
“I know from experience,” said Jennifer Scripps, former director of the Office of Arts and Culture, “that every dollar raised by arts organizations is so hard to come by. And besides, we are in a period of such challenging times in the arts, post-COVID. Audience behavior has shifted, dramatically,” making economic survival, in her words, even more of a struggle. “And I say that as a lover of the arts.”
Scripps left the office last year to head Downtown Dallas Inc. “People in the arts community are afraid to say anything about this item because they’re worried about funding,” she said. “So, I will speak for them. I care about the sector. And I know what $200,000 in funding does for Dallas arts groups.”
On Friday, Dallas City Council made public its misgivings about the request in the form of two proposed amendments. Councilman Chad West motioned to reallocate the $190,000 to “contract services to provide grants to arts and cultural organizations.”
Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis followed with her own amendment, seeking $42,000 to provide office staff members with a stipend to park near the Majestic.
‘I still don’t have answers’
When Brad Spellicy, a member of the city’s Arts and Culture Advisory Commission, reads the language of the request — “reallocate $190,000 from contractual services” — he says he can’t see it as anything but a pay cut for arts groups.
“All of the money we give out to arts groups at the moment is contract-based,” he said. “So, when I look at that and read that it’s being pulled from contractual labor, well, to me, that means money being removed that would otherwise go to grant programs that fund the work of artists all over the city. In addition, that amount of money in particular — $190,000 — would, for example, come close to fully funding our entire micro-grant program.”
At the moment, the $190,000 in funding helps cover the Community Arts Program and its $500,000 expenditure, which on an annual basis sends artists to free events all over the city. The Culture of Value program costs $100,000 a year. The city’s entire art maintenance and conservation budget takes up about $160,000 a year.
After speaking with Philippe, Spellicy said he believes alternative options “have simply not been explored.” His position? “Other things can be done to see if we can get the current office in shape,” he said.
Like Spellicy, Jo Trizila is a seat holder on the commission, which is an advisory body. She said murky and conflicting information about the state of the Majestic office is what led her to oppose the request.
“I still don’t have answers,” said Trizila, noting that she had been unable to reach the Office of Arts and Culture with questions. “I am not in favor,” she continued, “of this expenditure. There are too many unknowns. And until we have hard numbers, both in what it would cost to fix the Majestic office and hard numbers in moving expenditures and recurring rent expenditures, I can’t vote in favor of this. And I have asked for it to be removed from the budget.”
That power lies with with the council on Wednesday, some of whose members have already made clear their intentions.
“I believe it’s excessive to pay for the move that’s proposed,” said councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn, who represents District 12. “And the only objection I’ve heard to remaining in the Majestic is the needed repair of an elevator. I am an advocate for maintaining our city assets, and the elevator needs to be repaired whether the office is there or not. I don’t understand the wisdom of moving the office.”
In short, Mendelsohn said under no circumstances would she endorse a measure that takes money away from artists “or the maintenance of existing facilities.”
‘An invisible location’
District 14 representative Paul Ridley appears to be leaning toward a yes vote on the expense. Ridley cited the age and condition of the Majestic, which lies in his district.
The building, Ridley said, “is not ADA-compliant for people with mobility impairment, and it is not very accessible for artists and the public. There is no public entrance on the street, no signage, so nobody knows the offices are there, frankly. And so, it is just an invisible location.”
Ridley said he had formulated “a tentative position” for how he will vote “in that I am sympathetic to their desire to have a more accessible, more visible location, preferably one with free parking, because they’re in a building that has no off-street parking. Everybody who goes there has to pay for parking.”
To critics like Scripps, the parking issue misses the point. “I don’t think that moving the offices serves the arts community better than keeping intact almost $200,000 in arts funding,” she said, “which goes to artists, arts organizations and cultural venues all over the city.”
She concedes that’s not to say that the Majestic, which opened when Warren G. Harding was president, is in ideal condition.
“Even then,” Scripps said, “there are so few meetings that happen in the Majestic’s offices anyway. Meetings can or should take place at the Latino Cultural Center, where there’s free and ample parking. OAC should go to where people create their art. It’s important to be out and about.”
One former Office of Arts and Culture employee said Philippe came into the office so infrequently, it seemed odd that office space had become a such an issue in the first place.
“It’s just a fact that she was there — in the office — less than once a month, on average,” said Anne Marie Gan, Philippe’s assistant director, who resigned Sept. 5. “There would be two-month periods when nobody saw her, in person, in the Majestic office. She would go to City Hall if she had to be at City Hall, but she wasn’t in the office.”
In a written statement, Philippe said, “As a new department director and a new resident of Dallas, it is imperative for me to learn about the City by engaging with stakeholders in each district and every neighborhood. Unlike a traditional desk job, the role entails representing the City at local, state, and national events and gaining public support for departmental programs. It has been a joy to meet so many passionate cultural arts stakeholders and witness such excellent arts offerings during my short tenure.”
In total, the Office of Arts and Culture is asking the City Council to approve $23,366,671 in funding before Oct. 1 for the 2023-24 fiscal year and $23,781,260 for the following fiscal year.
Asked when she planned to move if the $190,000 is approved, Philippe declined to say.
“I would like to express that we are doing our due diligence within the bounds of this proposed budget, to be good stewards of taxpayer funds and to do what’s noted in the Dallas Cultural Plan as well,” she said. “There should be no question about our intent or use of funds in that regard.”
