Download entire lesson
PRINT
EMAIL
WEB SITE
AUDIO
VIDEO
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation
New York, NY
Michael M. Kaiser, 2005
In 1991 it appeared that the company founded by Alvin Ailey in 1954 was in jeopardy. With a deficit of over $1.5 million, the world’s largest African-American cultural institution was near bankruptcy. An overhaul of the board of directors and a major institutional marketing campaign were largely responsible for its successful revival.
| next |
In 1990, I was asked to become Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation, an incredibly exciting prospect for me. I had worked with Alvin in Kansas City and was a huge fan of his work. Alvin had died eight months earlier at a tragically young age. The company, under the new Artistic Director, Judith Jamison, was in deep distress. While the artistic product was still strong (and, with Judith’s energy, getting stronger after a period of decline during Alvin’s illness), the financial situation was dire. The company had a deficit of over $1.5 million and was suffering from the typical effects of cash shortages: missed payrolls, low morale and ineffective fundraising. Judith had been running the Ailey company for almost a year. It had been a baptism of fire. While she had a firm idea of how she wanted the company to perform artistically, she had been buffeted by the tremendous financial problems and many of her artistic initiatives could not be implemented given the financial constraints. She was frustrated.
During my interviews for this job, several Board members expressed frustration at the financial woes of the organization. They could not understand why an organization that earned over 70% of its budget from ticket sales and tour fees should be in such trouble. They argued that it is generally considered a good thing for an arts organization to earn a large portion of its budget since it indicates substantial public appeal and a degree of control over one’s own future: the organization is not reliant on contributed funds.
This was one instance where statistics can be misleading. The Ailey company was only earning such a large proportion of its budget because its fundraising was so inadequate. The largest modern dance ensemble in the world (and the largest African-American cultural institution in the world) was raising only $1.7 million dollars a year. This was only twice what the much smaller Kansas City Ballet was raising when I arrived there in 1985. I knew we could do better and said so at my interviews. Some Board members were skeptical and believed Ailey was raising all the money it could and that the only solution was to close Ailey’s venerable school and its junior company. I had yet to have all the facts but I knew they had to be wrong. Reducing the artistic and educational scope of the organization could not be the only way to create health.
| next |
