IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Meet first Black leader at Arizona Theatre Company
Chanel Bragg, Arizona Theatre Company’s new associate artistic director, is ATC’s first person of color in a leadership role.
Chanel Bragg has advocated for diversity on Arizona theater stages for more than a decade. Now, she’ll bring that passion to her new role as associate artistic director at Arizona Theatre Company.
It’s a position she believes is bigger than herself. Announced on June 22, Bragg’s hiring makes her the first Black woman and person of color in a high-level leadership role at the Arizona Theatre Company, which was founded in 1967. Between the local theaters with the largest budgets — Arizona Theatre Company, the Phoenix Theatre Company, Arizona Broadway Theatre and Childsplay — Bragg is also the only Black woman in a high-level leadership role. Bragg joins a small group of Black women in Arizona arts leadership, including Arizona State University Gammage executive director Colleen Jennings-Roggensack and West Valley Arts Council president Sandra Bassett.
“This position can’t be just for me. It has to be for us,” Bragg said. “Hiring me is
Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund. That fund was established in the budget agreement.
The arts commission is developing a delivery method for the funds. According to a press release, it will provide further details in mid-July.
Arizona arts and culture organizations contribute $9 billion to the state’s economy and employ nearly 90,000 Arizonans, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. While the forthcoming $2 million is appreciated, some believe it is not enough.
“I think we need to just recognize that as grateful as I am for the gesture of $2 million, it’s a small amount,” Schock said. “We’re one organization and we’ve lost over $2 million this year.”
But that $2 million isn’t enough
Flagstaff arts groups are experiencing similar difficulties. With funding for the arts being cut from the March budget, nonprofits like the Flagstaff Arts Council have been losing money for which they can only hope to receive partial relief. Flagstaff groups received $24,500 from last year’s state budget.
“The $2 million is badly needed but it does not represent stimulus or disaster relief in the way it would have had it been on top of an allocation from the state’s general fund,” said Jonathan Stone, executive director of the Flagstaff Arts Council.
“I suspect that many of the organizations that will receive grants through this new allocation will be replacing lost revenue from the Arizona Commission on the Arts (Community Investment Grants) program” that had been requested in the budget.
“To help arts organizations ultimately recover, we must be vigilant over the coming months and years on continuing to expand government funding and philanthropy,” Stone said.
In addition to whatever share of the $2 million Flagstaff arts groups will receive, the Flagstaff Arts Council in partnership with the city raised $87,350 in grant money that will be awarded to 22 local nonprofits.
The NEA is stepping in
The National Endowment for the Arts also is providing help. It announced in a July 1 press release that 14 Arizona nonprofits were selected to receive grants of $50,000 through its NEA
CARES Act.
Also through the NEA CARES Act, arts agencies across the country, including the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, will receive $250,000 each to distribute to arts organizations in their communities.
Ballet Arizona is among the Arizona nonprofits awarded an NEA CARES grant. The $50,000 will help support jobs for dancers, artistic and production staff. Ballet Arizona hopes to open in the fall.
“This is critical support needed to help Ballet Arizona survive the impact that COVID-19 has had on our organization. The crisis caused a significant loss in revenue for the 2019-2020 season that just ended and is projected to have an even bigger impact on our upcoming season,” said Samantha Turner, executive director of Ballet Arizona.
“This grant from the NEA is helping to keep the arts alive and we are deeply grateful that our legislators supported the CARES Act that made it possible.”
Other grantees include Arizona Opera, Phoenix Conservatory of Music, East Valley Children’s Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Company and West Valley Arts Council.
More grants for Arizona arts groups
The Western States Arts Federation, which serves 13 states including Arizona, also announced on July 1 that it would award WSAF CARES Act grants.
Five Arizona organizations were selected to receive grants of $10,000$20,000.
Those organizations are Bisbee Community Chorus, Black Theatre Troupe, Museum of Indigenous People (formerly the Smoki Museum), Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts and Southwest Folklife Alliance.
On July 8, the Arizona Commission on the Arts announced the recipients of its AZ CARES grants. Each of the 86 recipients will receive $5,000.
Recipients include Childsplay, Summer Youth Musical Theatre Program, Gold Canyon Arts Council, Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festival, Arts Alliance of the White Mountains and Kingman Center for the Arts.
“The arts are an industry that’s an anchor for other businesses. We are an industry that fills up restaurants, we fill up hotel rooms, we provide a vibrancy and energy that is really a cool economic development tool in communities,” Schock said.
“So we’ve got to recognize that and we cannot let that collapse. It would hurt our communities for decades if we let the arts industry collapse.”